Academic manpower training policy inIsrael in the area of biotechnology

The biotechnology industry is still in a fledgling state characterisedas yet by many start-ups and small firms alongside a few largepharmaceuticals, whose activities are concentrated primarily in thepre- and early commercialisation stages of industrial production. Ifmanpower shortages exist at present, they are often in auxiliary areasof expertise that are of critical importance at these early stages ofdevelopment, such as IP, licensing, transfer of technology, marketing,finance or in newly emerging multi-disciplinary fields for whichstructured training programs are not yet common, such asbioinformatics. This situation could, however, change quickly anddramatically if and when the long overdue biotechnology revolutionbecomes a reality. One need only look at the situation in the ICTindustry where the chronic shortage of computer scientists andengineers was until recently the major obstacle to its continuedmeteoric expansion, to glimpse what may be in store for thebiotechnology industry only a few years down the road.