EDITORIALS
2022, a new dawn for the biocluster
After the interim assured by David Bodet, to whom I express my thanks, I began my function as chief executive in September 2022, delighted with the idea of participating in the growth of this fertile ecosystem, where biotech innovations grow to improve our health, change our industries and protect our environment. All links in the value chain are present at Genopole: from training within the rich academic environment at Évry-Courcouronnes and Paris-Saclay, to academic research piloted by renowned research organisms, and on to the development of businesses. This annual report will help you discover Genopole's activities.
Sparking innovation
Sparking innovation. What a good way to express how Genopole stimulates and accompanies the desire to pioneer, and how it welcomes up-and-coming talent in a composite and dynamic ecosystem where novel research topics regularly see the day. For example, since its launch, the Atige program has made it possible for 34 researchers to create their own teams at the biocluster.
The inventiveness at Genopole is also fueled by local synergies. To illustrate, in 2022, eight innovative projects proposed by staff members at the South Île-de-France Medical Center (CHSF) where chosen by Genopole for development in partnership with researchers at the biocluster and students at Évry-Courcouronnes's Grandes Écoles. The Shaker is one of Genopole's outstanding programs. It identifies the best innovative ideas and molds them into new start-ups: year 2022 saw 12 projects developed in this way.
State-of-the-art technological platforms
To develop innovation and build sectors, Genopole invests €1 million annually into the acquisition of cutting-edge technological tools, made available thereafter to the campus's laboratories and companies. Rigorously updated in consultation with research organisms and universities, this armada of 25 technological platforms provides world-reaching competitiveness to Genopole and contributes to its attractiveness. Together, those aspects lead companies to choose Genopole right out of the gate: in 2022, eight new companies joined Genopole for its real estate offer and accompaniment, particularly within the growth-enabling Gene.iO program. These companies are not abandoned in their Europe & international aims either. There also, Genopole provides support through its exploratory missions and business match-making via its network of investors, financers and sister hubs. This growing international visibility reached a new mile-marker in 2022 thanks to the European Commission's green light for the Genopole-coordinated COBIOE project aimed at supporting the development of drug biomanufacturing.
It goes without saying that the accomplishment of all these missions is built upon the unfaltering support from our members, the French State, the Île-de-France Administrative Region, the Essonne Administrative Department, Grand Paris Sud and AFM-Téléthon, who provide 79% of Genopole's funding. In 2023, Genopole aims to pursue its actions to enable biomanufacturing, company maturation and research in a strengthened plan of action in partnership with Paris-Saclay University.
Gilles Trystram, Chief Executive of Genopole