About

The Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Catalyst (IBIC) is a £5 million EPSRC place-based initiative that brings together north-west England's industrial biotechnology community to accelerate knowledge exchange, skills development, and innovation. It galvanises links between the region's science, research, innovation, and teaching sectors to create real-world impact.

"The IBIC exists to ensure the north-west has a competitive edge in building and supporting the bioeconomy within the region, but also nationally. As we move towards net zero, we must ensure we have the knowledge, skills, and infrastructure in place to make sure we capitalise on the research coming out of our universities and enable our businesses to make use of these new innovations. This will lead to a fairer, healthier, and greener world for everyone."

Professor Aline Miller / IBIC Director, The University of Manchester

The IBIC is led by The University of Manchester's Institute of Biotechnology and co-created with the Universities of Liverpool, Salford, and Manchester Metropolitan, Liverpool John Moores University and civic and business partners including Sister.

We are united by a culture of ethics, diversity, and openness and offer our partners access to cutting-edge R&D knowledge, capabilities, talent and facilities. We support our community with skills training, finance, and business advice so they can realise success.

If you would like to find out more about the IBIC and what it could mean for your organisation, please get in touch.

Building the industrial biotechnology ecosystem

IBIC brings together key players from the foods, fuels, chemicals, materials, and pharmaceutical sectors to create a sustainable bioeconomy in the north-west. We facilitate knowledge exchange, training opportunities, and research collaborations through networking events, funding initiatives and active policy engagement. We, and our partners, are working together to deliver a transformative bioeconomy for our region and beyond.

We encourage you to become part of the IBIC community and help us to support:

• Achieving net zero
• Creating a circular bioeconomy
• Partnerships
• Skills sharing
• Innovation
• Societal change