ISAAA Transitions into the BioTrust Consortium

As 2022 opens, ISAAA faces the new year in a stronger and better position as part of the BioTrust Consortium. The organization places itself at the center of operations along with  other consortium members to tackle current global challenges while maintaining the foundation it was built on, which is to create and expand a network for knowledge sharing about biotechnology.

BioTrust’s Founding Members

ISAAA made the announcement at the end of 2021, when it released the news about the creation of the BioTrust Consortium. The consortium is initially composed of three members: ISAAA AfriCenter, ISAAA SEAsiaCenter, and the Malaysian Biotechnology Information Center (MABIC), and all stemmed from ISAAA’s 29 years of experience and service. Each member functions independently with their respective Boards of Directors and organizational Directors with the aim of working towards helping achieve the global Sustainable Development Goals while at the same time inviting more like-minded organizations as partner-members. ISAAA’s Global Knowledge Center on Crop Biotechnology now also operates as the ISAAA/BioTrust Global Knowledge Center on Biotechnology and is still hosted by the ISAAA SEAsiaCenter.

The two existing ISAAA Centers, namely the ISAAA AfriCenter based in Kenya and the ISAAA SEAsiaCenter based in the Philippines, will remain as ISAAA Centers but will now operate as separate independent organizations. The new ISAAA AfriCenter has its own government Board headed by Dr. Robert Karanja and is represented by its Director, Dr. Margaret Karembu. Likewise, ISAAA SEAsiaCenter is governed by the non-profit organization ISAAA Inc. with Dr. Paul S. Teng as Chair and Dr. Rhodora Romero-Aldemita as Executive Director. BioTrust Global Coordinator Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan’s very own MABIC is also among the founding members of BioTrust. MABIC is based in Malaysia through a collaboration with Monash University Malaysia.

The Birth of BioTrust

The formation of BioTrust originated from the urgent need for ISAAA to reposition itself to address the fast-paced changes that are constant in the biotechnology landscape. “ISAAA has gone through a period of self-reflection,” according to ISAAA Chair Dr. Paul S. Teng. “The new form of ISAAA, the BioTrust Consortium, will help us be even more effective to serve our clients and partners,” he said. Through BioTrust, ISAAA comes to the stage that requires it to revamp its scope and strategies to adapt to changes pressed on by the world’s current situation to meet the demands of adopting new technologies, forming new regulations, and meeting new consumer expectations. The Consortium draws its strength from ISAAA’s decades-long accomplishments on crop biotechnology; but BioTrust will take these further towards other biotechnology fields to include new breeding technologies, precision fermentation, and novel future foods, as well as livestock, poultry, aquaculture and microbes.

Facing the Future 

In the 1990’s, the leadership of ISAAA’s Founding Chair Dr. Clive James, now Chair Emeritus, paved the way for the organization to become an active trend-setter in the global agribiotechnology scene. ISAAA is known to be a key player in helping stakeholders obtain free access to agribiotechnology through knowledge sharing and capacity building, especially for developing countries. This credible, untarnished reputation of ISAAA was well-kept for almost three decades. Now, BioTrust takes this reputation into the 2020s to add a new image to it. BioTrust works on the founding mission and vision of ISAAA and adds the promotion for science-based information to be used in influencing policy actions, governance decisions and public behavior to achieve sustainable goals not just for agriculture but in other biotechnology fields as well. The BioTrust Consortium draws from past and present knowledge, technologies and experiences to influence a future in which all intended stakeholders will benefit from biotechnology.

To learn more about the Consortium, send a message to Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan, ISAAA/BioTrust Global Coordinator at maha@bic.org.my or +60-3-55146174.

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