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Pressing biotechnology into service

Naiyyum Choudhury
Technology based on biological systems has been practiced since ancient time and still plays a dominant role in enhancing the quality of life and livelihood. However, recent developments in biotechnological tools and their application have opened up wide opportunities to boost agriculture, medicine, livestock production, forestry, fisheries, health and nutrition as well as management and protection of environment. Although many of our neighboring countries have made substantial progress in harnessing the benefits of modem biotechnology; Bangladesh has not yet been able to use this opportunity to a considerable extent. But this frontier techno!-ogy can provide substantial benefits to the society in a wide range of sectors for improving the quality of life. In recognition of this need the Government of Bangladesh constituted a National Committee for the formulation of a National Biotechnology Policy' in May 2004 with the author as convener.
Accordingly, in August 2004, a draft National Biotechnology’ Policy was formulated (National Biotechnology' Policy-Revised 5th and Final Draft) and released in July 2006. This was a crucial step in moving towards the goal of exploiting the benefits of biotechnology in Bangladesh, and hence the policy' document needed to be carefully considered by Bangladeshi technologists residing both in and outside the country. Overall, the released document covers almost all aspects of Biotechnology’ and its utilization for national development. It is presented in an outline form, without any details. As such the document is considered to be very suitable for introducing the subject to our legislators, government functionaries and policy makers. It even deals with issues such as IP and Commercialization, "Centres of Excellence", "Cutting Edge Technologies, Technology Parks, Bioethics, Biosafety etc., which suggests that the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is aware of what is needed for the country to catch up with the rest of the developing world, for sustainable development and for international competitiveness.
The Policy document was widely circulated through internet and huge response with critical comments for improving the document was received from expatriate and local community of biotechnologists.
Another recent development that has implications in materializing the prospect for Biotechnology research in Bangladesh is the establishment of the National Institute of Biotechnology (NIB) at Savar. The NIB is the government's only major existing asset in Biotechnology and it can play a very significant role in the promotion and advance-ment of Biotechnology research in Bangladesh. The NIB has the potential to become the coordinating centre for Biotechnology research in Bangladesh as well as a national resources centre for technology transfer and human resource development in new and emerging areas of
biotechnology.
In April 2005, the GoB constituted a Committee to formulate recommendations regarding the structure, composition, and function of NIB to the National Task Force again with the author as convener. Meanwhile, the biotechnologist community in Bangladesh and overseas have provided invaluable comments and suggestions through a web-based Forum and other public media regarding the modernization and implementation of the Biotechnology policy, and means of using the NIB as the Centre for coordinating biotechnology' research and as a National resources centre in Bangladesh. A combined workshop with local and nonresident Bangladeshis was held in December 2006 to discuss these and related issues. A second workshop in the form of a conference was held in April 6-8, 2007 to finalize the recommendations as envisaged by Bangladeshi biotechnologist community at home and abroad.
The present paper summarizes the various suggestions that were derived from these two workshops and presents some suggestions to GoB to reinforce the proposals of the Committees constituted earlier by the Government of Bangladesh, and thus assist the Government to implement the National Biotechnology' Policy.
The community of Bangladeshi biotechnologists In order to achieve success in utilizing biotechnology in national development, it is crucial to create collaborative links among the Bangladeshi biotechnologists, so that they can provide valuable inputs in making policy decisions as well as contribute through scientific collaboration. The drive to organize the Bangladeshi biotechnologists into a forum began with the commendable efforts to set up a web based organization named “The Global Network of Bangladeshi Biotechnolo-gists” or GNOBB (www.gnobb.org). This forum now has over 250 members who are highly skilled scientists residing in Bangladesh and abroad, and are represented in various world forums. Many of the members took a keen interest in the National Biotechnology policy, and expressed their opinions, and suggestions, either through writing or by answering a questionnaire, which was posted on the above website. These opinions were regularly published in the GNOBB website, and as a result constructive discussions were initiated.
Response to the national biotechnology policy
The GNOBB members felt that the policy document was a big step forward, and that it needs a well considered and collective response for optimum implementation. A number of members made important suggestions, and at the same time expressed concerns primarily regarding two issues, (a) the need for a clear focus on the priority' areas of research, and
(b) the lack of a well considered plan for implementation of the policy. Since the policy has stated priorities in broad terms; the specific priorities may be determined by the Biotechnology institute(s) which is run under the policy together with policy makers drawn from the government, research community and local industry.
The other most important issue that came up was regarding the instrument for optimum implementation of the policy. It was strongly felt that clear directions are needed on the organizational and administrative structures allowing pooling the existing resources, gathering sufficient research funds, conduct research and training, promoting partnership between research institutes and industries, and translating research findings into marketable products, thereby achieving eventually the goals set in the National Biotechnology policy. Since there is a lack of working details available in the policy document, the participants felt that perhaps the lack of details is deliberate, and the Government expects our constructive response to add further details to the skeletal structure of the released policy. The Bangladeshi biotechnologists, therefore, saw this as an opportunity and a challenge that should not be missed. Thus it was decided to come up with a well-considered and collective response based on the useful comments and the outcome of the two workshops.
The biotechnologists recognized the need for a high powered National Commission for Biotechnology (NCBT) to for-
mulate and approve policy decisions and also agreed that the existing National Institute of Biotechnology (NIB) should be the operational Centre for biotechnology research in Bangladesh, and made suggestions on possible strategies for implementation of this view. Highlights of some of these suggestions are summarized as follows.
National Commission for Biotechnology (NCBT). It is suggested that the Government establishes a National Commission for Biotechnology with an independent secretariat and consisting of senior representatives from the GoB, eminent biotechnologists (resident and expatriate Bangladeshis) and representatives from the academic and industry sectors. The NCBT should oversee the implementation of the Biotechnology Policy. The NCBT could replace the the existing largely nonfunctional National Executive Committee on Biitechnology (NECB).
The Role of National Institute of Biotechnology. The NIB should be developed into an autonomous institute, which will centrally coordinate biotechnology research, develop guidelines for research, address IPR issues, develop core facilities, train human resources, and be the National Resource Centre for Biotechnology.
The Countrywide Virtual Institute. National facilities (University departments, research institutes, or laboratories) anywhere in the country may participate as NIB extra-
mural units through agreements and guidelines provided by the NIB. Through creating these extramural units NIB will unite the available facilities in the country and help to bring together expertise, as well as facilities for sharing.
Development of core facilities. The NIB will eventually establish state of the art technologies in molecular biosciences, employ competent full time scientists, and set up core facilities that will be available to all biotechnology based activities in the country. The NIB will also have scien-tific/administrative structure to determine priority, review projects and allocate research funds to its extramural units. NIB will initiate and continue to raise endowment funds to eventually become self-sustainable.
Biotechnology research grants. The NCBT should administer a research grant scheme and a pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellowship program, to researchers from NIB and other institutes. While all extramural units will be essentially governed by their own organizational rules, those receiving research grants from the. NCBT and NIB will be obliged to follow the ethical guidelines, provided by the NCBT
National Capacity building. The NIB is expected to encourage PhD and post-doctoral training programmes both in house and in its extramural units. When appropriate these grants may also have allocation of capital instruments.
Non-institutional innovations/ innovators
The NCBT and NIB may provide small grants for innovators anywhere in the country to test small pilot projects that would have direct application, but may not necessarily involve sophisticated scientific knowledge. The NIB may also organize events to display such innovations made by any Bangladeshi citizen with or without having formal institutional education.
IPR issues. The NCBT is expected to formulate policy for patent rights. The NIB and relevant scientists should have the right to obtain patents on appropriate innovations or products. The patent and intellectual property rights will be shared by relevant scientists and the relevant research organization, according to a guideline. This arrangement should encourage scientists, and also help the viability' of the Institute.
The proposed National Commission for Biotechnology (NCBT) will be the central authority for making policy decisions. The organizational structure for Biotechnology' Research, may include the National Institute of Biotechnology' (NIB), with a mandate to achieve the goals set in the National biotechnology policy, and in accordance with the NCBT. However, NIB will have adequate operational and financial autonomy. The NCBT and NIB will expect a government financial allocation (core budget), but will also conduct their own fund raising activities, through exploring assis-
tance from foreign donors, or other fund raising projects. These funds will be used (a) to improve its own research capabilities, laboratories, and human resources, and (b) to promote biotechnology research in Bangladesh by assisting other institutions, and (c) to coordinate partnership between research institutions and industries within the country. Non-resident scientists would be encouraged, where possible, to launch a collaborative project with a counterpart in Bangladesh.
Suggested organization and governance structure of National Institute for Biotechnology (NIB).
The Committee formed for suggesting structure, function and organizational set up of the National Institute of Biotechnology recommended the NIB should be be a national research network. Besides having an administrative and research center at Savar, extramural research units spread across universities and research institutes in Bangladesh will act as its subcentres. The main campus and HQ in Savar will serve as the National Resource and Training Centre for Biotechnology', and a small number of very' significant National Collaborative Research Programs will be coordinated from here.
The Institute should consist of the following three major wings a)Research Wing b)Technology Wing and c) Technology Transfer and Commercial Applications Wing
Some of the Research Programs could have an exclusive
Intramural location, while others could have both Intramural and Extramural locations. Some Institute Members might have dual affiliations on contractual basis (University and NIB or Commercial Company and NIB).
Research wing
The Research Wing of the Institute may consist of several divisions such as
(a) Agricultural Biotechnology (b) Health Biotechnology (c) Conservation and Environmental Biotechnology: and (d) Bioenergy' and Process Biotechnology. These Divisions will be made up of a small number of multidisciplinary research programs consisting of few inter-related research projects within the programme theme. NIB-administered National Research Programmes will be determined by a proper priority exercise with the help of the ISACoftheNCBTandNIB.
The location of research personnel within the Research Division should not necessarily be on the basis of program or project. Wherever possible, personnel from different programs and projects should be co-located on the basis of their common disciplinary' interests,’so that they form the required critical mass enabling them to address target-oriented research programmes with maximum interaction and optimum use of common disciplinary facilities. Staff from a particular program or project coming from different disciplines can get together on a regular basis for discussion, seminars and workshops.
Technology wing
This core facility should house all major and expensive research equipment for common use. It is suggested that such equipment remain under the control of full time trained operators, one each for every major equipment. The Technology Wing must also house all central services such as nucleotide and peptide synthesis, DNA and protein sequencing, analytical services, polyclonal and monoclonal antibody production etc. This Division must also house a Small to Medium-Scale Fermentation and Downstream Processing Unit, and a Research Animal Facility.
The Technology’ Wing should also .house the cutting edge technologies such as Bioinformatics, Genomics, Proteomics, Computational Chemistry and Synthetic Chemistry (for design and synthesis of new drugs) led by scientific experts (with adequate technical support). These technology' experts will collaborate with researchers and provide them technical advice and support
Technology transfer and commercial applications wing This Wing will be responsible • for carrying the Institute's research to the market place and clinic through collaboration with local commercial partners, thereby facilitating the development of a research-based biotechnology industrial product. This Wing should provide opportunities to commercial partners to not only collaborate with Institute scientists but also to scale-up potential products to pilot
plant levels. This Wing should incubate start-up companies based on completion of successful products.
The commercial applications wing should also house business development
Unit, an Intellectual Property Rights Unit (IPR), and a Regulatory and Clinical/Fieid Trial Unit.
Remuneration and facilities
Reasonable and competitive salaries of international standard are essential for attracting and retaining competent scientists in the Institute. Since a pay structure different from the National Pay Scale is not feasible, it is suggested that they may be given additional benefits in the form of enhanced house-, transport-and additional increments. The hired scientists of the rank of Principal Investiga-tor/Project Leader be requested to negotiate with the donor if they could transfer their current project to Bangladesh so that they continue to get the benefit of all the project facility including Hilary. In addition, thetd should be a written understanding between NIB and high ranking scientists recruited that they would apply for competitive research grants to different International Agencies for covering a part of their salary and running lab expenses. The NIB should be able to get grants from International donor agencies allowing NIB to offer inducements to scien-
tists of outstanding merits. Provisions may be made for international level positions (- 10% of all professional positions) with comparable salary structures, provided sufficient funds are available from international sources. These positions should be filled by deserving full time Bangladeshi scientists living in the country or abroad through an appropriate selection procedure, based on their scientific competence. This could be achieved through provision of contractual service on a specified time period.
Funding Strategies Government Funding Since the GoB has made a substantial outlay in the construction of the NIB building, development of laboratory facilities, all out effort should be directed to recruit scientific personnel of various categories forthwith. With this object in mind all impediments that stand in the way of manpower recruitment be removed so that NIB becomes fully functional without further loss of time . By working cooperatively with the Institute, the academic and research organizations can make very valuable scientific inputs. .MOD can be signed to form such a partnership.
A number of developing countries, such as India, China and Brazil, have made spectacular progress in harnessing Biotechnology for national development in the last decade. A model that can be followed is perhaps that of India that now has at least a dozen world class Biotechnology Institutes with internationally competitive working
and living conditions. Most of these institutes are "Deemed Universities" (postgraduate research universities) which in the initial five to ten years are totally funded by the Indian Government's Department of Biotechnology. NIB should get similar support from the government
Public-private or public-public partnership
In order to attain self-reliance and sustainability the research institutions need to explore additional funding from different sources instead of depending solely on the government funding for running their research programmes. This is more true for any biotechnology Institute as research and development activities in modern biotechnology are expensive, and the field is fast developing. One strategy to meet the fund constrains is to develop partnership with private sectors and work on specific projects of interest in developing products and processes on the basis of mutual agreement. This type of partnership is common in many of the biotechnology efforts globally.
NJB shoqld.encoura^e collab-orqtivppartnership m the field of biotechnology' with interested private universities, academic institutions, research organizations, and commercial enterprises if such collaboration is expected to serve the interest of the country; Likewise, the NIB will facilitate collaborative partnership in biotechnology' with the universities, academic institutions, research organizations and corporations in the public sector. NIB can also
develop collaboration with private sectors industries interested in biotechnology products and processes or on specific project/problems of the concerned industry. Opening windows for commercial agreements with private, nonprofit or market-driven organizations/companies may result not only in upfront support and share of profits, but their support for infrastructure and expertise development would benefit the Institute with a good setup for future R&D, capital investment and promotional activities.
International funding Since Bangladesh is a member of the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB), it is entitled to receive the benefits of JCGEB's research grant through technology' transfer for very' nominal license fees. The ICGEB is willing to help the industrial production of recombinant biologicals whose patent protection is expired. The NCBT and NIB could help the local industry' to exploit these opportunities and thereby derive income for its own R&D activities. Both the local industry and the Institute would derive immense economic benefits from this partnership.
Millennium Science
Institute
A number of organizations (TWAS, ICGEB) are very' keen to support the setting up of a Millennium Institute in Bangladesh with funding from the World Bank. The Millennium Foundation is helping the establishment of Millennium Institutes in the developing
countries in the areas of Biotechnology, Instrumentation. Information Technology' and Mathematics.
T he NIB could qualify for at least three of the four areas, as Bioinformatics is a specialized branch of Information Technology. and the proposed Technology Wing of NIB requires expensive instrumentation. Funding from the Millennium Foundation would be expected to match the total local outlay (i.e.,contribution by GoB, private sector and academic institutions in building, salary, institutional costs, equipment etc.), and has been in the range of $10-20 million for each of the Millennium Institutes that have been set up in Latin America and Africa.
There is a lot of international goodwill towards Bangladesh with regards to the setting up of a Millennium Institute as revealed by the members of the Foundation who visited Bangladesh in February 2004 at the invitation of the BRAC University; The chance of making a bid for the NIB should not be missed.
To conclude, selection of right people and right projects will ensure optimal support at the international levels and scientists working in the NIB should be able to obtain funds from competitive international grants as currently done inthelCDDR.B.
The author is coordinator, Biotechnology at BRAC University and Secretary, Bangladesh Academy of Sciences. He was involved in formulation of National Biotechnology Policy and founder Project Director, National Institute of Biotechnology, Savar.