Merck and NJII Receive NIIMBL Award

On Apr 9, 2019

NJIT’s New Jersey Innovation Institute (NJII) and Merck are awarded a Biopharmaceutical Workforce Training Acceleration Project by the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals (NIIMBL), a Manufacturing USA institute designed to advance biopharmaceutical manufacturing in the U.S.

The purpose of the Biopharmaceutical Training Acceleration Proposal is to provide funding for the development of a training program to enable incumbent employees in the biopharmaceutical industry to acquire competencies in the bioprocess development and manufacturing operations related to the biologics field. The project is led by NJII Senior Executive Director of Biotechnology & Pharmaceutical Innovation, Haro Hartounian, Ph.D. who will serve as both the principal investigator and project manager. Steve Dziennik, Ph.D., of Merck and Lorrie Howell will serve as co-principal investigators.

Hartounian stated, “Providing a training plan and curriculum for biopharmaceuticals will create a mechanism for large-scale adoption. Rather than each company needing to struggle with its own workforce training design, they will be able to plug into a training plan and curriculum that has already

been thought through and vetted by industry. Importantly, the creation of role descriptions and proficiency levels can set the stage for the development of training standards in biopharmaceutical manufacturing and processing that do not now exist. Such standards will strengthen the industry overall and lead to a stronger global workforce.”

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