The Gauteng Department of Agriculture, and Rural Development (GDARD) honoured achievers in the biotechnology sector through the gauteng Biotech Fundi Awards. The aim of the awards is to honour, support, promote and develop those who make a significant impact in the Biotechnology sector in Gauteng. The Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) and The Innovation Hub (TIH) have partnered to host these exciting and inspiring awards. Gauteng is an innovative scientific hub with a world-class research, development facilities and academic institutions that are all geared towards a thriving Biotechnology sector. In addition, the awards honoured the best performers among the 450 students who are on the Biotechnology bursary program of the department.
MEC for Economic Development, Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development in Gauteng, Lebogang Maile gave the keynote address during the evening. According to the MEC, the Biotech Fundi Awards are an important part of the Gauteng Biotech Strategy which aims to develop and promote Gauteng as a dynamic, vibrant, biotech region through strategic interventions from government in partnership with the private sector, academic and research institutions as well as other stakeholders. “Modernisation and re-industrialisation requires us to become an innovative, industrious, R & D driven society and people,” he said.
Maile said through these Awards and other initiatives that form part of the Gauteng Biotech Strategy, his department aims to achieve a lot of objectives that make Gauteng a better place. “We want to encourage and stimulate innovation in the field, utilise our world-class academic and research institutions in the province to make Gauteng a world-leading scientific and research hub, promote and advance commercialisation of biotechnology, expand research and development within Gauteng, increase capacity and resources for biotechnology, increase public awareness of biotechnology and motivate more of our people to consider building businesses and careers within the field,” he explained.
Gauteng Province shares a dream of creating a pool of world class biotechnologists in this country, with Gauteng, being the economic hub of the country and the continent, being right at the forefront of that drive. “We want Gauteng to take the lead in research and development in this field, we want to use biotechnology to promote entrepreneurship and globally competitive businesses, we want to create products and services that will not just address social needs but will contribute towards economic growth, poverty reduction, improved standards of living for our people, reducing inequality and transforming society,” said Maile.
GDARD looks forward to seeing great entrepreneurs emerging out of initiatives of this calibre and believes that township entrepreneurs and SMMEs can significantly benefit as the department partners with and helps them to actively participate and produce goods and services within the mainstream economy in a manner that will change the structural imbalances of our economy, that have kept so many of our people on the periphery.
In closing, Maile congratulated all the nominees and the participants in this Awards ceremony. “You are the people that are contributing in a meaningful and significant manner to our objective of building a society where all our people can live meaningful, significant lives as active, productive economic participants who can compete globally, through your ideas, your innovations, your dynamism,” he concluded.
The categories for the awards were, Bio-Entrepreneur Award, Best Researcher Award, Capacity Builder Award, Lifetime Contribution Award, Best Postgraduate, Young Researcher Award; and, Bio-Communicator.