Staff Reporter
Central Development Working Party (CDWP) approved the funding for National Center of Industrial Biotechnology (NCIB) for Pilot Manufacturing of Bio-products Using Synthetic Biology and Metabolic Engineering Technologies at Pir Mehr Ali Shah Arid Agriculture University Rawalpindi worth Rs. 1439.775 Million.
This was decided in a meeting held under the chairmanship of Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Mohammad Jehanzeb Khan. Senior officials from federal and provincial governments participated in the meeting.
The establishment of this National Center is well positioned to develop a national facility that can provide direct value-addition to natural products isolated from plants and those derived from microbial origin. The NCIB mission is to develop state-of-art technology infrastructure with the capability to conduct leading edge research for value-addition and bridge the academic and industry linkage by scaling the innovations to pilot scale studies transforming to knowledge based economy. PMAS-AAUR plans to establish NCIB with the following quantifiable objectives including establishment of national level integrated bio-separations infrastructure (16000 sq ft), sustainable quality biomass production through integrated controlled climatic environment, and smart digital farms, production of market based biotechnology products and human resource development based on cross-disciplinary synergies (No. of Trainees 200).
