Post by Alexandra Leech-Gribben

🇨🇭Engineering Biology Innovation in Switzerland 🇬🇧 🌱 The Innovate UK #EngBio #GlobalExpertMission concluded in Zürich last week after an intense and insightful week exploring how Swiss innovation is advancing #AgriFood, #AgriculturalBiologics, and #CleanTech ecosystems through #EngineeringBiology. Highlights included: 🔷 How Syngenta are supporting innovations for crop protection through global collaboration, and support with open-innovation programmes like Shoots to integrate biologicals into crop protection and sustainable agriculture. 🔷 Bühler Group's support of engineering biology to food and feed innovation through large-scale process engineering, solid-state and precision fermentation, and The Cultured Hub - a CDMO supporting novel products. 🔷 The research and support for TRL scale-up in bio-based materials at Empa, through cross-disciplinary research on biomass valorisation, digital cellulose, and fungal bio-technologies The week showcased Switzerland’s strength in connecting research excellence with industrial application, and the exciting opportunities for UK–Swiss collaboration in engineering biology. 🇨🇭We were grateful to meet with some amazing innovators across Switzerland including: Martin Clough, Jean-Philippe Albert, Jérôme Cassayre, Hanna Williams, Philipp Krastel, Noah Zahnd, Anja Borchart, Lucas Grob, Gustav Nyström, Marta Antonelli, Ph.D., Ian Roberts, Richard Alldread and Oana Monica Vrabie. 🇬🇧 Thank you to our expert delegation and UK observers: Dana Heldt ☀️, Tim Padgett, Lavanya Kala, Rob Edwards, Sarah Davidson, Simon Partridge, Stephen Wallace, Will Milligan, Dr Mary Jenkinson-Finch, Anike Te & Ruth Nottingham. ⚙️ A final thank you to those who supported in this visit's organisation: Philipp Schneider, Carla Belloch, Sophie Mifsud, Camilla Chalmers, Emma Burdett, Natalie Withenshaw, Aman Sadhwani, Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, Innovate UK Business Connect.