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catalyzed by the Department of Defense in October 2020 and fully launched in April 2021. As a membership organization, we have over 325 members from across the US, including large leading companies, such as Cargill, Lockheed Martin, and Black & Veatch, as well as start-ups, small businesses, nonprofits, and a variety of universities and community colleges. We were established to address national security concerns related to biomanufacturing and to accelerate its development within the US market. While we are particularly focused on the domestic market, we also engage with global companies,” she begins.
Supporting technological innovation is at the heart of BioMADE’ s operations, though the company specializes in a specific level of innovation. The Technology Readiness Levels( TRLs) are tools used for evaluating technology, ranging from one to nine, with lower numbers indicating discovery and initial proof of concept, and a score of nine representing full commercialization.“ The area of innovation we focus on lies within the TRL range of four-to-seven. As an Institute, we were created to assist companies in transitioning from proof of concept to piloting and demonstration, thus enabling them to make commercial investments and be successful. We cover the space in between early stage and commercialization, which is sometimes called the Innovation Valley of Death. Usually, companies have enough resources to prove their ideas, but the difficulty lies in taking this promising concept from the laboratory to commercialization, a process that requires extensive piloting and tools,” Jill enlightens.
To facilitate this transition, BioMADE is building a national network of pilotand demonstration-scale bioindustrial manufacturing facilities across the US. Jill explains how these facilities will benefit the organization and its clients.“ So far, we have announced three facilities: our flagship in Minnesota, another in California, and the latest in the state of Iowa. The reason behind the
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