Killian O’Driscoll, the chief commercial officer at NIBRT, said, ‘The NIBRT team is delighted to be involved in this key WHO initiative to help make the world safer from future emergencies and pandemics.’ 

The World Health Organization (WHO) has selected NIBRT, Ireland’s National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, as its Regional Training Centre for Biomanufacturing for Europe. It will be one of seven such establishments globally forming part of the WHO’s Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Initiative (BWTI).

BWTI was first set up in 2023 as a means of addressing critical skills gaps evident in the biomanufacturing chain, and enabling countries to turn technological innovation into localised and sustainable production – particularly in areas concerning medicines and other healthcare technologies. 

Commenting on the announcement, which was first made at a media briefing in late April, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said, “Over the past few years, WHO has taken several steps to make the world safer from future emergencies and pandemics. Today, WHO announced that we have designated regional training centres in each of WHO’s six regions, to build the skilled workforce needed to sustain local production of vaccines and biologics. 

“The new training centres are in Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Ireland, Senegal and South Africa. They will operate as part of a coordinated global network, delivering context-specific training aligned with regional priorities, regulatory environments and languages.”

Future responsibilities

As the designated Regional Training Centre for the European region, it will be under NIBRT’s remit to deliver hands-on training aligned with industry needs. The network will also work in close collaboration with the WHO and the Global Training Hub for Biomanufacturing, which is located in South Korea. 

Killian O’Driscoll, the chief commercial officer at NIBRT, said, “The NIBRT team is delighted to be involved in this key WHO initiative to help make the world safer from future emergencies and pandemics. 

“This designation from WHO reflects the quality and reach of the training NIBRT has delivered over many years. As the Regional Training Centre for Europe, we will work with our partners across the region and around the world to help sustain local production of vaccines and biologics for lower and middle income countries.”

The WHO’s additional Regional Training Centres are the Institut Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal; the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa; the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation in Brazil; the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India; the Center for Continuing Professional Development at the Egyptian Drug Authority in Egypt; and China’s Peking University. 

The life sciences space is booming of late, with many organisations expanding their job and upskilling opportunities. In early June, consultancy Primecore announced plans to create 50 new jobs across their offices in Ireland and the US over the next three years, on top of 100 new roles previously announced. 

In late April, the Advancing Innovation in Manufacturing Centre in Sligo announced an expansion with a new Galway base of operations amid plans to strengthen its links within the medtech and life sciences sectors.

Also in April, OpenAI announced plans to roll out an early version of GPT-Rosalind, an AI reasoning model designed to support research across biology, drug discovery and translational medicine. 

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