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In its role as the public sector agency
responsible for administering the bulk of public investment in
biotechnology, the Department of Business and Innovation
(DBI) has delivered a range of world class facilities and
technology platforms for the biotechnology and broader life
sciences sector.
DBI has publicly reported that, of the 16
high-level strategic goals and targets that the government set for
the biotechnology sector over the last decade, ten have been met,
and adequate progress has been made for targets that have not been
fully met.
Notwithstanding the claimed achievement of
high-level sector goals and targets, there are shortcomings in
DBI’s approach to investment targeting, and gaps in its benefits
measurement and monitoring approaches.
DBI’s administrative focus for the sector
is also mainly on grant and contract compliance. Though useful in
its own right, this focus does not produce performance data about
whether the strategic aims of the public sector’s investment in the
biotechnology sector are being delivered.
As a result, after more than ten years of active investment and
‘market intervention’ in the biotechnology sector, DBI is not yet
able to objectively demonstrate the development of a cause and
effect relationship between its investments in the biotechnology
sector and the results achieved in that sector.
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