The National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (NIBRT) opened its doors in Dublin on February 21 to provide research, training and education for all aspects of bioprocessing. According to its new director, Professor Ian Marison, the 6,500 m2, purpose-built building will provide infrastructure ranging from small-scale pilot suites to a factory-scale production environment, and will focus on biologics and small molecules. The government-funded NIBRT will be run as a collaborative effort by four Irish universities. The aim is to support local companies and to attract new industrial partners both at home and abroad. Marison says that what makes NIBRT special is that its activities will be solely driven by industry need. Once a biomanufacturing need is identified, the NIBRT will put together diverse expertise to solve it in collaboration with industry. If a problem is deemed especially important, the NIBRT may recruit a basic research laboratory to work on it long term. The ethos is flexibility. The institute might engage in contract research for companies or can collaborate as equal partners. The NIBRT can also host visiting industrial scientists, and vice versa. This flexibility will also be reflected in new intellectual property, which can be generated and owned by the universities, by the industrial stakeholders or as a partnership.