Australia’s Synthetic Biology Roadmap – National Progress Report Release

In 2021, CSIRO released A National Synthetic Biology Roadmap raising awareness of existing national capabilities, outlining strategic growth opportunities, and 10 recommendations for pursuing them.

In February 2024, CSIRO, in partnership with Main Sequence Ventures, released a National Progress Report, which highlights major investments and developments in Australia’s synthetic biology capability in the three years since the release of the Roadmap and updates the Roadmap’s 2040 market sizing analysis.

Host and facilitator:

Greg Williams, CSIRO Futures

Speakers:

Laura Thomas, CSIRO Futures, will present the results of the progress report, demonstrating that a prominent domestic opportunity to develop a national synthetic biology capability exists. With appropriate support and investment, this capability could underpin up to $30b in annual revenue across impacted sectors and create over 50,000 new jobs by 2040.

Robert Speight, Advanced Engineering Biology (AEB) Future Science Platform (FSP) at CSIRO, will discuss the evolution and status of the synthetic biology ecosystem in Australia, highlighting some of the major initiatives and recent achievements. He will also reflect on what some of the new technologies and innovations could be that will contribute to the anticipated growth of synthetic biology in Australia and around the world.

Gabrielle Munzer, Main Sequence Ventures, will present the journey from lab-bench to scaling synthetic biology businesses in Australia, discussing how Australia’s synthetic biology is a magnet for world class talent, and how scale up infrastructure is attracting companies from all over the world to Australia.

The presentations will be followed by a Q&A session with the speakers.