NSW Feature: Opening NSW's BioUmbrella

The NSW government launched its BioFirst program in September last year. Like most other governments' biotech programs, the NSW initiative involves several government departments.

Health, agriculture, education, IT management, fisheries, small business, and state and regional development are all players, to some extent, in BioFirst. The initiative is itself composed of several sub-programs: BioBusiness, BioPlatform, BioEthics. How do you run something of that complexity? Well - with a BioUnit.

And the person who is central at the BioUnit is Kerry Doyle, its director, who works in the economic development branch of the NSW Cabinet office.

Doyle, a senior public servant, came to the BioUnit with plenty of experience in administration at Cabinet level.

"It's been pretty busy," she admits of the task of dealing with a wide range of portfolios and agencies. "It's extremely complex and challenging but never frustrating."

Doyle's team at BioUnit is a tight four, including herself, Katy Reade (communications manager, legally trained ), Meg Montgomery (scientist, research assistant), and Elizabeth Uhlmann (policy officer and science trained). "It's an excellent team," Doyle says.

Then there's BioFirst's patron, Lucy Turnbull, Sydney's deputy mayor, who acts as an advocate for the industry, and a ministerial advisory council of 12 industry players, selected for their skills spanning agriculture, IT, education, medicine, business, finance and entrepreneurship.

The government's BioFirst pledge was to spend $68 million over five years to assist in commercialisation of biotech discoveries, growing the industry, and positioning it globally.

The key to its success is "new money and focussed money," Doyle says.

In part, existing biotech infrastructure in the stat gives BioFirst a head start. "NSW already has an established industry with a strong pharmaceutical base, centralised financial sector and biotechnology companies such as ResMed and Cochlear," Doyle says.

The government's line is that the state is home to 40 per cent of the nation's biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. The industry employs 7,000 people and generates $2.8 billion in annual sales. Its exports are worth around $1 billion a year in pharmaceutical and medicinal products.

But NSW is not in competition with other states. "We are working in partnership with the other states and the Commonwealth government," Doyle says.

BioFirst's programs It took seven months of research, development and consultation from over a dozen experts involved in the biotechnology industry to set in place a program to coordinate the future direction of biotech in NSW. BioFirst's individual programs are:

• BioBusiness, which provides assistance to scientists to commercialise their discoveries though programs such as the Department of State and Regional Development's high growth business forums. "The most recent forum focussed specifically on the biotechnology industry business," Doyle says.

  These types of events inform scientists how to commercialise their products and seek funding from private or public sources. "Funding proposals are sent to me and I consult with other senior government representatives and than make the recommendations to the ministers," Doyle says.

  The ministers consider the recommendations and make the ultimate decisions. BioBusiness will also incorporate a professional leadership development program, which may developed in conjunction with the national industry association, AusBiotech.

• BioPlatform is designed, on one level, to maintain the international standard of research at universities. The BioFirst awards were set up to fulfil this role. Six million dollars will be spent over five years to bring in new talent from the international scene as well as bring back expert expatriates to assist in developing key platform technologies that span a broad spectrum of research including agriculture, medicine and environment.

  Another role of the BioPlatform program is to spend "a significant sum" of funding on research infrastructure, Doyle says.

  The NSW Centre for Agricultural Genomics, for example, was recently given $7.2 million over the next five years to bring together expertise in genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and agriculture. The main players are in Wagga Wagga, Sydney and Canberra, but regional research centres will benefit too.

• BioEthics is high on the agenda for the NSW government, and a new bioethics committee will soon be announced.

  "We are developing mechanisms so that the public can be informed and involved in the debate surrounding bioethical issues such as stem cells and GMOs," Doyle says. "It's also important they understand the framework in which science operates." One plan, not yet ticked off, is for students to get involved in ethical debates with government and industry on issues.

Working together "BioFirst's money is designed to help scientists to package their initiatives to leverage other funds," Doyle says. The industry should be aware of other NSW government funding programs accessible to biotechnology companies from the health, agriculture and state and regional development departments, she says, as well as Commonwealth funding.

The BioUnit will annually review the BioFirst programs and, if they are not on track, will help to redirect them, but without withdrawing funds.

"Our role is not a police watchdog role, it's working together with the agencies and the Commonwealth," Doyle says.