Emerson headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri (USA), is providing automation software and systems valued at USD 1 million (approximately €820,000) to Ireland’s National Institute of Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) to help train next-generation workers on the latest technologies designed to optimise pharmaceutical production.
The collaboration will bring one of the most extensively used automation platforms in the biopharmaceutical industry, Emerson’s DeltaV™ distributed control system, to NIBRT’s Dublin facility to prepare students for automation technologies at the forefront of manufacturing digitisation.
Emerson’s collaboration with NIBRT follows a 2016 NIBRT study of the biopharma manufacturing industry that found more than half of respondents have a high degree of difficulty recruiting and developing bioprocess engineers.
“NIBRT is leading the way in helping Ireland, its universities, and Europe meet the demand for the skilled biopharmaceutical manufacturing workforce the industry needs,“ said Mike Train, executive president of Emerson Automation Solutions. “This collaboration reinforces Emerson’s commitment to support global workforce education, as well as the bioprocessing industry where our automation systems have become the industry standard.”
The planned Emerson Room at the NIBRT facility will simulate an innovative bioprocessing environment and feature a fully operational DeltaV system to provide real-life training in a safe environment.
“We are delighted to collaborate with Emerson, which is proving its best-in-class control and automation solutions for the NIBRT pilot plant. We look forward to delivering innovative training and education to our clients using the Emerson platform to help the biopharma industry gain the many advantages from increased digitization and automation of core manufacturing processes,” said Dominic Carolan, CEO of NIBRT.
Commenting on the announcement, Martin Shanahan, CEO of the IDA Ireland said, “The biopharmaceutical industry is extremely important to Ireland, worth over €40 billion in annual exports, it is essential that we continue to provide the appropriately skilled workforce capable of operating these state-of-the-art processing plants for many years to come. Emerson’s significant investment will help us support this continuously evolving industry.”
