McMaster officials were back at City Hall yesterday presenting a plan that will help Hamilton build its biotechnology base.

McMaster has been working with the City of Hamilton's economic development staff over the last several months to develop a partnership that ultimately will result in the creation of the Hamilton-McMaster Biomedical Incubator.

The proposed incubator will assist new companies with the commercialization of biomedical research while capitalizing on McMaster's research and research capacity. The city has identified biotechnology as one of six economic development clusters.

It was decided at the meeting that the University and the city will collaborate in the development of a business plan for this project. Mamdouh Shoukri, vice-president, research & international affairs, sees this as an important first step. He believes this partnership is a tremendous opportunity for McMaster to support the city's economic development and job creation goals and to diversify its industrial base.

“The timing is right for this,” Shoukri told a number of city councillors who participated in the hearings sub-committee meeting. “There is a convergence of priorities  the University and its affiliated hospitals, the city and the province all have identified biotechnology as an area of strategic importance, while the federal government's innovation agenda clearly outlines commercialization of university research as a priority.”

Mayor Bob Wade attended the meeting and told his colleagues that the biotechnology window of opportunity “may pass Hamilton by.” He went on to say, “if we are intent do to something for the city's economy, then we must find a way to endorse this project.”

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