Welcome to the BioUpdate Foundation

The BioUpdate Foundation was established in the Netherlands in 1992 for the promotion of post-experience education and training in aspects of biotechnology. Since then, the Foundation has achieved a reputation throughout Europe for consistently high standards, mainly by engaging only tutors with extensive experience.

Most events are short-term and always take the form of residential courses, limited to 25 participants, in order to encourage maximum interaction among participants and with tutors. Our well-established format combines state-of-the-art lectures with informal discussions, and where appropriate, with hands-on practical exercises. Comprehensive, up-to-date course manuals are provided.

The Foundation also promotes short seminars and conferences on biotechnological topics of particular current interest. Events are held in a variety of European locations, and these are continuing to attract increasing numbers of participants from industry in several European countries and further afield, as do in-house courses for individual companies on specific topics. This diversification has also taken the Foundation's activities beyond the confines of bioindustry. Thus, several courses on molecular biology and protein biotechnology have been held within large law firms, members of which are active in Intellectual Property litigation, as applied to cutting edge biomedical and life science patents.

The Foundation offers a range of courses that provide a comprehensive treatment of a particular aspect of biotechnology, such as the popular courses on Protein Biotechnology. Courses of this type appeal to a wide cross-section of participants who are usually employed within the bioindustries, but who are not necessarily specialists in the field. Those attending the courses are frequently seeking information to enable them to develop new ranges of products, or they have particular problems in product and process development and production that they wish to solve. These courses are also of interest to academics engaged in industrial collaborations.

In addition, bursaries have in the past been offered by industry, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Foundation itself to bona fide graduate students wishing to attend appropriate courses and it is hoped to continue this practice.