2 April 2010
In the framework of the Marshall Plan 2.Green, BioWin will continue to focus on the
development of Walloon SMEs in the Health sector
After an initial positive assessment for the period 2006-2009, the BioWin cluster has decided to
refocus its strategy for the period 2010-2014 on the development of SMEs in the Health sector, by
determining four main lines of action:
•
In the framework of its innovation support activities, to continue to support excellence while
ensuring that the technologies and products developed satisfy market needs and can be
marketed as quickly as possible.
•
Ensuring that the supply of competences closely matches the needs of companies in the health
sector.
•
Pursuing BioWin’s internationalisation policy, to the benefit of industry and SMEs in particular.
•
Promoting the creation of technological platforms and infrastructures favouring the development
of the bio-medical sector in the Walloon Region.
BioWin, the Walloon Region’s health competitiveness cluster today presented its evaluation for
the period 2006-2009 and announced its strategic and operational ambitions within the framework
of the Marshall Plan 2.Green.
BioWin was set up in July 2006 in the framework of the Marshall Plan 1.0 to federate all the
stakeholders participating in innovation and training in the area of health biotechnologies in
Wallonia in order to contribute to the economic redeployment of Wallonia. The results as at 31
December 2009 confirm the essential role played by the cluster in Wallonia.
Following the latest round of approvals granted on 7 June 2009 by the Walloon government, the
number of BioWin R&D projects increased to 16. In total, no less than 89 stakeholders (23 SMEs, 4
large companies and 62 university and non-university laboratories) are involved in these 16 projects
with a total budget of 52.4 million euros, financed in the form of subsidies from the Walloon Region
and private funding from the participating SMEs and large companies. These R&D projects were
submitted for approval by BioWin on the basis of a strict selection process carried out by BioWin’s
independent international jury chaired by Marc Vaeck, CEO of Actogenix. The projects are always
coordinated by a company, because they are market oriented. Most of them last 4 years and are
subject to a mid-term review carried out by the aforementioned international jury.
The Specific Training project has also produced excellent results since 2007. The objective of the
Specific Training project is to promote the acquisition of the competences necessary for the
economic development of the BioWin, Wagralim (nutrition & food) and MecaTech (mechanical
engineering) clusters by organising short modules. These modules, which cover the areas of
“Quality, Clinical Trials, Laboratory-Production Techniques, Innovation and Entrepreneurship –
Transversal Competences”, are intended, on the one hand, to supplement the initial training given in
universities/colleges of higher education in order to bring it into line with labour market
expectations and, on the other hand, to provide continuing vocational training for employees of
members of the clusters. The ultimate aim is to create a sufficient pool of competences needed for
the development of BioWin, Wagralim and MecaTech. This project has provided more than 79,000
hours of training, put in place more than 60 different modules and organised 270 sessions, including
38 on an intra-company basis. In total, since 2007, almost 3,500 people have participated in training
organised by BioWin.
BioWin asbl – Point Centre Av. G. Lemaître 19 à 6041 Gosselies (Charleroi) – Tél. +32 (0)71/376.386 – [email protected] – www.biowin.org
BioWin has also endeavoured to enhance its visibility and credibility in Belgium and Europe and
more generally internationally. By way of example, the cluster participates since September 2009 in
ABC Europe, a new European inter-health clusters project financed by the European Commission’s
Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme. The objective of ABC Europe is to develop
supports services for innovative SMEs in order to promote their development and
internationalisation. To support this project, a consortium with a budget of 3.5 million euros over 3
years has been created around 14 health clusters of the CEBR (Council for European BioRegions)
network of which BioWin is a member. The cluster has also finalised the signature of a partnership
agreement with Euromediag, the diagnostic cluster of the Eurobiomed bi-regional health cluster of
the Paca (Provence Alpes Côtes d’Azur) and Languedoc-Roussillon regions. The aim of this
agreement is to create a European diagnostic cluster and organise meetings between researchers
and industry to facilitate exchanges of best practices, information sharing, joint synergies,
commercial opportunities, etc. Moreover, BioWin is also participating in the BIOExtrakt programme
of FlandersBio (the federation of biotechnology companies in the North of the country) with the aim,
inter alia, of creating networking opportunities and increasing collaboration between companies and
organisations from the biotechnology regions adjoining Flanders. Finally, BioWin has developed
numerous contacts with other Health clusters, including Lyonbiopôle (Rhône-Alpes) with which
inter-companies interactions have been initiated.
BioWin’s new strategic and operational ambitions for 2010 to 2014
Biowin has defined its strategic and operational ambitions in line with the Marshall Plan 2.Green. on
the basis of its 2006-2009 evaluation and the conclusions of the economic study on health
biotechnology and medical technology in Wallonia carried out by Jean-Louis Mentior (CEO of M5)
and his team. This study provides details of the jobs created and the economic development
generated, on the basis of the factual data, such as the annual accounts, of 68 innovative companies
that are BioWin members, for the period from 1999 to 2008. The study shows that 7,000 full-time
jobs have been created in ten years, together with indirect jobs (consultants, experts, etc.). The
average employment growth rates were 9% in the three very large companies (GlaxoSmithKline
Biologicals, Baxter and UCB Pharma) and 5% in the SMEs analysed in the study. In total, SMEs
account for 20% of the total jobs created. Although it is still difficult to assess BioWin’s exact impact
on this growth, the cluster can be considered to have contributed to the development of the
economic activities of companies in the sector.
On the basis of a classification of companies produced by M5, it seems that the 25 ‘rapid profitability
companies’ (companies in the sector focused on marketing products and services not requiring a
substantial prior investment) generated 50% of jobs while the 16 ‘high-potential companies’
(companies in the sector investing significantly in advanced research intended to lead eventually to
very significant developments) contributed 8%. On the basis of these figures, BioWin has decided to
help more specifically (but not only) SMEs having projects which can rapidly create new jobs and/or
facilitate the development of economic activities in the Walloon Region.
In the framework of its innovation support activities, the cluster will continue to support
excellence while satisfying itself that the technologies and products developed satisfy market needs
and can be marketed as quickly as possible. The strategic matrix of the R&D projects likely to be
approved has been redefined. This matrix now includes a technological dimension (vertical axis) and
a time to market dimension (horizontal axis). There are now eight technological themes: biomarkers
and in-vitro and in-vivo diagnostics; innovative instruments and tools; drug administration systems;
new therapies; information technologies applied to human health; new manufacturing/production
processes and new organisational approaches; medical equipment; and new drug discoveries.
However, it will still be possible for a limited number of projects from outside these priority themes
to be approved provided that their quality is considered to be exceptional, reflecting bottom-up
project management approach put in place. The integration of the time to market dimension reflects
BioWin’s determination to create short, medium and long-term socio-economic value. The cluster
BioWin asbl – Point Centre Av. G. Lemaître 19 à 6041 Gosselies (Charleroi) – Tél. +32 (0)71/376.386 – [email protected] – www.biowin.org
has also put in place a series of principles for the management of its portfolio of R&D projects, in
particular to launch projects that can be marketed and/or developed more rapidly, to select projects
whose ongoing development up to the proof-of-concept or prototype stage will be bankable and to
maintain a balance between projects with immediate and deferred socio-economic value. The
evaluation criteria of the BioWin jury selecting projects have been reviewed and clarified. Other than
support for R&D excellence, special attention will now be paid to possible synergies generated by
interaction with other regional, national and international projects (including European projects and
the Innovative Medicine Initiative project). But the emphasis will also be placed on the possible
integration of projects involving fields other than medical sciences. Thus the cross fertilisation
resulting from transversal collaboration (in particular with operators in the ICT, photonics,
microtechnology and nanotechnology sectors) as well as the inclusion of a competence trainingneeds component will be encouraged in particular.
Calls for Training projects will now reflect ideas proposed directly by companies that are
members of BioWin. BioWin will place special emphasis on the following three areas of
competences: the development of biomedical products; specific/advanced R&D technologies; and
technical interdisciplinarity. In addition, three objectives have been fixed: to place special emphasis
on the coordination of training offers by federating and structuring training operators; to launch the
new “Cluster training course” platform from 1st April to bring together companies from Walloon
competiveness clusters and higher education students at the end of their studies by way of incompany training and training courses; and to develop the integration of training modules in
academic programmes.
The cluster has defined a new international strategy which is based on three main lines. BioWin
will set up an international unit within its operational organisation. It will contribute to the
international development of the cluster’s SMEs in close collaboration with the AWEX, among
others, through missions facilitating market research and the development of partnerships. It will
reinforce networks and participate actively in inter-cluster European projects (with an SME focus) as
well as in the implementation and development of both existing partnerships and those which are in
the process of being put in place.
Finally, BioWin has decided to encourage the implementation of bottom-up type Infrastructure
and Technological Platform projects. The cluster’s objective is to attempt to identify any new
collective project intended to create a technological platform and/or make good a critical
infrastructure gap for the development of the bio-medical sector in the Walloon Region.
France Fannes, Managing Director of BioWin: “I will endeavour to roll out BioWin’s new strategy
with a special emphasis on supporting the development of SMEs and research spin-offs, by focusing
on project support, internationalisation and the development of a range of training services which
meet the sector’s needs in terms of competences. This strategy will be implemented in close
collaboration with the Walloon government and the public services concerned (DGO6, Forem and
AWEX).”
Jean-Luc Balligand (Professor and Director of the Pharmacology and Therapeutics Unit,
UCLouvain), Vice-Chairman of BioWin: “A prerequisite for the development of intellectual property
is to provide long-term support for a policy intended to develop and finance basic research projects
exploring a large range of fields. Without basic research, there is no applied research and
consequently no new intellectual property.”
Jean Stéphenne, (Chairman and President of GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals), Chairman of BioWin:
“The basic research financed by WELBIO, the Walloon Institute for Excellence in Life Sciences, must
be part of an approach which encompasses basic research and the capacity of the regional
stakeholders to develop the intellectual property created by BioWin type collaborative projects.”
BioWin asbl – Point Centre Av. G. Lemaître 19 à 6041 Gosselies (Charleroi) – Tél. +32 (0)71/376.386 – [email protected] – www.biowin.org
Jean-Claude Marcourt (Minister of the Economy, SMEs, Foreign Trade and New Technologies):
“Within the framework of the Marshall Plan 2. Green, the government has confirmed its
determination to ensure the long-term future of the competitiveness clusters because they have
demonstrated fully the wealth and potential generated via the networking of economic, scientific
and training stakeholders in order to develop their region and the well-being of their citizens.”
End
Press contacts:
BioWin
Frédéric Druck
Manager, Communication and International Relations
Tel.: +32 (0)474/52.02.69
[email protected]
www.biowin.org
Eurolife
Renato Jannone
Tel.: +32 (0)2 374 74 04
Mobile +32 (0)495 26 12 03
[email protected]
www.eurolife.be
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BioWin asbl – Point Centre Av. G. Lemaître 19 à 6041 Gosselies (Charleroi) – Tél. +32 (0)71/376.386 – [email protected] – www.biowin.org