Graduate programmes in Medical Biotechnology have their foundations in providing scientific knowledge and related technical skills, to be applied in research or professional laboratories. Existing MSc/DSc courseworks are poorly homogeneous with no attitude to serve as a bridge between Industry and Academia. Medical biotechnology has been a major industrial sector in expansion during the 21st century and future biotech professionals should be capable to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex business environment. However, although corporate biotechnology is a great employment opportunity for young graduates, today these degrees are not widely accepted in the European business arena. An this is because MSc/DSc teaching is scarcely oriented in exploring activities past the bench work, such as industrial management of biotechnology products. The main goal of this proposal is therefore to organize a group of European partners including Academia and Industry that will be able to improve health biotechnology degrees and make them valid in more than one country. The realisation of the project will entail the creation of multinational European Master programmes in the medical biotechnology field, implemented in close communication with partners from industry and other non-academic partners, all with missions in higher education. This innovative project will offer European-wide degrees, capturing the best of both traditional university courseworks and also providing solid cross-training contents for successful achievements in business or corporate environments.These degrees should supply academic biomedical training with the resources needed to aid graduate students and post-docs enter a workforce in private biotech companies. In these programmes, hard skills will be strictly linked to the acquisition of basic notions in areas such as management, marketing, intellectual property, communication, regulatory affairs, and business ethics. that will favor work placement in European Industry. The project partners are from the Academia (University of Bologna, Italy; Oviedo, Es; Pau, France; Pecs, Hu; Aberdeen, UK), from the Industrial world (Bioindustry Park, Italy) and from the Italian National Research Council (ISTEC-CNR). The academic partners have been selected due to heir participation in previous European projects strictly related to the present project’s aim such as IP LLP Erasmus 2012-13 and 2013-14 -Summer School “Innovation and Technology Management in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology". Cooperation and communication among project partners will be facilitated by the presence of an established network of collaborations created during the previous, successful Summer School project and the existence of the binational Master degree program. The current project will represent the logical follow-on from the previous project, with one specific additional objective: to improve relationships between the academic world in the medical biotechnology field and the job market in the industrial and private sectors. The results will yield to the creation of a European network. This fundamental network should recognise at least three operative levels: the first is the teaching staff, the second is the institutional staff (university offices responsible for the didactic organisation and internationalisation and departmental offices), the third is the level created on the relationships between the industrial partners of the project. Another network level also exists, which is formed by the participation of the end-user of the project, the students. During the preparatory phase, the students will be able to benefit from knowledge and cultural exchanges aimed to the acquisition of the necessary transferable soft skills. This final level will be created at the end of every year of activity during the intensive programme.The results of the present project have the potential to be transferred and exploited in other European Countries. Indeed, they derive from an in-depth debate during project implementation, between international academic and industrial partners about Europe’s future in the global biotech-healthcare sector, and whether Europe is equipping itself with the an efficient policy framework to encourage innovation, and importantly, retain it. In particular, the project will provide a wide spectrum of career advice to MSc/DSC students of Biotech, offering the participating fellows the opportunity to meet people from business development organizations. Once the new biotechnology courses have been accepted by partner universities, the impact will be assessed by measuring the satisfaction of the graduate students during academic training and by tracking down new graduates for their employment situation after studies have been completed, i.e. how many go on to find employment and where.
Health biotechnology has been a major industrial sector during the 21st century and a great employment opportunity for young graduates. However, related graduate programmes traditionally provide scientific knowledge and technical skills to be applied in research or professional laboratories, but are poorly oriented to serve as a bridge between Academia and Industry and to explore activities past the bench work, such as the management of biotechnology products. As a result, today biotech degrees are not widely accepted in the European business arena.The main goal of the Biotech-Ma project was therefore to contribute to improve these degrees and to provide graduate students with the proper resources to navigate with confidence through an increasingly complex business environment. To achieve this objective, the first step was to organise a group of European academic and industrial organisations, which would develop together a new Master programme in health biotechnology, implemented in close cooperation with industrial and other non-academic stakeholders. The Consortium included academic partners (the Universities of Bologna; Oviedo, Spain; Pau, France; Pécs, Hungary; Aberdeen, UK), one partner from the industrial world (Bioindustry Park Silvano Fumero) and one from the Italian National Research Council (ISTEC-CNR). The academic partners were selected due to their participation in previous European projects with similar objectives, such as the IP LLP Erasmus in 2012-13 and the Summer School “Innovation and Technology Management in Medical and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology" in 2013-14. Cooperation and communication within the Consortium was facilitated by a well-established network created during these experiences and the existence of a double degree programme between Bologna and Oviedo. The current project represented the logical follow-up from the previous experiences, with one additional objective: to foster the relationship between the biotech academic world and the job market in the industrial and private sectors. Indeed, to develop a new joint degree in line with the current market needs, the Consortium actively involved several European and international biotech companies through a specifically designed survey. The development of the " Innovation and Business in Health Biotechnology (IBiHB)" master programme followed two steps: starting from an analysis of the existing biotech programmes at the partner universities, an initial draft curriculum was prepared; this was then compared with the results of the survey: keeping in consideration the suggestions received by the surveyed stakeholders, a final and complete version of the Master degree was developed to offer the best of both traditional university coursework and basic notions in areas such as management, marketing, intellectual property and ethics, which will favour work placement in the European and international industry. The validity of the survey results was assured by a significant preliminary work, coordinated by the non-academic partners, thanks to their industrial knowledge, and aimed at developing a proper questionnaire and at addressing it to the proper set of companies. The major complexity in the curriculum development came from harmonising the often quite different national and institutional regulations in place at the partner universities. 2 Summer Schools on biobusiness were organised during the project on one side to pilot test on the interaction between universities, students and companies, and on the other to test the combination of scientific and entrepreneurial teachings. Summer Schools have also been embedded in the new joint degree, to reinforce the network between industry and academia. A Cooperation Agreement and a Sustainability plan was developped for IBiHB. An intense management work was carried out during the project to ensure its smooth implementation; it included the organisation of several in presence and online meetings, dissemination activities to promote the project at local and international level, the evaluation of all these events. The results of the project have the potential to be transferred and exploited in other EU and non-EU countries and disciplines. Indeed, they derive from an in-depth debate during project implementation, between international academic and industrial partners about Europe’s future in the global biotech sector and whether Europe is equipping itself with an efficient policy framework to encourage innovation and retain it. The new joint degree will provide a wide spectrum of career advice to the participating students, offering them multiple occasions to meet and interact with people from business organisations. Once the IBiHB has been launched in the partner universities, the impact will be assessed by measuring the satisfaction of the graduate students during the academic training and by analysing their employment situation after studies have been completed.