On 4 October 2017, the opening ceremony of 2017 Human Resource Development Program in Biotechnology was held at BIOTEC, Thailand Science Park. This year eleven recipients from Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Philippines and Vietnam were welcomed by Dr. Theerayut Toojinda, Director of Plant Biotechnology Research Unit. Each researcher, furthermore, introduced his/her research, workplace and home country to the audience.
Following the ceremony, the HRD fellows were given a tour to some of BIOTEC’s research facilities such as Thailand Bioresource Research Center (TBRC), Food and Feed Innovation Center and Integrative Biorefinery Laboratory, all conveniently located at Innovation Cluster 2 (INC 2) at Thailand Science Park.
The Program, itself, places importance on improving research skill; it is designed to be an on-the-job and research-based training in BIOTEC’s laboratories under the guidance of BIOTEC researchers. The training program has two tracks: fundamental and advanced tracks. During a period of three months, five recipients in fundamental course will be trained in basic techniques in different research areas such as taxonomy, plant biotechnology, protein-ligand engineering and molecular biology while the other six recipients will stay over a period of six months to learn advanced techniques.
In addition to lab training, participants will have an opportunity to visit factories or other research institutes to gain experience in biotechnology and bioindustry development in Thailand. At the end of the training, all trainees will give seminars of their research work to their peers and BIOTEC researchers. For more information about BIOTEC HRD program, please visit http://www.biotec.or.th/en/index.php/global-networks/hrd-program-for-neighboring-countries.