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CEBR at BIO 2011
Flying the flag for European Biotechnology Clusters
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Well,
CEBR had a busy BIO and so let’s share the news!
We
were delighted to see most biocommunities from the CEBR family in Washington,
on booths large and small or just floating.
There was lots of hard work and a tiny bit of excellent partying. We will report on key achievements from members at BIO, as we know that some great international deals were signed.
The
work….
The
mission of CEBR in BIO 2011 was to build contacts and partnerships with US and
Canadian clusters for the talent support programmes that CEBR Members are
developing, particularly the expert groups (Biocat, project BioCT) and Non-Exec
Director platform (One Nucleus, project ABCEurope).
This
took two stages:
The
cluster meeting – EC booth – we
owe a big thanks to DG Research and DG Enterprise for letting us use their
stand throughout BIO and even designing it so that we had plenty of space to
sit (they remember 2010 when we stole all their chairs in Chicago). 15
clusters came together to discuss how such programmes could be extended beyond
Europe, for the benefit of European SMEs and also SMEs in clusters outside
Europe.
The
expert groups, due for initial launch this summer, had the most detailed
scrutiny for international value. These
groups bring together skilled individual consultants and advisers that clusters
across Europe can access – enabling companies to bring in the skills that they
need throughout their life cycle. This
is one of the major challenges for young biotechs, particularly in emerging
regions.
The
BIO discussion determined that the key benefits for Europe from US and Canadian
involvement was expert support in market entry and finding local partners.
Members
agreed that access to such experts groups was very important for their own
cluster development and would contribute with recommendations of trusted
members and also promote and use the platform to brings skills into their
cluster.
Identifying North American partners
As for
potential partners, CEBR has met with selected clusters where strong interest
was expressed. Targeted and practical
sharing of expert skills for company support would bring enormous benefit for
all clusters involved. Clusters include:
- Maryland
- Canada – three networked clusters
- San Diego
- BayBio
- New York
- Boston
As the
next step for the expert groups – CEBR and Biocat will define a package for US
and Canadian clusters to extend the platform beyond Europe.
The
play…
The
Belgian party was the place to be seen – in the Sequoia bar by the Potomac River, we danced
the night away and the ‘CEBR’s got talent’ prize goes to the ladies from Biocat
who showed us all how it should be done ( as usual).