As a leading biocluster in Europe, Genopole welcomes visiting delegations from the world-over every year. Although visits were obviously less numerous in 2020, exchanges continued throughout the year at a distance. The biocluster’s international visibility actions were fruitful, particularly in Europe. The Genopole-coordinated project GEN.ERA for the strategic computational genomics sector was chosen by the European Commission and the EU|BIC certification earned by the biocluster opens doors to a European network of 130 business centers.
In January, Genopole went to San Francisco for the Biotech Showcase, one of the main international meet-ups dedicated to health and organized in parallel with the JP Morgan HealthCare conference. Genopole met with international investors such as New Science LLC and Leaf Ventures in “speed meetings” organized by Business France for the French delegation. About 30 meetings were held with R&D companies, CROs, pharmaceutical firms, and other entities.
In June, Genopole participated—online this time—in BIO USA, with the French pavilion under the coordination of Business France. This major get-together for companies and investors across the biotech ecosystem enabled more than 40 videoconference meetings. Genopole’s objective with its yearly participation in Bio USA is to give worldwide visibility first to Genopole-accompanied businesses aiming for international markets and second to the advantages of the Évry biocluster to draw foreign businesses to it. The event is also an opportunity to tighten ties and establish new agreements with other clusters, as was done in 2020 with Research Triangle Park in the United States and the Kawasaki Life Innovation Center in Japan.
A delegation from the Kawasaki Life Innovation Center located south of Tokyo visited Genopole in February to better understand and take inspiration from how it functions. Kawasaki is one of Japan’s leading innovation clusters. Its ambition is to create favorable conditions for soft landings, develop business incubation and establish shared-use access for technological equipment.
A Genopole team visited the United States in January to finalize partnerships started in 2019 with Research Triangle Park (North Carolina), one of America’s most important research clusters. Specifically, the team visited the North Carolina Biotechnology Center, located within Research Triangle Park, with the objective of identifying the needs of Genopole businesses and those of the American center to establish a soft-landing agreement.
Genopole was invited by its Tunisian partner BiotechPole Sidi Thabet, located north of Tunis, to participate in the inauguration of its Pharma In cluster dedicated to the pharma industry and health biotech. Genopole may accompany the Tunisian pole for the consolidation of its Fablab and for the structuration of its entrepreneurship activities. Selected in the European program The Next Society, coordinated by France Cluster, Genopole made a point of exchanging with the other clusters from a number of Mediterranean and European countries present at the event to discuss future industrial and research partnerships.
