The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) launched the R90- million Biomanufacturing Industry Development Centre (BIDC) at the CSIR’s main campus, in Pretoria, earlier this month.
The R90-million investment has resulted in new infrastructure, pilot-scale equipment, enterprise support programmes and skills development.
BIDC manager Dr Dusty Gardiner noted that the facility aimed to address South Africa’s twin socioeconomic challenges of unemployment and low economic growth by assisting small, medium-sized and microenterprises (SMMEs) in developing bioproducts.
The BIDC, which was founded in 2014, had assisted 19 enterprises in developing their research and development (R&D) projects into commercial product offerings.
“To date, 33 products with applications in the cosmetics, nutrition and biotechnology industries have been developed and transferred to the enterprises,” Gardiner highlighted.
He added that government initiatives, such as the Industrial Policy Action Plan and the Bio-Economy Strategy, were important for the development of South Africa’s bioindustry.
However, Gardiner suggested that the most significant challenge for bioindustry start-ups was moving from R&D to product development, which the BIDC aimed to address through the provision of resources and skills development.
Further, the BIDC aimed to stimulate bio- manufacturing in the country and aid sustainable job creation, strengthen the skills and infrastructure needed for bioprocesses and product development, as well as provide afford- able access to the necessary facilities to support SMMEs.
To date, the BIDC had trained 54 interns and created 18 direct jobs and 105 indirect jobs.
Science and Technology Minister Naledi Pandor, who cut the ribbon at the launch, noted that SMMEs and the science and technology sector would play a vital role in alleviating South Africa’s high unemployment levels.
She pointed out that South Africa had exceptional scientific centres and an unusually high number of public-sector science centres, such as the CSIR. She also noted that 19% of all R&D in the country was done by the public sector, twice as much as public-sector science institutions in the UK.
The BIDC comprises seven stations – an agroprocessing lead, a bioprocessing and technology development station, a bioprocessing fermentation lab, a bioprocessing pilot facility, a bioprocessing product development facility, an agroprocessing pilot facility and an agro- processing extraction facility.
“We need to explore new ways and mecha- nisms to enter . . . activities such as the bene- ficiation of our natural resources to create jobs, manufacture high-end components and export them,” said CSIR CEO Dr Sibusiso Sibisi.