“We open their minds from the moment they walk in,” says Carlos Sanguinetti, coordinator of the Biotechnology degree program at Universidad ORT Uruguay in Universidad ORT Uruguay he says it with pride.
There are several reasons for our pride. The first and most important is that the degree program has produced its first 18 graduates. The second is that the 15 final projects submitted by the recent graduates prove that you are right: they graduate with a “different mindset.”
The fact is that over the course of their four-year degree program, students learn a great deal about laboratory practices, quality standards, the bio-industry, and business management. But above all, they learn something more intangible: the potential to generate economic value through science.
“Biotechnology is fundamentally about the potential to make money from it. We make students aware of that from the moment they enter the program,” Sanguinetti continues. “That concept is instilled in them throughout their training. That’s what was missing in Uruguay.” The 15 theses presented by Uruguay’s first class of biotechnology graduates are empirical evidence of that focus.
Covering topics such as computer programs applied to biotechnology, studies in molecular biology, and efforts to improve biotechnological products and processes related to the cheese and wine industries, the theses also demonstrate that Uruguay’s biotechnology sector is closer to the goals set by the Executive Cabinet in 2008, when it designated the biotechnology sector as a priority within the framework of an industrial development strategy.
Around that same time, the idea began to take shape and gain momentum that Universidad ORT Uruguay a Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology—the first undergraduate program in Uruguay dedicated to this field of study. Two years later, the 50 students of the first cohort enrolled in a program that was brought to fruition with the support of the National Agency for Research and Innovation (ANII).
“The biotechnology sector in Uruguay, which is currently being assessed by the Tripartite Sectoral Council on Biotechnology, is a major industry,” explains Sanguinetti when asked about the importance of training in this field at the national level.
“If you compare the wine industry with the biotechnology industry, anyone would say that the wine industry is much more important. However, the numbers tell a completely different story. Uruguay exports as much in a single veterinary product as the entire wine industry does. Among those exporters of veterinary biotechnology products, there are at least four domestic companies. But there are also a lot of areas that people don’t realize are part of biotechnology,” he concludes.
Biotechnology refers to any technological application that uses biological systems, living organisms, or their derivatives to create or modify products and processes for specific uses. As a result, this discipline has many branches, and its contributions can have a broad impact across Uruguay’s economic landscape.
However, despite having been regarded for decades as a potential gold mine, the biotechnology sector has not yet reached a stage of development that would allow it to take off.
“Our view is that biotechnology is going through the same process as information technology (IT) did in the 1970s. Once people were trained and those trained professionals entered the field, the sector boomed—but that only happens when there are enough qualified people,” explains Sanguinetti.
Until now, biotechnology technicians in Uruguay were trained through retraining programs from other fields—such as chemistry, engineering, and biology—and after years of experience working in various industries. This made the workforce expensive and difficult to find. The goal of the bachelor’s degree program, therefore, is to meet the sector’s demand for human resources by providing trained technicians who require a much shorter onboarding process than was previously necessary.
The final projects of this first cohort also demonstrate that the coursework achieved that goal. Developed within the academic framework of a thesis, many of them were based on problems presented by various industries or institutions, such as the Pasteur Institute.
“We work closely with industry,” says Sanguinetti. “As a result, the sector is familiar with our programs and even has opportunities to test them during the development of theses. That’s what I find most valuable: industries have created opportunities because they see our graduates as people who will make a meaningful contribution.”