BioCen, center for research and teacher training

The National Center for Biopreparations (BioCen) is one of the Cuban institutions accredited within the Science, Technology and Innovation entities, a result that was achieved thanks to the potential of its professionals and its mission to develop innovative projects.

Lines of products and services that include nanotechnology, second-generation vaccines for allergies, nutraceuticals for Alzheimer’s disease and traditional medicines with new formulations and indications, today have significant advances thanks to the preparation of personnel for research and development of high-tech drugs in demand in the country.

BioCen holds the status of Teaching Training Company, is authorized for type B training by the Ministry of Education – which allows it to organize pre-graduate courses and activities aimed at technicians, workers, cadres and middle management – and has the category of Type A Postgraduate Center granted by the Ministry of Higher Education to develop training courses.

Juan Carlos Vega Valdes, M.D., head of the Knowledge Management area, said that they are the only institution in the biopharmaceutical industry to have both categories, which is a boost and a commitment. “There is a lot of talk about innovation in industrial processes, in research, but innovation in knowledge must also be perfected and its management improved, and that is what we are committed to,”.

In an interview with the Cuban News Agency, the professor talked about the incorporation of students from different specialties at university and technical levels into the entity, and how they have contributed to the practical development of different disciplines over the years.

Regarding university students, he commented that students from several faculties of the Jose Antonio Echeverria Technological University, the University of Havana, the Fructuoso Rodriguez Perez Agrarian University of Havana and six polytechnic institutes in the province of Mayabeque are linked to his work and many of them become part of this group.

“Based on the need to guarantee stability in the specialized force, we evaluated the institutions that could contribute to that purpose and we began to collaborate with them. Today, together with the Polytechnic Institute Protesta de Baragua, in Bejucal(western Cuba), we have three annexed classrooms, certified by the Provincial Directorate of Education, for the attention of middle-level technicians in Accounting, Human Capital and Industrial Chemistry”, he said.

About the beginnings, the professor recalled that they started with Industrial Chemistry. The Martires de Girón Polytechnic, located in the capital municipality of Playa, is where this highly demanded course is taught in BioCen and the distance and the scarce availability of places meant that very few students from the territory were trained there. This led a group of qualified specialists, master’s and doctoral students with teaching skills to begin the training process to teach this discipline at the polytechnic in Bejucal 12 years ago.

The specialist in Health Administration pointed out that at first they received the programs for different subjects and a team of educators was created to prepare the first 15 students, who graduated in 2012 from BioCen.

When we saw that we had an established faculty we organized a course for the center’s workers and also trained them as technicians in Industrial Chemistry, Vega Valdes pointed out.

The PhD recalls that after the first training courses, they went to the Ministry of Education, presented the project with the potential of the institution for teaching and were authorized to increase registration.

Currently, he detailed, they have carried out three graduations in the modality of Course for Workers: the first in 2015 with 15 graduates, the second in 2018 and the third in 2021, each one with 17 graduates; likewise, in 2021, 10 students trained in the annex classroom concluded their studies.

The previous year they expanded the classes to the Industrial Mechanics specialty and requested the study programs from the Jesus Suarez Gayol Polytechnic, where it is taught, and began the preparation of 10 technicians, who will graduate in 2024.

With this strategy we not only benefit the institution, but also give an opportunity to the young people of the territory to study and have a secure job, he continued.

In addition to the undergraduate actions, BioCen implements an on-the-job training program, considered by the specialist as the main backbone of the training network, by guaranteeing a continuous evaluation in the fulfillment of the procedures.

Through this training effort, the specialist added, workers related to the first line of development receive training in good practices, through 19 modules dedicated to specific activities, including aseptic processing, occupational health and safety, and care for the environment.

Vega Valdes indicated that as part of postgraduate education, they organize and manage specialized courses to update knowledge in strategic areas and promote scientific and technological categorization processes.

The expert insisted that they work in a unique management system aimed at human improvement, where the management of knowledge, talent and human capital is present. They also encourage interest in science from an early age.