Manifesto

Declaracio

After the Euroregion meetings on biotechnology and healthcare, organized by Midibiotech on 4 December 2007, the regional competitiveness hubs and entrepreneurial associations decided to create a joint reflection to look into the use and need for a territorial biocluster in order to strengthen the economic development of companies in these sectors.

The regions that participate in this initiative are Aquitania, Balearic Islands, Catalonia, Languedoc-Roussillon and Midi-Pyrénées. At the beginning of 2008, a workgroup was formed including competitiveness hubs Innovalis and Prod’Innov (Aquitania), Biocat (Catalonia), Eurobiomed (Languedoc-Roussillon) and Cancer Bio-Santé (Midi-Pyrénées); business associations BioIB (Balearic Islands), Biomeridies (Languedoc-Roussillon) and Midi-Biotech (Midi-Pyrénées); and the Government of the Balearic Islands Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs.

The workgroup meets periodically. The first meeting was held on 6 June 2008, in Toulouse, where participants shared their different points of view on the implications and opportunities for companies in these regions that could stem from creating a biocluster. In the following two meetings –held in Paris on 9 October 2008 and Barcelona on 5 December 2008– the first actions were taken.

The aim of this document is to:

  • Share the workgroup’s conclusions.

  • Share the risks and aims of this initiative.

  • Define the framework to include this initiative in the context of current or future political actions.

The workgroup’s conclusions are:

  • International competitiveness is strong and well structured, which forces companies to innovate constantly and speed up the process to move from an initial idea to having a finished product on the market (time to market).

  • In order to surpass the competition, companies must find industrial, technological and commercial complementarities. Cultural complementarities can also be a source of prosperity and can create additional added value.

  • Geographic context favors a joint work relationship. The participating regions are prosperous and neighbor each other, but they don’t currently have a strong relationship. Nevertheless, they have collective, and often complementary, talent, competence and know-how. Companies in these regions can benefit from a closer relationship, which would lead to joint projects.

  • Political initiatives exist but economic organizations must play a leading role in creating the necessary environment to generate and develop joint projects in association with government authorities.

  • We all need to be more visible in this arena. Only by working together will we be able to speed up the development of efficient initiatives that will be economically productive.

This workgroup aims to facilitate the creation of a cluster that can provide specific responses to points laid out in this document and generate international projects in the fields of biotechnology and healthcare, with help from the hubs. In order to build the base of this cluster, the workgroup established two types of goals:

Short-term goals:

  • Help companies, laboratories and industries in the biotechnology and healthcare sectors identify new partners using a website that allows them to access different regional databases.

  • Allow companies, laboratories and industries in the biotechnology and healthcares sectors to meet with these new partners by organizing group events.

  • Suggest political actions in the different regions to raise awareness of and foster the proposed economic development initiatives.

Mid and long-term goals:

  • Consolidate the regional biotechnology and healthcare networks and foster strategic alliances between companies.

  • Foster access to public and private funding through multiregional projects.

  • Encourage technology and innovation transfer by developing better access to information resources.

  • Favor international development through global initiatives and a wide-reaching critical mass.