Northern Territory Department of Business and Employment Industry Growth:Bioprospecting
Overview
The Northern Territory Department of Business and Employment (DBE) is one of the key Government agencies strengthening economic development throughout the Northern Territory.
DBE is staffed by teams of skilled professionals and specialists with a wealth of knowledge and experience in doing business.
The Investment Services Division within DBE provides strategic development and assistance services to businesses and industry sectors throughout the Territory to enhance their capacity, performance and sustainability. A key strategy is to target industry sectors where unique opportunities exist to build the capability and capacity in the Territory. One of Industry Growth’s current targeted sectors is bioprospecting.
Bioprospecting in the Northern Territory
The Northern Territory recognises its extraordinary biodiversity – unique species of land and aquatic bio-assets - as a competitive advantage. As such, the Industry Growth Division have developed a comprehensive policy, legislative and procedural framework to appropriately regulate access to and use of biological resources for research into a commercial or industrial application.
Our Partners
Charles Darwin University (formerly Northern Territory University), the Australian Institute for Marine Sciences, and BioScience North Australia – a newly established facility to progress molecular biology studies in the Northern Territory.
The Northern Territory also hosts the CRC for Tropical Savannas Management, Desert Knowledge CRC, Key Centre for Tropical Wildlife Management, and the Tropical Ecosystems Research Centre (CSIRO).
Main business focus/
Listing by sector:
- Biodiscovery
- Government
Competitive Advantages
Australia is a megadiverse country, one of the original 12 first identified. It has 10% of the world’s species with 80% of that biodiversity endemic to Australia, and often ancient unique or rare. As much as half of Australia’s species have yet to be identified. The Northern Territory with its rich biodiversity across freshwater, marine, tropical wetland and desert habits can lay claim to perhaps 30 to 40% of the nation’s species. Estimates are difficult given the amount of unexplored biodiversity in the Territory. The range of Biological Resources found here are not the Northern Territorys only competitive advantage. The Northern Territory Biological Resource Act 2006 and its governance framework for the access to and the use of biological resources for the purpose of bioprospeccting have become a reference point for both national and international jurisdictions with the Department recently providing information on the Act to several national and international Governments
Corporate Alliances/Partnerships
The Northern Territory seeks to identify, and establish alliances with, commercial partners able to benefit from access to and use of our biological resources. The existence of a CDB compliant enabling and transparent governance framework to facilitate access and benefit sharing is a significant benefit of partnering with the Northern Territory.
Contact Details
| Contact person | Murray Hird |
|---|---|
| Job Title | Director, Investment Services |
| Address | Ground Floor, Development House, 76 The Esplanade |
| City/Suburb | Darwin |
| State | Northern Territory |
| Operating State | Select an Operating State/Territory... |
| murray.hird@nt.gov.au | |
| Phone | +61 8 8999 7162 |
| Fax | +61 8 8999 5533 |
| Website | http://www.dberd.nt.gov.au |
