We call on Congress and the Administration to implement the recommendations of the National Security Commission on Emerging Biotechnology’s (NSCEB) final report, “Charting the Future of Biotechnology” released April 2025. The report emphasizes the importance of biotechnology for humanity’s future, as well as the need for the United States to take a strategic and rapid approach if the nation wants to maintain leadership and capture the economic potential of this critical and growing industry.

The Illinois Fermentation and Agriculture Biomanufacturing (iFAB) Tech Hub is a consortium of academic, government, and industry organizations focused on the development of U.S. biotechnology, creating new market demand for U.S. farmers by converting agricultural feedstocks into domestically manufactured products. Individual consortium members have spent decades developing research, scaling technology from the lab to production line, and producing biomanufactured goods at a global scale. This ecosystem is now working to integrate public and private assets to significantly increase the rate and scale at which bio-based products are brought to market.

Significant advances in biomanufacturing readiness have been made over the past decade in university, national lab, and private pilot plants. Organizations such as the Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts Process Development Unit (ABPDU) and Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) are well-equipped to conquer the achievable challenges outlined in the recent NSCEB report through leadership of their respective ecosystems in California (ABPDU) and as lead of the iFAB Tech Hub (IBRL). These hubs of knowledge house critical infrastructure, resources and equipment, and serve as training centers for both current and new industry workforce critical to U.S. global competitiveness with China.

While substantial progress has been made, alliances and coalitions—such as the American Alliance for Biomanufacturing—continue to identify bottlenecks facing the biomanufacturing industry. There is no group more prepared to address these hurdles than organizations and ecosystems that have been actively working to solve the problem. By focusing investment on existing efforts, speed to market is improved, thus increasing the U.S.’s competitive global advantage.

It is imperative that we capitalize on existing activity at locations like ABPDU and IBRL to fully activate productive and efficient hubs where products can scale through pilot and demonstration to full commercialization. While additional domestic capacity is required, it is critical to first fully develop existing assets and relationships into pipelines where every needed resource for product commercialization exists. Investing in new facilities or hubs without strong existing ecosystems or inertia will only further delay our national competitiveness in biomanufacturing of critical products. With this focus in mind, we strongly support the implementation of the below NSCEB recommendations.

Recommendation 2.3A – Authorize and fund the Department of Energy and Department of Commerce to develop a network of manufacturing facilities across the country for precommercial bioindustrial product scale-up at a minimum of $800 million.
- Focus funding on existing facilities and regions with well-established networks and collaborations to benefit from quicker implementation and ensure these regions have the full resources required to advance technologies through commercial manufacturing. Facilities such as the Department of Commerce (DOC) funded iFAB (130+ industry pilot projects at IBRL) and Department of Energy (DOE) funded ABPDU (90+ industry collaborators with 72 U.S. collaborations) have helped the budding U.S. bioeconomy through the “valley of death” by derisking scale-up and generating prototypes and products for many U.S. companies. Funding for such facilities is imperative to not only maintain state-of-the-art facilities and workforce development activities, but also to design and develop novel technologies tailored to fostering domestic biomanufacturing. For example, the high quality scale-up data generated at these facilities can be available to U.S. software companies to develop the models necessary to predict scalability on U.S. feedstocks.

Recommendation 3.2A – Congress should direct the Department of Defense (DOD) to work with private companies to build commercial facilities across the country to biomanufacture products that are critical for Department of Defense needs.
- Working directly with private companies to de-risk large CAPEX projects will both expedite manufacturing of bio-based products and ensure increased domestic production. These facilities may target DOD products, but will carry heavily into the private market. Both ABPDU and iFAB can work together with the DOD commercial facilities to ensure that a steady stream of technologies are available for domestic manufacturing of essential products. Such a strategic collaboration (DOE -> DOC -> DOD and industry) will become especially relevant for supply chain resilience during critical times, such as a war or a pandemic.
Recommendation 5.2A – Congress should maximize the impact of biomanufacturing workforce training program.
- Setting standards for skills and accreditation of programs that train workers for the biotechnology industry will train more employees expeditiously. A wide range of skillsets and educational backgrounds are required for a successful industry including, but not limited to, scientists, operators, tradespeople, and engineers. These standards should be determined by working with organizations and ecosystems that are training these individuals. iFAB’s workforce development partners include the University of Illinois, Parkland College, Richland Community College, labor organizations, the Illinois AgriFood Alliance, Champaign County Regional Planning Commission, and the Workforce Investment Solutions. Organizations like these train individuals at every stage of their career development. By working with an established Hub like iFAB, the educational and workforce development practices can be transferred quickly to other institutions and the curriculums can be scaled for the nation.