The Institute of Marine Biotechnology (IMB) was established at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu in 2006, with the goal to develop and excel in research, innovation and commercialization activities related to the field of marine biotechnology. The establishment of IMB is in line with the National Biotechnology Policy of Malaysia, consisting an outline of systematic and strategic directions to exploit the outcomes of biotechnology research to generate economic growth and enhance societal well-being.

IMB has gone through two phases of development in the last decade; namely the “establishment and development phase” and “strengthening and reinforce phase” respectively under the profound and smart leadership of the    founding director Prof. Dr. Mohd Effendy bin Wahid and second director Prof. Dr. Tengku Sifzizul bin Tengku Muhammad. With the trust given to me by the university management, I take responsibility to continue the legacy of the fore-leaders and lead IMB into the subsequent phase which I termed as the “Expansion phase”.

To carry out the “Expansion phase”, we need to delicately plan the course of expansion and strategize how we could continue to leverage IMB’s performance into becoming a reputable institute of the world. I divide the plan into several framework in order to expand

1) workforce and experts,

2) research programs,

3) capacity building,

4) infrastructure,

5) local and international research collaboration,

6) product innovation, commercialization and    income generation and

7) societal contribution.

All these frameworks are crucial to the sustainable development of a research institute and I believe a boost in the expansion of each section guarantees a leap in bringing IMB to greater heights.