Action plan for life sciences

A Steering Committee with representatives from the BC Bio-products Association, the Federal Government, the Government of BC, and several research agencies are working to develop an action plan for life sciences cluster in British Columbia. The Committee needs your help.

For the purposes of this project, the life sciences cluster encompasses a wide range of research and industry activities related to pharmaceuticals and medical biotechnology, medical devices, health informatics, functional foods and nutraceuticals, agricultural biotechnology, environmental biotechnology and bioremediation, industrial bioproducts, biofuels, bioenergy, biomaterials, biochemicals, and connected biotechnology services such as genomics and bioprospecting.

Recent research has confirmed tremendous opportunities for development of this cluster but also identified some specific challenges. The action plan will be the first step towards a coordinated approach to meet these challenges. More specifically, the action plan will define:

• The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats associated with the cluster and, reflecting the results, the key issues to be addressed.
• The strategies that need to be implemented to address the key issues.
• Specific actions and initiatives to be undertaken to promote further development. The action plan will define responsibilities, resource requirements, potential sources of funding, milestones and timelines.

The Committee need your input! You can provide input into the development of the action plan by visiting the project website and completing a short questionnaire (please feel free to refer others to the website).

www.fwco.com/lifesciences/questionnaire.html