MINSK, 3 December (BelTA) – An R&D center for biotechnologies has been opened in the Microbiology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus (NASB), BelTA has learned.
Chairman of the Presidium of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Vladimir Gusakov said: “The Academy of Sciences has been chosen to provide scientific support for the development of the country's biotech industry. Roughly $1 billion worth of biotech products will be made in Belarus this year. We manufacture and assimilate everything we research and develop. The R&D center that has been opened today will utilize the latest results of scientific research. Its products will be introduced in the national economy, primarily agriculture.”
The biotech center is an enterprise that uses biotechnologies and modern equipment to cultivate microorganisms and make various commercial forms of biological preparations. Its designed output is 20.5 tonnes of dry probiotic preparations per annum (the first stage that was opened on 1 March 2019) and 43.5 tonnes of liquid compound microbial preparations for crop husbandry per annum (the second stage). This amount of probiotics can help make over 40,000 tonnes of high-quality balanced fodder for cattle, pigs, poultry, and valuable fish species. The economic effect from applying these probiotics will be close to Br10 million per annum.
Specialists believe the R&D center will help satisfy the domestic demand for competitive environmentally-friendly biotech products, will expand the product choice, bolster the export potential and demand on the world market while contributing to the development of biotechnologies in the country as a whole. Vladimir Gusakov stressed: “The Academy of Sciences aims to not only carry out fundamental and applied research but to have an innovative enterprise in every institute and sell products.”
The Microbiology Institute of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus focuses on creating competitive biotechnologies, making medical and veterinary preparations, fodder and food additives, crop protection agents and biofertilizers, and on protecting the environment from industrial pollution, which meets priority directions of scientific, R&D, and innovative efforts in Belarus. “We would like our R&D products to be put to use. We put persistent efforts into making it happen. The establishment of the R&D center for biotechnologies is an important step in this direction. It allows realizing our ideas, including the manufacturing of products that sell on the market,” the institute's Director Emilia Kolomiyets noted.
