Major investment to optimise Ireland's vibrant Pharma sector.

Automation software and systems to a value of US$ 1m (approximately €820,000) is being provided to Ireland’s National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) by Emerson. This is to help train next-generation workers on the latest technologies designed to optimise pharmaceutical production.

Dominic Carolan, CEO of NIBRT; Mike Train, executive president of Emerson Automation Solutions; and Martin Shanahan, CEO of IDA Ireland, attend a ceremony at the NIBRT facility in Dublin to mark the start of their collaboration aimed at upskilling Ireland’s biopharma workforce.

The collaboration will bring one of the most extensively used automation platforms in the biopharmaceutical industry, Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed control system, to NIBRT’s Dublin facility to prepare students for automation technologies at the forefront of manufacturing digitisation.

Emerson technologies valued at €800k will help NIBRT prepare workforce for transition to manufacturing digitisation for production of new biopharma therapies for patients.

Emerson’s collaboration with NIBRT follows a 2016 NIBRT study of the biopharma manufacturing industry that found more than half of respondents have a high degree of difficulty recruiting and developing bioprocess engineers.

They were also involved in a cooperative event in 2017. This introduced many to the state-of-the-art facility of NIBRT on the UCD campus in Dublin. It provided an unique opportunity to examine bio-science industry, processes and looking into the future. See our report "Permission to change and develop in the Life Sciences!"

“NIBRT is leading the way in helping Ireland, its universities, and Europe meet the demand for the skilled biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce the industry needs,” said Mike Train, executive president of Emerson Automation Solutions. “This collaboration reinforces Emerson’s commitment to support global workforce education, as well as the bioprocessing industry where our automation systems have become the industry standard.”

Pharma in Ireland

The planned Emerson Room at the NIBRT facility will simulate an innovative bioprocessing environment and feature a fully operational DeltaV system to provide real-life training in a safe environment.

“We are delighted to collaborate with Emerson, which is providing its best-in-class control and automation solutions for the NIBRT pilot plant. We look forward to delivering innovative training and education to our clients using the Emerson platform to help the biopharma industry gain the many advantages from increased digitisation and automation of core manufacturing processes,” said Dominic Carolan, CEO of NIBRT.

Commenting on the announcement, Martin Shanahan, CEO of the IDA Ireland, said: “The biopharmaceutical industry is extremely important to Ireland, and is worth over €40 billion in annual exports. It is essential that we continue to provide the appropriately skilled workforce capable of operating these state-of-the-art processing plants for many years to come. Emerson’s significant investment will help us support this continuously evolving industry.”

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