As demonstrated by the size of the recent 2007 BIO International Convention, the biotechnology industry is continuing to grow in importance. As the pace of drug development within the biotechnology industry carries on accelerating, there is an increasing need to find partners with whom to develop and market these drugs. However, the process of finding suitable partners is still one which challenges companies of all sizes. To examine these challenges, PharmaVentures has conducted a survey of company executives involved in the sourcing of licensing opportunities. In this two-part article, we present the results of this survey. Here, in Part 1, we look at who is doing the sourcing of opportunities within companies, and discover that there is an across-the-board desire to optimise this process.