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All news Lyonbiopole takes stock of an unusual year and sets its priorities for 2021
In January 2020, Lyonbiopole and its partners launched the first World Hub in Veterinary Public Health, a strategic field strongly linked to global health issues, where one of the major challenges is the fight against animal diseases which are transmissible to humans (zoonoses). Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, in March 2020 Lyonbiopole immediately mobilised the resources across its ecosystem. This took the form of several actions: relaying the needs of the region’s hospitals, helping to identify manufacturers of masks and 3D ventilator parts, relaying information and aid from the State and local authorities, participating in dedicated working groups, etc. Aware of the need for solidarity in times of crisis, the cluster made itself fully available to its members and partners to help them cope. It also kept its BSL2 and BSL3 laboratories open during the pandemic, so that the manufacturers and academics who occupy them could continue to advance their R&D projects.
The cluster’s own activities have also been completely rethought and adapted to the context. During the first lock-down, Lyonbiopole organised dedicated webinars such as “Fiscal, social, contractual and real estate measures within the framework of Covid-19” and “Presentation of aid measures implemented by local authorities”.
The cluster's calendar of events, although revised due to the health crisis, remained full throughout the year. In particular, in less than 12 weeks, Lyonbiopole jointly organised with Inova Software the very first global partnering event on COVID-19: #PartneringAgainstCOVID, which allowed more than 3,200 people from 80 countries to discuss future partnerships in the fight against the pandemic.
The cluster’s major events also took place, in a new form:
2021 will be a year of change: Philippe Sans, who has been the cluster’s President since December 2020, has set himself, along with the management team, the first task of reviewing what the cluster has to offer, and its strategy. These changes are expected to be presented in the spring of 2021, when Lyonbiopole moves into its new premises.
Several ambitions for the year have already been confirmed:
239 members including 200 SMEs
31 new structures became members of the cluster
70 scientific, technological and economic events organised, bringing together 6,000 participants
300 individual meetings organised with SME members
66 companies supported through eight international events
28 collaborative R&D projects financed, bringing the number of labelled and financed projects to 328 for a total of €1.16 billion, including €527 million in public aid since the cluster was created
€223M raised by the cluster’s members