C O N Ten Ts
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C H ARL E R OI B RU SSE L S SO UT H The Biopark Charleroi Brussels south Newsletter NewsN°13 spring 2012 The Biopark: the result of 18 years of effective cooperation between the ULB and IGRETEC to In 1994, ULB and IGRETEC decided and businesses. 70% of them live in pany MaSTherCell. DI to open the Minerve Centre, a note- the Walloon area, and most of those A full range of facilities for mature worthy component of which was the live in the immediate region! research companies! e Biotechnology Centre of Excellence, IGRETEC is proud to have contri- and together they developed the fa- Biopark Incubator PLC buted to Biopark, and its support will cilities required with support from the Biopark Incubator PLC is the re- continue! Wallonia region and the EU’s Objec- sult of a partnership between ULB, tive 1 programme. IGRETEC, Héralès and Sambrinvest, IBMM (Institute of Molecular Biology and offers essential support to bud- and Medicine) was the first addition ding businesses! Whether they are in 1999, and the following years saw it a biotechnology, medical device, or joined by IMI (Institute for Medical Im- engineering science business in the munology), Biovallée (now Immune- broadest terms, the BI is at hand to Health), LBV (Vegetal Biotechnology provide assistance in evaluating and Laboratory) and, more recently still, marketing their technology, carrying out market research, developing a by the CMMI (Center for Microscopy Marc Debois and Molecular Imaging), all contri- strategy, creating their business plan, Directeur général buting to the development of this life and finding financial backers: all of this IGRETEC sciences cluster. in a flourishing sector that is set to become an international jewel in our contents IGRETEC then created the first busi- regional economy. ness hosting facilities with Biopark Incubation involves the work of pro- Incubator 1, which to this day is home Biopark Incubator to Henogen and Delphi Genetics. fessional teams who need the ap- propriate infrastructure: the “Biopark Welcome to Biopark Incubator 2-3 Today, the Biopark Charleroi Brussels Incubator 2” building. South is the physical proof of a suc- spin-off in gestation 4 cessful initiative. Indeed, the Biopark Biopark Incubator 2 a-ULaB : advised, financed, can offer a full range of services at The recently finished Biopark Incu- housed 5 every step of the innovation process : bator 2 includes a 1800m² incubator from developing business plans to Masthercell : offering all the services expected providing premises, from research to bespoke hosting 6 of a specialist business centre, and training for new companies. 1800m² of unfurnished space for new training course : In total, 500 scientists work in the standard rental, as well as 1200m² management and biotech’ 7 biotechnology sector at various insti- of lab space that will be home to, tutes, laboratories, research centres, amongst others, the cell therapy com- charleroi Aeropole : employment opportunities 8 contents Welcome to Biopark Incubator The Biopark Incubator team is now comfortably located in its new premises. Officially opened on 24 April, Biopark Incubator 2 will act as a trampoline for start- ups and young businesses in life sciences and engineering. With the economic development of “bare” wing. The top floor of the through remote check-ups, support, Biopark Charleroi Brussels South go- building, with a ceiling of 7m, is used and communication; and CF Pharma, a ing from strength to strength, the exclusively for white rooms that will be company that promotes, markets, and inauguration of the Biopark Incubator equipped and furbished by the com- distributes pharmaceutical, paraphar- 2 on 24 April only adds momentum. pany that uses them (MaSTherCell will maceutical , and medical products. be taking up residence in the near fu- 2 The V-shaped building stands a Biopark Incubator will also be in resi- ture). stone’s throw from the IBMM, IMI, dence from spring onwards, and will and CMMI research centres. Built by The first tenants have moved into manage the building. An additional Igretec with backing from Wallonia, it Biopark Incubator 2 in spring 2012, link in the value chain (see figure), houses 4800m² of offices and labora- and by summer one quarter of the Biopark Incubator will provide extra tories that can be adapted to a com- total surface, or 1200m², will be occu- impetus to the healthy economic de- pied. In addition to MaSTherCell (see pany’s needs, as well as GMP white velopment taking place within the article on page 6), tenants include rooms, spread across four floors. Biopark. Aliwen, a ULB spin-off specialising in Take a look around! On the ground the phytosanitary analysis of our cit- Three roles floor are the reception area and two ies’ trees and that provides manage- “bare” wings (each 600m²): spin-offs ment plans, inventories, and digital The Incubator performs three roles and start-ups will be able to equip ID cards for trees; Microcyc, a new IT that vary depending on the project them according to their needs. Two company that develops applications maturity and what the company fully complete incubation wings are for nursing; CareSquare, specialising wants. These are: support, funding, found on the first floor. One level up in the development and marketing of and hosting. The details vary case to there is an extra incubation wing, innovative IT solutions to improve the case; any project in the life sciences ready for use, in addition to another living conditions of patients at home and engineering sector may apply, Research IP Proof-of- Business Licensing Fund Creation of Protection concept plan Raising company Research TTO TTO TTO TTO Theodorus Incubator, Management Department Incubators Incubators (Management+ of Theodorus and Entrepreneurship Center Investment Commitee) shareholders ULB chain of value Flexible workspace The Smart Work Center is a network of shared offices spread throughout the Fédération Wallonnie-Bruxelles. The concept is simple: provide a flexi- ble workspace with pre-installed technology for a given period. There is no lease and no long-term commitment: only specific pricing for different types of user. The network provides decentralised workspaces within which workers from any background can “set-up shop” and work remotely. Biopark’s neigh- bour, Brussels South Charleroi Airport, has over 1,000,000 business customers every year, and is a Smart Work Center partner. Based on the same concept, BioWin Partner Port is also part of an international network. However, the flexi- ble workspaces are only available to other biotechnology employees. whether they are from ULB or UMons and other biotech incubators, notably trative services: switchboard, secre- or indeed elsewhere. Wallonia Biotech Coaching. tary, purchasing department, central Biopark Incubator assists project The second role is that of a financial waste management... and more. sponsors in evaluating their techno- advisor. Biopark Incubator can help an Biopark Incubator will also work with logy’s potential, defining the strategic existing or future company to outline Igretec to offer specific services such approach to adopt, identifying po- its financial strategy, compile an appli- as management training and expert 3 tential clients, developing a business cation to obtain funding, meet public consulting. model and financial plan, etc. Biopark or corporate investors (Theodorus/ Read on to see the Biopark Incubator Incubator may also provide assis- ULB, Sambrinvest, etc.) and find ban- through the eyes of the companies it king partners... tance in setting-up or consolidating a has provided with its services: In Sili- management team. It has access to a In its third role, the Biopark Incubator co, a-ULaB and MaSTherCell. network of coaches and experts, and provides businesses premises: it has works closely with the Incubator on 4800m² of office and laboratory space Erasmus Campus (ULB Brussels) EEBIC, that can be adapted to the tenant’s Sandrine Rubay Igretec, the Héraclès business centre, needs. It also offers various adminis- Contact : In figures Biopark Incubator 7.400.000 euros the building’s budget Aéropole de Charleroi (Excl. VAT) Rue Auguste Piccard 48 4.800 m2 the area of Biopark Incubator 2 6041 Charleroi Tel :+32 (0)71 91 99 50 1.200 m2 the area of white rooms Email : [email protected] March 2012 when the first tenants will take up residence in Biopark Incubator Learn more: 25% building occupancy by summer 2012 www.bioparkincubator.be 5 people Biopark Incubator team € 200.000 Biopark Incubator capital Support A spin-off in gestation The In Silico project is dedicated to applied biocomputing for genetic data, and has received the support of Biopark Incubator for several months now. By summer, the Enlighten Bioscience spin-off should be complete. “In 2003, the first human genome was sequenced at a cost of $3 billion. Last January, Life Technologies announced that by the end of the year, the same sequencing would be available for only $1000! By 2014, 1,000,000 hu- man genomes could have been se- quenced! What we are experiencing is a something of a snowball effect, but where will these millions of genomes be stored? How will they be kept safe? How can they be cross referenced for diagnostics or clinical studies? Our In Silico project aims to answer these questions”, explains David Weiss, a IRIDIA-CoDE researcher at Graduate three years ago I paid no attention to “We had a lot of potential customers: School of Engineering (ULB). the business side of things. I enrolled the pharmaceutical industry, academic on the Creation and Growth (Création research labs, teaching hospitals, the et Croissance) evening class at the food industry... Our In Silico DB tool is Solvay Brussels School of Economics operated through an online platform, and Management, but even then was and is compatible with the systems 4 still a long way to go before coming already in place within a company; it up with a mature business plan.