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The Catalan Bioregion joins the EuroBioCluster of Southern Europe

By 22 de April de 2005November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 22.04.2005

The Catalan Bioregion joins the EuroBioCluster of Southern Europe

The minister for Universities, Research and the Information Society (DURSI), Carles Solà, as representative of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Regional Government) and of the Catalan Bioregion, has signed an agreement with several scientific and political delegates from regions that comprise the Barcelona-Heidelberg. Through this agreement, signed on 14th April in Lyon during the World Life Sciences Forum, BioVision, Catalonia will participate in the development of a bioregion in Southern Europe, the so-called EuroBioCluster South.

The EuroBioCluster South has arisen from the federation of regions and cities that focus their activity on life sciences and biotechnology and that fall along a geographical axis that links Barcelona, Lyon and Heidelberg. This axis covers the Rhône-Alps (Lyon-Grenoble) region of France, the Swiss cities of Zurich, Geneva and Basle, the Italian regions of Piemont-Lombardy (Turin-Milan), the German city of Heidelberg, and also Catalonia. This transnational federation seeks to foster competitive collaboration between its agents in both the public and private sector, with the aim to promote supraregional dynamics to enhance scientific and technological development of international impact.

According to the signatories, “the EuroBioCluster South intends to contribute to the development of Europe, acting as a focal point for the EU, in which to establish strategic and financial plans and also to measure the impact of the same”. This bioregion also aims to increase territorial development and the promotion of its members, in addition to fostering relations with American and Asian partners. The objectives of this bioregion include the identification and development of settings which facilitate synergy, the strengthening of joint technology platforms, the joint development of tools and methodologies on the basis of the principles of good practice and the implementation of innovative training programmes and exchange initiatives for specialists and entrepreneurs.

With strong scientific and industrial potential, the EuroBioCluster South includes 24 universities with 30,000 researchers that work in Life Sciences; international research centres devoted to fields such as cancer, neuroscience, nanobiotechnology and genomics, among others; and more than 300 enterprises employing 20,000 staff, representing 50% of the clinical biotechnology performed in Europe.

In addition to the minister Carles Solà, the Catalan delegation that attended the signing of the agreement included: the director of the Interdepartmental Committee for Technological Research and Innovation (CIRIT), Marta Aymerich; the vicerector of Strategic Projects at the Autonomous University of de Barcelona, Francesc Gòdia; the scientific director at the Parc Científic de Barcelona (Barcelona Science Park), Montserrat Vendrell; and the director of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, Jordi Camí.