The adventure that is Genopole began in 1998 and continues today albeit in a setting radically different from that of its beginnings.
At its Évry-Courcouronnes site, where genome exploration began, France’s pioneer biocluster is in an intense period of transformation. In 2021, Genopole welcomed 19 new businesses forwarding innovations that address the reindustrialization and decarbonization goals of the France 2030 investment plan. Genopole benefits from a national and global context highly favorable to the emergence of biotechnologies.
However, the specific environment within which Genopole evolves, now highly competitive both nationally and internationally,necessitates reorganization.
A new model of governance
An executive change in late 2021 has been paralleled by a closening of Genopole’s two primary entities: the GIP (Groupement d’intérêt public, a form of public-private partnership for missions of public interest), responsible for the biocluster’s multidisciplinary projects; and the SEM (mixed-economy company), in charge of its real estate devel- opment and management.
The objective of this structural modification is to make Genopole more agile in its mission of intermediation & accommodation for its academic,economic and industrial partners.
New directions for research
Genopole is also reinventing its research and training.
A new academic project is underway, involving both the University of Évry and Paris-Saclay University, as these two institutions intend to fuse in 2025–2026.
The biocluster is also working to greatly heighten its relations with Paris-Saclay University, its teams, and its president, Sylvie Retailleau, to whom we at Genopole address our sincere congratulations and our best wishes for success in her new mission as Minister of Higher Education and Research.
This reinvention of research at Genopole also includes reinforcing our numerous partnerships with the various teams at the CEA (Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission), a historic and academic pillar of science at the campus.
A changing landscape at Genopole
The advancement of scientific knowledge and biotechnologies opens novel paths to explore, not only in health but also in nutrition, the environment, biomaterials, cosmetics and more.
Nations, industries and consumers are all impa- tiently waiting for innovations in those fields.
To support their advent and industrial transfer, Genopole has worked closely with the Île-de-France Administrative Region to conceptualize and launch the development of two new R&D spaces, a foodlab and a biofoundry.
The campuses are evolving as well, with a new parking garage, the outfitting of Genopole’s new head offices, an inter-business restaurant, and a building with laboratories and offices responding to the needs of arriving or growing biocluster labs and businesses.
Year 2021 was definitely one of mutation for the biocluster.
Thus restructured, Genopole is entering a new era wherein it will adapt itself to an expanding perimeter of biotech innovation and energize a greater number of territories and industrial sectors than it did in its early days.
To consult the activity report in its entirety, go to the following address: https://ra2021.genopole.fr/
