The scholarship provided by Shire will allow top-performing students to undertake a master’s in biopharmaceutical engineering.
Biotech giant Shire has announced that it will support a scholarship programme for students undertaking the master’s in biopharmaceutical engineering at University College Dublin (UCD).
The scholarship, which will run from 2018 to 2020, will be awarded to the top-performing students from each year. Shire will also fund a prize for the best bioprocessing engineering design project submitted by a team of students.
Shire is a global biopharmaceutical company that serves patients living with rare diseases. It opened an Irish headquarters in Dublin in early 2017. It is preparing to fully open its new state-of-the-art biologics manufacturing facility at a 120-acre site in Dunboyne, Co Meath.
On hand to celebrate the news was Susan Hynes, site lead at Shire Dunboyne. She said that the pharma company was “delighted” to be able to “support the drive to expand skills and talent”.
She added: “This is essential in order to meet the demand for high-calibre graduates in Ireland’s growing biopharma sector. This university programme is a great way of doing this.”
The biopharma engineering programme provides intensive training in the requisite skills for a professional engineer or scientist in the biopharma sector. It addresses the scientific and engineering challenges involved in the design, operation and management of biopharma production facilities. This programme is closely linked with the National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT).
Shire has noted that these skills are vital for it as it begins to open the new manufacturing site. The facility will adopt single-use technology in the manufacturing process and will be highly automated. This facility will also serve as the European quality control hub for Shire’s biologics portfolio.
The company plans to employ 400 people at the site. Recruitment is already underway across multiple functional areas, including (but not limited to) manufacturing, quality assurance, quality control, engineering, finance and automation.
Want to work at Shire? Check out the Shire careers page for current vacancies.
