The roundtable was held at the Faculty of Engineering of Universidad ORT Uruguay featured Dr. Omar Macadar, president of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII); Raúl Sendic, former president of ANCAP; and Roberto Kreimerman, Minister of Industry, Energy, and Mining.
Macadar opened the discussion by noting that, although the development of technology in Uruguay has taken a long time and has been a slow process, we have successfully established a biotechnology sector.
He emphasized the importance of having a variety of both public and private universities, as well as a partnership between academia and industry.
Added value
Raúl Sendic went on to say that “the world today has seen a significant increase in the value placed on food” and that this opens up a window of opportunity for Uruguay and its economy “because we have the conditions that have allowed us to develop high-quality food production.”
Fertile land, abundant water, and expertise in food production have enabled Uruguay to produce high-quality rice, dairy products, and soybeans, as well as fine wines—all of which are of export quality.
The former president of Ancap argued that food production must generate greater added value in order to achieve a more virtuous economy, and that this added value can be achieved through biotechnology, genetics, and technology.
As an example, he cited Ancap’s experience with the development of biofuels, in which they apply biotechnology.
The interrelationship among supply chains
For his part, Mr. Kreimerman noted that biotechnology is a “critical issue” for the country and asserted that, in a world undergoing economic and productive transformation, supply chains have become so intertwined that they have given way to complexes where the production of goods and services, the public and private sectors, academia, and agricultural, industrial, and service activities converge.
This is why promoting these complexes is key to Uruguay’s development and to improving everyone’s quality of life.
He also explained that biotechnology is of great importance because, along with new energy sources and ICT, it is one of the three pillars of the techno-scientific revolution currently taking place around the world.
Fourteen projects, fourteen solutions
Carlos Sanguinetti, M.A., academic coordinator of the Biotechnology program, highlighted the fourteen senior projects that undergraduate students are working on to earn their degrees.
Some of these projects are independent initiatives, while others are being carried out in the dairy industry, where there is a significant niche for biotechnology; there are also students working on wastewater treatment at wineries, while others are collaborating with the School of Chemistry on the identification of carotenoids.
Sanguinetti said he had gone even further: “We have taken the initiative to work on the negative selection of human bone marrow cancer cells.”
This overview of the various projects highlights the significant unmet demand in the domestic market; as professionals trained in biotechnology begin to emerge, it is likely that the same trend will occur as did with ICT thirty years ago.
"When we began introducing trained professionals into the market, the ICT sector became an industry. We hope the same will happen with biotechnology," concluded the Academic Coordinator.