A Study on German Bio-Technology Strategies and Its Implication to the Agricultural Development in Taiwan

Li-Hsien Chien∗ Tzong-Ru Lee∗∗ Jiun-Hao Wang♠ Rhung-Jieh Woo♥♦

Abstract

With the experiences from Germany, the system and strategies of agricultural biotechnological science development should be overviewed and evaluated thoughtfully to connect with the local agriculture development and bio-business transition. Patent, coordination, industry development, clustering, and classification are suggested to the administration from our study to improve the performance of agricultural biotechnological industry in Taiwan.

I. INTRODUCTION

Germany has traditions on comprehensive technologies and practical experiences in applying the bio-tech in agriculture. Therefore, it is worthy to learn from its accomplishment through its industrial analysis. After the openness of EU market, trades of bio-technology industry development among the members are prevailed; these trends magnify the contents of bio-economy. For instance, under the soaring price on crude oil, the evaluation on the biofuel applications had made the bio-tech become a trend in Germany, this change not only benefits the industry but also helps to upgrade the levels both on value and scale of economy.

Taiwan also experienced a rapid leap in the Bio-tech in recent years, but under the several limitations, says, inexperience, poor in planning and public support and rusty legal services, make the applications of bio-tech in agricultural products process still in their beginning stage.

Through the on-site visit to those organizations/institutions in Germany, this study ∗ Associate professor at the Department of Applied Economics, National Chung-Hsing University,

Taichung, ROC. Email: lhchien@nchu.edu.tw. ∗∗ Chairperson of the Research Institute of Electronic Commerce and professor at the Department of

Marketing, National Chung-Hsing University, Taichung, ROC. ♠ Assistant Professor at the Department of Bio-industry Communication and Development, National

Taiwan University, Taipei, R.O.C. ♥ Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics, National Taiwan University, Taipei, R.O.C. ♦ Financial support provided by the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, Taiwan, ROC was

appreciated. Authors also wish to impress appreciation to the DTG, Prof. T. Heckelei, Dr. R. Nolten, Mr. Y-C Chiang, Prof. Jen Wei Chen and Prof. YiNon Yang, Miss Chou-Lian Huang for their assistance and helpful suggestions.

plans to find out the industrial structure and development strategies for agricultural bio-tech industry, and also to introduce the related practical plans for bio-business development. Results will help to evaluate the related policies and regulations to construct new action guides to promote the growth of bio-technology in Taiwan.

Three major objectives of this study are to

1. Understand the developing background and industry structure of Bio-technology in Germany;

2. Learn how the strategies were operated and applied for bio-technology industry;

3. Provide the empirical results to improve the bio-tech industry in Taiwan

II. INTRODUCTION TO AGRICULTURAL BIOTECHNOLOGY INDUSTRY IN TAIWAN

Due to the limit quantity of tillable land, Taiwan government early focused on improving produce techniques in order to increase agricultural outputs. Based on special geographical features and rich resource in Taiwan, the government further starts to develop agricultural biotechnology industry. Recently there are many factors such as knowledge-based economy, WTO, releasing agricultural product market, transnational trades, force Taiwan agricultural industry to transform. Now Taiwan is in the critical transform stage, and the government exerts to solve the problems of traditional agricultural industry.

In 2008, council of agricultural set “New Agriculture Movement” in action and leaded the science strategies toward safe agriculture, leisure agriculture, superiority agriculture and environmental protection agriculture sections in order to exploit new scopes of Taiwan agricultural industry toward knowledge intensive, technique intensive, and capital intensive oriented.

When developing Taiwan agricultural biotechnology industry in the future, there are several issues needed to be considered. The issues are collecting industry information and analyzing market size, developing competitive industries (subtropical flowers industry and aquaculture industry), connecting research centers and business (Cheng, 2005). Taking phalaenopsis for example, because that advanced agricultural biotechnologies help phalaenopsis seed and nursery produced in a great quantity, phalaenopsis were labeled as high-economy flowers and awarded the number one of flagship product of intensive agriculture in the year of 2004 (Li and Lin, 2007). Besides, the third stage of “National Science and Technology Program for Agricultural Biotechnology” which was focused on biotechnology development is executing now.

The research center distinguishes prior program results into four classifications: new breeds development, innovative or improvement of biotechnologies, basic knowledge research, and industry promotion or industry-university cooperative, and makes third stage program extend the researches of four classifications (Cheng, 2005). Moreover, the research center regards aquaculture industry as one of the target industries in third stage program and actively applies biotechnology on aquaculture industry in order to increase the output value and global competition of Taiwan aquaculture industry (Li and Ien, 2007). Besides, it should first investigate in Chinese gene type, diet preference, etc., to apply Western research performances efficiently and be more contributive to human health (Ien and Li, 2007).

Finally, Li (2008) indicated that critical success factors need to be considered in order to execute development of agricultural biotechnology’s intra-disciplinary transformation successfully. These factors are technical development systems for production, intellectual property control, well education systems, risk management control in new product development, nurturing technical and R&D employees, and institution of relevant laws and regulations. Therefore it can advise the government to set up Taiwan future agricultural biotechnology strategy and increase international competitiveness of Taiwan agricultural biotechnology industry.

1. Basic Characteristics of Biotech Industry Comparing with other high-tech industries, products in the biotech industry

required longer development period and large amount of investment. These characteristics results in a high entry boundary with risk and return. Due to the position in the supply chain, even biotech sector in Taiwan had started since 1980s, limited outcomes were reached.

In 1995, the Executive Yuan announced a project entitled “Promotion Plan for the biotechnology Industry” ignited the momentum of the development. In 2002, biotechnology had been considered as one of the prior targets in the “Challenge 2008（挑戰 2008）” national development plan for the coming six years. It also was named the biotech industry as one star in the “Two Trillion, Twin Stars（兩兆雙星）” flagship project. These policies helped Taiwan’s biotech industry had reached the total amount of sales to NT$191.2 billion in 2007. This does not mean that Taiwan’s biotech industry is more developed than Germany. Different definition of biotechnology may cause the dissimilar scope and statistical consequences to industry survey.

2. Scope of the Biotech Industry in Taiwan Taiwan delimits the biotech industry with broadly definition, including traditional

and modern biotechnology applies in medicines, medical healthcare, agriculture, food, ecological matters, energy, bio-resource, chemical industry, and even micro-electro

devices or communication technology could be used to integrate in biotech field (Table 1). Biotech industry was comprised of 1,116 companies in Taiwan in 2007, and generated export earnings of NT$ 66.5 billion (equal to 15.65 billion Euros) with domestic private investment of approximately NT$27.0 billion. On the other side, Public investment project: The National Development Fund, Executive Yuan had also approved public investment in 36 domestic and foreign biotech projects, encompassing a total of NT$12.7 billion in financial scale.

3. Clusters in Biotech Industry in Taiwan Following the successful experience from well-developed scientific industry

clusters in high-tech fields (e.g. electronic and semiconductor industry), the Executive Yuan decided to established the Biotech Zones with same pattern and structure. Based on the high-tech clustering development strategy, the Executive Yuan started to setup eight BioTech Industrial Parks (BTIPs) since 1996 around the west side of Taiwan island.

Based on the different administrative systems, biotech-industry clusters can be divided into two main categories. First, the central government guiding BTIPs which include the HsinChu Biomedical Science Park, the one which co- established by the National Science Council and Academia Sinica, and the PingTung Agricultural Biotechnology Park which initiated by COA. Other department, says the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), also sponsored universities, academic institutes and private research centers to establish innovation incubators for small and medium-sized businesses (SME) since 1996. In 2003, 35 incubators out of 61 were accommodated by 160 biotech-related firms with the investment of NT$2.45 billion, accounting for 12.21% of all.

Next, the local government guiding BTIPs which comprise the Medical Biotechnology Park in NanKang district, Taipei, the National Floriculture Park in ChangHua County, Taiwan Orchid Plantation in Tainan county, Marine Biotechnology Park in YiLan county, Special Herb Biological Technology Park in ChiaYi county, and the Biotechnology Park in Kaohsiung (Figure 1). Led by the Council of Agriculture (COA), the PingTung park is the biggest agricultural biotech zone and composited of agricultural center for cultivating seedlings, producing health food and animal vaccines. The Tainan park is centered on the cultivation of orchids. The ChangHua park will become a national center for flower-breeding center. (Sun, 2005)

Table 1 Scope of Biotech Industries in Taiwan

Category Examples

Medicine

Biopharmaceuticals therapeutics diagnostics drug design and delivery, drug discovery, cell and tissue engineering, gene therapy, regenerative medicine, alternative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), botanical drugs, herbal medicine, vaccines, antibiotics

Medical Devices

Bio-chips (e.g. protein-chips) , bio-sensors gene probes, reagents, kits, assays, biological medical devices, medical instrumentation, medical supplies, homecare (e.g. diabetes monitoring)

Industrial Biotechnology

Specialty chemicals (e.g. amino acids), bio-processing (e.g. bacteria culture) ,bio-based lubricants and functional fluids, renewable alternative fiber papers and packaging, plant-based plastics, polymers and films, wood-based composite materials, fermentation enzymes catalysts, flavors or fragrances cosmetics (e.g. Collagen), phytochemicals, neutraceuticals, medical food, functional foods, supplements or vitamins, food processing

Agricultural Biotechnology

Bio-fertilizers, bio-herbicides tissue culture, seeds and plant breeding, genetically modified products, transgenic plants, livestock transgenic animals, veterinary products, animal vaccines, aquaculture

Environmental Biotechnology

Bio-based energy (e.g. microbiologically enhanced petroleum), bio-based waste treatment, bio-based pollution prevention, natural resource recovery (e.g. mineral recovery), bio-processing, bioremediation, phytoremediation, bio-pulping, bio-bleaching, bio-filtration, biodesulphurization, biomaterials, biomass conversion, enzymes, marine microbial, terrestrial microbial

Enabling Technologies and R&D Services

DNA, peptides, or proteins sequencing DNA, peptides, or proteins synthesis DNA markers Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification Bio-informatics Single-Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) Genomics Proteomics Cellomics / Cell receptors or signaling Pharmacogenomics, high throughput screening combinatorial chemistry 3-D molecular modeling cloning / culturing of cells, tissues, embryos stem cells Extractions, purifications, separations, clinical tests, clinical trial management, contracted research (CRO), contracted manufacturing (CMO)

Sources: Sun, 2005: 6-7.

Figure 1 Bio-clusters in Taiwan

Source: Sun, 2005: 89.

Also, government also constructed several science parks and industrial zones for biotechnology and pharmaceutical firms elsewhere, several agents and organizations were set up the necessary subsidiaries to facilitate the biotech related firms. Those are Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office (BPIPO), Taiwan Technology Marketplace Service Center (TWTM), National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), and the Development Center of Biotechnology (DCB) at the Academia Sinica.

In addition to the development of the medical biotechnology industry, the Tainan Science-based Industrial Park has planed a zone for developing agricultural biotechnology, especially in the field of animal breeding and research. In 2003, The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) approves of a 20 billion NT$ (US$ 576 million) plan to develop five agricultural biotech parks by 2010.

Four categories on biotech are the application on plant transgenosis, the cultivation on plant tissue, transgenosis application on animals and fish, and biological insecticides and fertilizers.

III BIO-INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT STRATEGY IN TAIWAN 1. Background

After the WTO membership qualification, the agriculture sector in Taiwan encounters the more and more competitiveness from imported food items. Thus how to transform agriculture into a modern sector with high added-value and larger business scale is the most priority to the new cabinet of COA. Under the missions from above, a new project entitled “New Agriculture Movement” was given by COA 2008. The main objectives of this movement are led by development strategies which were constructed by the technological goals with the four concerns on safety, leisure, competitiveness and environment. Recently, the significant accomplishments on the applications of biotechnology seem to enlighten the market opportunity to the agriculture products. To manage the fast growth, the Science and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI, 2006) classify the current agricultural biotechnology industry into the following categories.

The Biotechnology Industry System in Taiwan can be classified into upstream, midstream, and downstream groups which constructed by Academia Sinica, National Science Council, Ministry of Education, Department of Health, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Council of Agriculture, Atomic Energy Council, Ministry of National Defense, and some private companies. Every authority has its own role in the system. Take COA for example, the Council is responsible for cultivation on plant and seed, livestock and fish breeding, development and study on functional food, veterinary vaccines, biopesticides, biological fertilizers, and test agent. The basic researches above are recognized as biotechnology applications in agricultural field, namely the scope and definition of agricultural biotechnology application in Taiwan. Thus, the biotech R&D integrated system is illustrated at Figure 2.

Authority

Academia Sinica National Science Council

Ministry of Education

Department of Health Ministry of Economic Affairs Council of Agriculture

Action Units

Academia Sinica Universities

Centers for Control Non-profit corporation National Health Research Institutes

Center for Drug Evaluation

Chung-shan Institute of Science and Technology Institute of Nuclear Energy Research Center

Non-profit corporation Development Center for Biotechnology Industrial Technology Research Institute Pharmaceutical Industrial Technology & Development Center

Food Industry Research & Development Institute

COA and its related Non-profit corporation Animal Technology Institute Food Industry Research & Development Institute

Tasks Basic research Stipulate and execute policies and regulations

Clinical trials Public health New drug evaluation, regulation and development

Commercialization-Driven Research & Development Research & Development in Pilot Run Process and Automatic Testing Technology

Technology Counseling and Industry Upgrading & Transformation

Cross-Ministry & Commission Communications Platform Investments Intemational Collaboration

Plant and Seed Breeder livestock Fish breeding Functional food Veterinary Vaccines Biopesticides Biological Fertilisers Test reagent

upstream midstream downstream

National Health Research Institutes

Industrial Technology Research Institute

Development Center for Biotechnology

Pharmaceutical Industrial Technology & Development Center

Food Industry Research & Development

Animal Technology Institute Taiwan

♦ Public health ♦ New dosage

development ♦ Clinical trials

♦ Pharmaceuticals ♦ Medica engineering ♦ Genomics ♦ Tissue engineering

♦ Biotechnology and pharmaceutical production processes

♦ Pre-clinical trials ♦ Environmental

biotechnology ♦ R&D of Chinese herbal

medicine

♦ Pharmaceutical dosage form development

♦ Preclinical trials ♦ R&D of Chinese

herbal medicine ♦ R&D of medical

equipments

♦ Preservation & development of biological resources

♦ Food Biotech

♦ Transgenic Animal ♦ Pharmaceutical testing ♦ Bio-safety testing

Non-profit R&D organizations

Figure 2 Integrated R&D System of Biotechnology Industries in Taiwan

Besides, the key role for the Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office (BPIPO) at the MOEA is important in coordinating partnership between public and private sectors. Briefly speaking, the BPIPO can provide necessary public services, which include the law consulting and financial assistance, to those companies which intend to establish business related with bio-technology in Taiwan.

2. Development Policy of Taiwan Agricultural Biotechnology Industry A series of agricultural biotechnology industry policies executed by the Taiwan

government are listed in Table 2.

Table 2 Policies on agricultural biotechnology industry in Taiwan

Year Policy

1982 Executive Yuan announced biotechnology as one of eight key technologies in Taiwan

1995 Executive Yuan announced the program entitled “the Promotion of Biotech Industries”

1996 1. Executive Yuan organized the Biotech Industry Committee in order to supervise and coordinate interdepartmental tasks.

2. “Agricultural biotechnology Specialized Zone” was established in Tainan Science Park by National Science Council.

1997 1. Executive Yuan hosted the Strategy Review Board Meeting in Emerging Industrial Technology (SRB) annually, and regards biotechnology technique as one of important issues.

2. National Science Council proceeded “National Science and Technology Program for Agriculture Biotechnology”.

3. Development Fund for Business Investment of the Executive Yuan adopted “Five-Year Plans on Investment Business.”

1999 Biotechnology industry was regarded as one of ten emerging industries.

2002 Executive Yuan authorized the “Challenge 2008: National Development Plan” and classified Biotechnological industry into Two Trillion and Twin Star project.

2003 Executive Yuan authorized the programs of agricultural biotechnology parks under the administration of the central government and local government.

2005 Bio-Taiwan Committee (BTC) of the Executive Yuan held the first conference on two issues: biotechnological medicine and medical equipment.

2006 Bio-Taiwan Committee (BTC) of the Executive Yuan held the second conference on three issues: agricultural biotechnology, bio medicine, and medical equipment.

Resource：Council of Agricultural, 2006

Even with the policies above, the laws and regulations for agricultural biotechnology operation and management are still not able to meet the needs from the industrial aspect. Regulations and rules are administrated and modified by separated

departments and bureaucrats therefore more intensive coordination is required. To ensure the responsibility and identify the administration for public agents, some comprehensive communication mechanism should be raised to meet the demands from the international society (SPIT, 2006; Hung-Chang Li, 2007).

3. Introduction to Taiwan Agricultural Biotechnology Firms (1) Number and value of agricultural biotechnology firms

The scope of agricultural biotechnology in Taiwan covers seed and nursery, aquaculture, vaccines, livestock applications, bio-fertilizer, bio-pesticides, test and diagnosis, and so on. Numbers of agricultural biotechnology firms in each field and their value were listed in Table 3. Numbers of biotechnological firms increase significantly form 2002 to 2005, and the size of two fields - biotechnological food and seed and nursery, were at the first two ranks.

Table 3 Statistic of Taiwan Agricultural Biotechnology Industry unit: a hundred million NT dollars

2002 2003 2004 2005 agricultural biotechnology fields N value % in value

N value % in value

N value % in value

N value % in value

seed and nursery 33 9.55 16.24 25 14.5 13.52 25 25.82 15.87 28 57.45 26.99

aquaculture 9 7.56 12.86 11 9.25 8.63 11 22.99 14.13 16 2.67 1.25

bacteria for animals 9 7.36 12.52 11 6.68 6.23 11 4.12 2.53 11 2.09 0.98

biotechnology of livestock 18 0.72 1.22 10 7.75 7.23 10 7.86 4.83 17 18.89 8.88

biotechnological food 57 23.29 39.61 110 66.72 62.22 110 93.31 57.35 127 127.96 60.13

biotechnological fertilizer 28 3.13 5.32 15 0.62 0.58 15 6.69 4.11 14 1.26 0.59

biotechnological pesticides 13 7.19 12.23 7 1.72 1.60 7 1.91 1.17 11 0.41 0.19

examination and diagnosis 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 0 0 0.00 15 2.03 0.00

others 4 0.19 0.32 25 14.68 13.69 25 40.5 24.89 1 0.06 0.03total 167 58.8 100 189 107.24 100 189 162.7 100 239 212.82 100Resource: Council of Agriculture, 2005

(2) Size and R&D expenditure of Taiwan agricultural biotechnology firms

In Taiwan, agricultural biotech firms mainly invest in the following fields which were nutrition for animals, seed and nursery, biotechnological pesticides, and biotechnological fertilizer based on the statistics from the Biotechnology Industry Study Center (2007). The major types of Taiwan agricultural biotech firms in Taiwan are independent companies. The capital size of such firms was mostly under NT$ 50 million with 50 less employees. Besides, the cumulative amounts of expenditure on R&D was mostly less than NT$ 20 million, 30% less in the total expenditure (COA,

2004, 2005).

4. Information Integration of Taiwan Agricultural Biotechnology Industry To support enough information for analyzing the industrial structure, , the Science

and Technology Policy Research and Information Center (STPI) had embodied former strategies and experiment on emerging industry planning. To ensure the industry information is sufficient for research, Taiwan Biotechnology Industry Study Centre established and developed an efficient system, which was based on a structure of agricultural biotechnology industrialized movement, to let government make proper decision on agricultural biotechnology policy (STPI, 2007). The contents of integrated industrial information are listed as follows.

(1) Establishment on agricultural technological articles

Information on agricultural technologies and research experiments were collected to provide for using in academic, research, or business. Furthermore both qualitative and quantitative indexes, which can be used to trace the research performance, were specified by STPI from the results of related researches.

(2) Classification of Taiwan agricultural biotechnology

To obtain the Taiwan agricultural biotechnology roadmap, STPI established the technique and product matrix model to classify agricultural biotech forms in Taiwan. It can help to better understand the development and progress of the technical analysis, patents, and perspective technology.

(3) Environment of industry researches

By analyzing the perspective technique and its progresses in major countries, development information can be adopted to make decision of Taiwan agricultural biotechnology plans.

5. Agricultural Technology Patents Total 657 patents were applied on agriculture field during 1996 and 2005. Among

fields of agricultural biotechnology research, Taiwan researchers performed well, especially in both bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticides fields. There are 18 filings patents on development of new plants, 2 on virus detecting technique, 6 on genetically modified products patents, and 24 on plant nutraceutical and pharmaceutical patents in Taiwan (Li, et al.,2007; Lin and Li, 2007). Comparing with accomplishments around the world, Taiwan’s patents are advanced in agricultural technology patents, plant nutraceutical and medicine patents, but genetically modified products patents and biotechnological pesticides patents are still needed to imp0rove (Li, et al., 2007).

IV. BIOTECH PROMOTION STRATEGY IN GERMANY Unlike the classification conception in Taiwan, the definition of biotech industry

in the Framework for Biotechnology Statistics by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was adopted as the technical term for the industry in Germany. OECD proposes two different categories of companies within the biotech industry: the dedicated biotechnology firms (DBF) and innovative biotechnology active firms (IBAF). The former ones are focus on the application of modern biotechnological procedures in biotech product manufacture or on provide of biotech services. The aims for the later one cannot be solely in the use of biotechnological procedures for the production of products or the supply of services,

for examples the pharmacy firms, chemical companies or seed manufacturers.

1. German Biotechnology Sector in 2007 The key characters of German biotechnology sector can be profiled in Table 4, the

turnover of contributed over two billion Euros and research and development (R&D) expenditure reached one billion Euros in 2007. According to OECD’s measurement, there were 14,360 employees engaged in 500 dedicated biotechnology firms (DBF) in Germany in 2007. Besides, about 15,210 people were employed in biotechnology-related firms or innovative biotechnologically active firms (IBAF), including pharmaceutical, chemicals, and seeds companies. In total the commercial biotechnology industry creates around 29,600 jobs. Furthermore, the size of general German biotech company to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), 43% of them employ less than 10 persons, and firms owned 11 to 50 employees are 43%.

Table 4 Key Business Characteristics of German Biotechnology Sector Type of biotech companies Key business characteristics

Number of firms 496 Number of biotech employees 14360 Turnover (billion EUR) 2.01 Dedicated biotechnology firms R&D expenditure (billion EUR) 1.05 Number of firms 91 Innovative biotechnologically active

companies* (e.g. pharma, chemicals or seeds manufacturers)

Number of biotech employees 15210

*: innovative biotechnologically active companies include pharmacy, chemicals or seeds manufacturers.

Source: BMBF, 2008: 5. 2. Development Strategies: Bio-Industry Cluster

As Figure 3 was shown, the German biotechnology landscape can be found in the geographical distribution of dedicated biotechnology companies. Each circle size presents of the number of dedicated biotechnology companies located in the region. Curremt four large bio-industry clusters are the Berlin Brandenburg bio-region, München, Rhine-Neckar (Heidelberg) and Rhineland (Köln), and latter three were evolved after the BioRegio competition program in 1996 (Table 5).

Source: BMBF, 2008: 7 Figure 3 Geographical distribution of bio-industry clusters in Germany

3. Institutional Supporting Framework

In Germany, the program for biotechnology development framework can be divided into four parts. First of all is the basic innovations part which focus on genome research and key technologies for biotechnology industry, including

proteomics, bioinformatics, nano-biotech, systems biology, and neurosciences. The second part is application part, which emphasized on the researches applications on tissue engineering, industrial biotechnology, and bio-energy fields.

Thirdly, the promotion and extension part which was operated by the Federal Government. Networks for Agricultural Research and several fostering programs were lunched to improve biotech industry structure, such as BioRegio, BioProfile, BioChance, BioChance Plus, BioFuture, ExistGoBio.

Table 5 Distribution of biotech companies by federal state

Dedicated biotechnology companies

Innovative biotechnologically active companies Federal state

2005 2006 2007 2005 2006 2007 Baden-Württemberg 79 81 77 3 4 9 Bayern 96 93 100 8 6 10 Berlin 55 56 56 1 1 - Brandenburg 31 31 30 2 2 3 Bremen 7 6 6 - - 1 Hamburg 17 17 16 2 1 1 Hessen 27 28 33 10 11 15 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern 15 15 17 2 2 2 Niedersachsen 38 37 36 9 8 14 Nordrhein-Westfalen 57 57 53 11 11 16 Rheinland-Pfalz 12 13 12 2 2 6 Saarland 3 3 3 - - - Sachsen 20 20 20 - - - Sachsen-Anhalt 20 20 19 1 1 4 Schleswig-Holstein 13 12 12 6 6 8 Thüringen 7 6 6 1 1 2 Total 497 495 496 59 56 91

Source: BMBF, 2008: 8.

Last, the legal part. Contrary to bio-industrial development, how to establish the biotech-related legal institutions and regulations is also one of the missions for central government. Therefore, the public provision about biotechnology will concentrate on biological safety, animal protection, and bio-ethical regulations. (see Fig. 4)

Following above-mentioned biotechnology framework program, Government sector in Germany was attempted to link research institutes and bio-company/market. Several measures on biotech commercialization were introduced from the horizontal integration aspect among different bio-players.

In details, the “BioFuture” project provides seed funds for both basic and applied researches to promote frontier technologies in bio filed. The Bioregions and BioProfile competitions are positioned as the preparing projects to encourage local government to set up regional biotech industry for commercialization purpose. With assistance from the coordinating offices in bio-region, those new founded bio-firms could acquire and/or transform their specific technologies into manufacturing stage and become bio-commodities. On the other side, two projects entitled the “BioChance” and the “BioChance Plus” were offered euro$ 100 million grant to

support young biotech companies after considering the biotech sector is a high-risk industry (http://www.bmbf.de/en/986.php).

As a result of competitions of “BioRegio” and “BioProfile” projects, 25 bio-regions with approximately 600 young companies were established, and these companies include 60% of bio firms and more than the half involved in the biomedical field, ( http://www.bmbf.de/en/962.php).

Finally, “ExistGoBio” is one of the European 7th Framework Programs which targeted the young but experienced researchers to develop high potential for industrial and commercial applications. Hence this project is future-oriented application of innovative biotechnology (European Commission, 2008).

4. System of Biotech Science Development Organizations Different countries apply different agriculture biotechnological promotion

strategies based on the different purposes and internal/external conditions. Take Taiwan as an example, government plays the key role in promoting agriculture biotechnological industry. The public sectors make efforts to develop related industry to strengthen the structure during development.

But in Germany, the public offices don’t advise or determine the research directions for biotechnological companies or research centers, only requests that all agriculture biotechnological products should fit the requirements of safety standards.

Promotion strategies on agriculture biotechnological technique are focusing on four parts in Germany: biotechnological technique research and development system, achieving biotechnological technique development, research and development capital management, and bio technique promotion. Agriculture biotech related departments would operate some coordinating and supporting activities for promotion in order to establish both on new technique research development and new technique extending system.

Within the whole biotech science development policy, organization of biotechnological science development system is a gateway to receive new innovative ideas and then transform the ideas into actual processes by experienced design and manufacturing modules. There are four departments in organization of biotechnological science development system. They are incubator or technical authorization in the university, regional association, research center, and government regulation. Functions of each department are introduced as following.

(1) Incubator or technical authorization center in the university

The incubators or technical authorization centers, which devoted to develop new science techniques and apply the new techniques to the business of new company, are usually attached to research institutes at the neighboring universities or non-profit organization at the department of state with the convenient location near science parks or universities.. Therefore, the main goal of the incubators or technical authorization centers is to emerging companies or small medium-sized enterprises to develop new products by using resource of universities and incubators. Besides, they also provide related techniques or business services to the market.

Take the efforts of the Nees-Institut fur Biodiversitat der Pflanzen at the Bonn University as an example, their research, which investigated in simulated test of lotus biomimetic self-cleaning surfaces mechanism, describes that if the structure of self-cleaning surfaces applies on plant culture, it would help plants prevent form

affections (Andereas Solga, et al., 2007). And the team try to apply the outcomes on daily life by developing more durable environment protection products for industry applications.

Furthermore, Barthlott and Neinhuis (1997) points out that the technique of Lotus self-cleaning surfaces has been applied on agriculture, for example, if the cover of greenhouse owns the characteristic of self-cleaning surfaces, there are some benefits for greenhouse, says to decrease the dust attaching to the cover, contain the temperature controlling effect of greenhouse, and prolong the greenhouse life. Mercedes-Benz had visited his incubator and tried to apply such technique to car surface in 1995.

(2) Regional association

In German, the government only focuses on the social safety issue of biotechnological development. This makes the research centers operate independently and are located dispersedly. Thus this trend makes the regional associations can establish to connect separated research centers with different directions to increase the benefit of the whole local economy. Besides, regional associations also offer several services for members by presented as the spoke-agent for this regional industry. Services include consulting information and legal service, publication of social curriculum or academic journals, and latest knowledge communication distribution. The most apparent difference between the incubators and the regional associations is that the incubators are located near universities or R&D departments and are oriented to science techniques and science module, but on the other way, the regional associations were more focus on how to manage business and improve the common benefit among members.

Take Life Science Technology Region Aachen as an example, it is an association with 150 life science technology companies in this region. Because that the city of Aachen will help new companies to set up and make connection with other existing members in the near region and neighboring universities, Technology Region Aachen then transform into a non-profit organization with well region network. Moreover, the Aachen Life Science Journal published by this organization offers the latest information of science technologies; therefore, the member firms can catch what happening of this association, recent development in business, and newly research achievements.

In order to ease commuting problem among research centers, Aachen authority had planed to connect the research centers and the industrial clusters in a one day distance. So that smaller service boundary of R&D center can decrease the travel cost between other R&D departments and help deliver documents and commodities more efficiently. Life Science Technology Region Aachen also points out that the density of research center, university, and institutes near this region are the highest site in Europe. So the environment with rich research resources is the niche of Life Science Technology Region Aachen.

(3) Research center (in science parks)

There are many research centers in German, and each center needs to be familiar with local or state biotechnological issues depending on its background conditions. The main factor to identify if a research center belongs to regional association or research center in science parks is the source of finance. Research center in science parks, such as Julich and GABI (die Genomanalyse im biologischen System Pflanze),

are described as follows, are taken as two examples to interpret their roles in the individual chain.

Julich is a form of network which hosts project management institutes and performs about 1,400 projects every year. There are four types of projects in the Julich: basic innovation, application research, structural and horizontal measures, and public provision. Basic innovation is related with bioinformatics and tissue engineering is one of research applications. There are special funds with structural and horizontal measures in Julich for specific projects, for example, BioFuture fund is for future evaluation and fund for BioChance is for young researchers (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Types of Projects in Julich

Furthermore, to transform the innovation idea into an emerging company, Julich

plans a process with five stages of biotechnological fostering commercialization (Figure 5). The first stage is to establish research institutes. Next is to get license or apply for patent. The third stage is to prepare commercialization and assist the co-ordination offices of Bioregions. The last stage is to help to set up emerging companies. These four stages are the prime processes for commercialization in this network.

Finally, to strengthen integration and competitiveness through commercialization chain, the Julich performs BioProfile at the fifth stage. Besides, the Julich also points out certain advanced activities, says, world population, aging, obesity (hunger), nutrition, energy resources, and climate change, which are expected to adopt biotechnological techniques.

Basic innovations

Research for applications Public provision

Structural and horizontal measures

1.Tissue Engineering 2.Industrial Biotechnology 3.BioEnergy

1.Biological safety 2.Animal protection 3.Ethical discourse

Genome Research (Plants, Animals, Microbes) Platform technologies 1.Proteomics 2.Bioinformatics 3.Nanobiotech 4.Systems biology 5 Neurosciences

1.BioRegio, 2.BioProfile, 3.BioChance 4.BioChance Plus 5.BioFuture 6.ExistGoBio 7.Networks for Agricultural Research

Figure 5 Biotechnological Fostering Commercialization in Julich

GABI is a research center in the science park includes 500 researchers, and the goal of GABT is to transform basic sciences to applied sciences. GABI separates researches during 2007 to 2010 into five segments: GABI start, GABI basis, GABI Brücken, GABI product, and resource center. GABI start is for projects of young researches and GABI basis is for projects of basic researches. GABI Brücken is the connection between basic science and applied science and performs pre-produce quantity tests. GABI product is the product produced through commercialization process. To reflect the role requirement for the Research Center to help transfer technology and make application for technology, GABI also sets an institute called PIA (Patent and Innovation Agent) in order to manage and protect its achievements and patents in R&D.

(4) Government regulation

European Union (EU) focuses on three goals, food and nutrition, developed farms, and customers safeguard, of agriculture biotechnological development in the future. And the programs established by EU include national benefit, international benefit and international cooperation. Take German regulations as example example, government emphasizes on safety and safeguard in the biotechnological industry, e.g. control the pollution level of developed farms, but does not interfere in R&D center business. Therefore, the public sector points out the project goals, and R&D centers provide their research solutions and then achieve the goals.

5. Biotechnological development Performance There are two important efforts of biotechnological development performance:

one is to commercialize new biotechnological techniques, another is to take out patents or establish a new company. The former is to transfer single technique into products and sale out in the market. The later is to protect the R&D results and apply the result to other technique development in the future. Besides, the benefits of taking

Research Institutes

Basic Research

Applied Research

Licensing Patent Preparation

of commer- cialisation

Companies

Entrepreneurship Establishment in the market

Bioregions

Assisting the Co-ordination offices

SME Patent activity

support SME through BioChance and BioChance Plus

Strengthening of specific thematic BioProfile

Filling the pipeline by

BioFuture

From innovation to a new company ExistGoBio

out patents and establishing new companies are that the patent which is the important R&D result can help and contribute to future related researches and that if the new companies earn profits, the incubator that assist company operations can also share the benefit.

6. Promotion Biotechnological Development Goals of platform in website is to provide present R&D efforts of biotechnological

technique development, raise funds for R&D program and distribute related news, those include up-dated economic trend, current biotechnological development policy, and educational and extension information. Take a platform, BioCom, which is specialized in biotechnological science information as an example, it is a stock company but to build a comprehensive, entire biotechnological science database which includes information of biotechnological companies, R&D program on process, introduction of R&D institute, patents, and related regulations, etc. The BioCom website is a very popular in biotechnological world with over 1.5 million hits since its operation and is the second place at the Google.de search results under “Biotechnologie” term. Besides, BioCom promotes some industry developing programs successfully, such as the greenovation Biotech GmbH and KMS. Their websites are shown in the Figures 6-8.

Figure 6 Biocom webpage

Figure 7 greenovation webpage

Figure 8 greenovation webpage

Furthermore, some other ways to publish management science periodicals or books, spread the latest management science knowledge, hold workshops, and advocate some slogans, which are operated by BioSmile, Bioclub, Bioriver, and BioGermany from Life Science Council, are also effective approaches to promote biotechnological development.

7. Financing Resource There are two financing resources of biotechnological development: one is private

financing from commercial or investment banking system and another is public financing from government support or public funds. If R&D organizations, say incubator, technical authorization center, regional association, and national science development center, need capital for specific technique researches, the organizations will propose new technique programs to private financing or public financing institutes to ensure the capital sources. Besides, to contain the capital independence and media neutrality in the process of technical promotion, it is common for government to assist in establishing biotechnological platform in website.

V. BIOTECH DEVELOPMENT SYSTEM IN GERMANY The Garman biotechnological science development system is shown in Figure 9.

This system consists with four parts: organization of biotechnological science development system, biotechnological science development achievement, financing resources, and biotechnological science promotion activities. In the organization of biotechnological science development system, Dr. Wilhelm Barthlottu considered that it was necessary to establish the incubator in each university and connect with academic institutes and business closely in order to fit with the industry situation, which is to support biotechnological courses (development strategy) in the university and biotechnological department in the graduated school. Because Garman government does not interfere in the operation of R&D center, the R&D centers are decentralization in Garman. And to avoid the investment duplication and the waste of resources, biotechnological organizations should develop in the form of clustering and aggregate with adjacent R&D centers.

Figure 9 Garman Biotechnological Science Development System

Moreover, because Garman government only focuses on the policy of developed products safety and has put strict regulations on land field experiment, there are only few test lands for the private company to use in Germany. In contrast, because that Taiwan government will succeed in gene manipulation first and then transfer the techniques for farmers, the farmers need not to search for the test land.

VI CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION In Taiwan, the government plays a leading role in agricultural biotechnological

industry. From 1982, the government has actively set agricultural biotechnological policies to action and supported the agricultural biotechnological industry with the purpose of developing nation’s economy. Moreover, the government also sets up agricultural biotechnological related acts in order to coordinate the opinion of

Innovation Idea

Private Financing

Public Financing

Finance

Incubator in

University

Regional Associations

Implementation

Research Centers at Science Parks

Government Regulations

Website Platform owned

by Company

Patent and Innovation

New Products and/or Services

Outcomes

departments and define the department responsibility. Nowadays there are several agricultural biotechnological science-based industrial parks bringing clustering effects for research and development centers in Taiwan. Besides, firms are also successful in cooperating with incubators of universities.

In the era of the knowledge-based economy, biotechnology is a very critical technique in agricultural development. With the experiences from Germany, the system and strategies of agricultural biotechnological science development should be overviewed and evaluated thoughtfully to connect with the agriculture development and bio-business transition in Taiwan. Suggestions from this study about Taiwan agricultural biotechnological development from German accomplishment are as follows.

1. Patent: agricultural biotechnology is considered as a quasi public good in Taiwan, government should actively boost the concepts of patents, technical authorization after evaluating the arrangement of patent world roadmap.

2. Coordination: since agricultural biotechnological techniques can integrate with different fields to the upstream and downstream industries government should consider establishing good infrastructure system to provide the necessary assistance during the industry development.

3. Industry development: some website platforms of agricultural biotechnological techniques should be established to meet the needs from information exchange, market concerns, and extension and administrative purpose. It could spread new agricultural biotechnological information and run technique matching activities through the network platform. Moreover, it also could exchange knowledge with other countries in order to develop new agricultural biotechnological techniques or products and to speed up the commercialization.

4. Clustering: several bio science parks had planed and constructed around Taiwan, further integrate actions should be taken to keep building up agricultural biotechnological clusters and set those clusters as our own niches in global market.

5. Classification: the classification system should be considered in diversification in agricultural biotechnological firms. With the definition of basic technique, innovation technique, applied technique, bridge of basic technique and applied technique, and BioChance, the providers of all, such as capital, know-how, market and service, can help to drive Taiwan agricultural biotechnological industry to a more active and competitive stage in the global market.

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