While the emergence of the private sector in higher education has led to an increased availability of a large talent pool amongst the student population, the issues about specialized skills and bench expertise continue to be matters of serious concern. Closer linkages between the job-seekers and job-providers become essential, in order to bridge the gap that exists between industry and academia.

Conducting more hands-on sessions, offering student internships and joint research or training ventures with academicians are some of the methods by which these objectives may sought to be achieved. Moreover, educators and academicians shall also be made accountable for the value addition they could provide to the emerging graduates. Industries and companies seeking to tap manpower resources, could likewise indicate their specific requirements which could become a guide for the graduating candidates to appreciate the diversity of the job profiles, and expertise sought. Thus, the need of the hour is to build a good academia-industry network which would serve the twin objectives of imparting state-of-the art knowledge of biotechnology as well as creating the talent pool required for industry. A synergistic effort in this direction would provide directions to not only the talent pool of graduates, but also the industry consortia.

In this direction, journals such as BioSpectrum also have a major role to play by initiating this joint process between industry and academic fraternity, through the creation of awareness among the concerned players. Besides, BioSpectrum could also facilitate the involvement of institutions such as ABLE, which represent academia-industry interface, to augment training activities and supplement the talent creation through specific partnerships.

The yeomen service rendered by BioSpectrum towards highlighting the perceptions of different segments of the biotech sector such as students, academicians, research scholars and entrepreneurs, is truly worthy of immense praise and plaudits. Upon the successful completion of ten years since its inception, this popular periodical representing the BT sector continues to serve as a valuable reservoir of information by projecting the growth and achievements of diverse areas within the sphere of biotechnology. Information on comparative developments in various domains of the sector has served as a guide to students, researchers and job-seekers alike. However, BioSpectrum should now extend the scope of its activities further by providing the much needed impetus and review of biotechnology education in our country, while attempting to redress the multitude of concerns associated.

Let the industry-academia interface grow and develop with the help of eminent media partners such as BioSpectrum!