The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering hosted a virtual biomanufacturing industry day on October 18 to engage with industry partners on biomanufacturing innovation.

Biomanufacturing industry days are a vital step toward implementation of the DoD Biomanufacturing Strategy published last March. The strategy consists of three principles: establishing transition partners for early-stage innovations, developing biomanufacturing through innovations, and mapping the biomanufacturing ecosystem.

More than 70 industry representatives participated in the industry day and had the opportunity to participate in breakout sessions to further discuss long-term program goals with government experts.

“Strategic biotechnology investments are an ongoing area of focus within DoD,” said Dr. Steven G. Wax, who performs the duties of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Science and Technology. “Industry engagement with the biotechnology community is an important factor to identify cutting edge technologies that can be transitioned into joint solutions for the Department. DoD is committed to building a vibrant, enduring innovation ecosystem with our allies and partners, academia and the industrial base.”

The industry day featured innovations within five focus areas: supply chain infrastructure, domestic biomanufacturing, government production-scale infrastructure contracts, production scale biomanufacturing investments, and long-term program goals. Following the event, industry representatives can register for one-on-one meetings with government experts through the end of December. Registration - Defense Biomanufacturing Industry Day (https://www.usbiomanufacturing.com/).

“Our interactions with the United States biotechnology industry are giving us critical feedback that will allow us to craft our investments in biomanufacturing in the coming months,” said the Senior Scientist for Bioengineering, Dr. Peter Emanual. “The program is keeping our ‘chat with the government’ feature open into December so we can hear what American industry is saying, where their concerns are, and what capabilities we can invest in to strengthen national security supply chains.”

The virtual industry day was the second of three biomanufacturing industry day events this year. In September, R&E hosted an in-person industry day at the University of California, Berkeley. The third biomanufacturing industry day took place on November 3 in conjunction with the Critical Chemicals Collaborations Colloquium (C4) meeting at the Advanced Weapons and Technology Summit, hosted by the National Armaments Consortium in Huntsville, Alabama.