Final Report Summary - BIOPROTECH (Improvement of research capacities of the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Bio-Processes for biotech applications, tying up with the European Research Area)
Executive Summary:
This project aims to support the CBS in the improvement of its capacities in bioprocesses development such as fermentation and microarrays technologies as well as all related fields such as technology transfer mechanisms, know-how about the EU research framework program and biosafety competencies to be better integrated in the ERA. The interaction between CBS and the European partners about bioprocesses and related fields as transfer, valorization and biosafety allowed to a better level and quality of CBS competencies and upgrade their skills and opening on its environment enabling a sustainable development.
The CBS, in collaboration with all project partners mainly through surveys actions pointed out different insufficiencies and proposed a large panel of actions to improve the CBS capacities in bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and innovation and EU project build up and management.
Different actions related to the bioprocess technologies (microarray, fermentation and biosafety) were performed allowing the CBS to ameliorate capacity building and technologies mastering.
Different coaching activities have been realized and in 3 cases advanced support has been assured for the start-up growth, the business plan development and for the identification of exploitation path. Analysis based on a survey was also performed through 50 researchers and 30 enterprises. Our results showed that no interface exists between these two worlds at our local level (Sfax, Tunisia: the most important industrial region). Therefore, a new virtual matchmaking platform enabling the linkage between academia and industry has been realized. Partners have collected a lot of valuable project ideas discussed in the coaching but also at other occasions such as project meetings. Six projects ideas (e.g. for FP7 RegPot, ENPI-CBCMED, FP7 Health, Tempus) were submitted. A new Tempus project has been accepted. Two proposals were handed in already. More than 16 participations to EU conferences and fairs have been completed. Twenty B2B meetings have been organized on transferring innovative ideas from research to business communities in the frame of the organized symposium on bioproduction on November 2012. At the occasion policy makers, industrials and experts have enriched the debate and contributed to the elaboration of the recommendations issued to enhance the bioproduction sector in Tunisia. Promotional material such as flyers, posters, booklets, etc.. have been continually prepared and diffused in Tunisia and abroad. An internal evaluation of the project results at the end of the project based on a questionnaire for CBS staff and a bit different one for the project partners. The report gave furthermore suggestions for actions to take in the future based on the overall positive outcome of the evaluation and the project.
In conclusion, more than one hundred young researchers, technicians, engineers and administrative staff from CBS and other Tunisian institutions have participated to workshops and lectures in Bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and FP7 project buildup. This enabled CBS researchers to carry out experiences related to these technologies inside the CBS and the possibility to create by themselves their own start-ups. The main output of the project is the training and recruitment opportunity in the CBS offered to 3 unemployed graduates from Sfax University trained respectively in EU project management, technology transfer and innovation and in fermentation technologies as means of contribution to sustainability and job creation in Tunisia. At this effect, all the project planed milestones and deliverables have been met successfully and delivered in due time.
Project Context and Objectives:
Tunisia has launched necessary policies and measures to set up and improve the efficiency of research centres such as the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS). As a key element of the Tunisian Biotechnology Plan the CBS focuses on applied research particularly in terms of use, development, transfer and application of bioprocesses.
BioProtech project is an ERA-WIDE action supported and funded under 7th Framework program (FP7) by European Commission On the way to a more knowledge based economy and in accordance with scientific and technological agreements with the European Union.
This project aims to support the CBS in the improvement of its capacities in bioprocesses development such as fermentation and microarray technologies as well as all related fields such as technology transfer, know-how about the EU research framework program and biosafety competencies to be better integrated in the ERA. To achieve these objectives, five European partners have been selected who are highly qualified and specialized in each of the topics. The amendment signed by the Commission on June 29, 2013 gave more efficiency to the project implementation and impact. It aims mainly to achieve a new activity which consists in a scientific analysis of the research centres and companies interaction.
BioProtech project is organized into 6 work packages(WP) covering the technological aspect of bioprocesses (fermentation, microarray and biosafety), the incubation and transfer of bioprocesses especially to the local industry: “questionnaire” on R&D company needs, training and coaching in EU-FP7, dissemination of scientific results, internal evaluation regarding the focus of CBS and the further integration in the ERA, and the project management.
The implementation of new technologies necessary to reach the European level and to answer the challenging problematic coming from health, environmental and agricultural field etc…is on-going (New generation sequencing technology is one of the major implementation). The visibility of the Microarray platform in CBS is now improved and validated by the increase of the number of national and international communication and thesis.
In addition to the creation of the “fermentation Committee”, much was done to create a close and practical working relationship between the participants in the activities. Thus, two theses and one master will be co-supervised by engineer and researchers taking advantages of the new acquired knowledge in the domain of fermentation.
The involvement of European specialized institutions as well as competencies are gained for the implementation of the CBS recommendations for bisafety and good lab practices. This is concomitantly occurring with the drawing of national measures and policies related to GMO use and production with the collaboration of the Ministry of Environment and other ministries.
The CBS teams are now sufficiently interacted to share experience or to build new skills related to bioprocesses
The results support local economic development through the creation of new or support of existing high-tech companies and more scientific collaborations with the EU. In the field of bioprocesses, one of the project objectives is to improve the technical skills of the CBS staff in microarray and fermentation technologies in order to create wealth enabling to identify promising results and support their path through cooperation, licensing or start-up creation. Comparison and matching between what exist in Tunisia and in the EU helped updating and adjusting the local competencies. This will also benefit the European actors as know-how and capacities will be better integrated and available in the ERA.
The interaction between CBS and the European partners about bioprocesses and related fields as transfer, valorization and biosafety allowed to a better level and quality of CBS competencies and to
upgrade their skills and their opening on the exterior environment enabling a sustainable development. The kick-off meeting was organizing at the beginning of the December 2010 and the website was established at month 4. Therefore, the milestones M1 and M2 were meet successfully.
The CBS, in collaboration with all project partners mainly through surveys actions pointed out different insufficiencies and proposed a large panel of actions to improve the CBS capacities in bioprocesses, technology transfer, biosafety and innovation and EU project build up and management. Referring to these mapping reports and to implement the project objectives we have proposed a series of events such as organization of exchange programs, joint lab courses, “secondements” and training courses, workshops and expert meetings and bringing CBS scientists into European biotech fairs and conferences. Therefore, the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully
The follow up of these indicators during the 3 year project shows a real improvement of the CBS capacity in terms of equipment, technological skills and EU project management. However, some indicators as the publications rate and impact factor should be addressed with more attention.
Concerning Technology Transfer and Innovation activities, we have achieved the report on mapping of technological potential in technology transfer in the CBS. Therefore the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully. We have then planed and accomplished successfully three Training Sessions program. Moreover, the coaching activity started in parallel and a total of 13 project ideas has been assessed and supported with a coaching approach and 3 (only 2 planned in the annex B) of them have been specifically supported from a business plan point of view. Therefore the milestone M4 (Technology transfer plan) was met successfully.Training materials, innovative process and the acquisition of technologies in life sciences are in an intermediate version. Activities are ongoing and the final deliverable will be delivered, with the actual situation, following the schedule. Furthermore, we have launched activities focused on cluster building through meetings, events and analysis of the local environment through interviews to measure companies’ needs and build up databases related to scientific competencies and companies and created a virtual matchmaking platform to ensure the linkage. The main goal of this activity was to build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network and in parallel to identify potential synergies with international partner. The new virtual matchmaking platform enabling the linkage between academia and industry is now functional on the project web page. Referring to the previous cited activities, we can confirm that the milestone M6 (Analyses results of local industry mapping) was met successfully.
Twenty B2B meetings have been organized on transferring innovative ideas from research to business communities. Furthermore, Policy makers have enriched the debate and contributed to the elaboration of the recommendations issued to enhance the bioproduction sector in Tunisia. Promotional material such as flyers, posters, booklets, etc.. have been continually prepared and diffused in Tunisia and abroad.
The WP5 "Evaluation" focused on an internal evaluation of the project results at the end of the project. The findings were based on a questionnaire for CBS staff and a bit different one for the project partners. The questions addressed the three topics: Contribution to main objectives; Contribution to work packages and Impact and exploitation. In total 9 feedbacks were analyzed and the findings presented at the final meeting in Sfax in September 2013. The report gave furthermore suggestions for actions to be taken in the future based on the overall positive outcome of the evaluation and the project. Therefore the milestone M8 (Evaluation of BioProtech) was met successfully.
Furthermore, two internships have been realized in project partner institution (BiPCa) on topics linked to technology transfer and clustering.
Moreover, partners have collected a lot of valuable project ideas were discussed in the coaching but also at other occasions such as project meetings. Six project ideas (e.g. for FP7 RegPot, ENPI-CBCMED, FP7 Health, Tempus) reached a more advanced status in the preparation. Two proposals were handed in already. The kind of implemented training sessions and coaching set up proved to be the right tool for the target group. Two visits to Brussels of CBS staff allowed an increased interaction with the European Commission representatives. Furthermore, the WP focused on one more training workshop on EU research project preparation with 15 participants and two coaching sessions where 8 project ideas have been discussed. The concrete proposal preparation process was supported by e-mail and skype consultations. In summary out of WP3, five EU proposals were handed in and already two projects started their activities and one proposal is still under negotiation. Therefore the milestone M5 (Participation in 3 EU project proposals) was met successfully.
The promotional materials are already used in Tunisia and Europe events. Therefore posters and brochures were distributed throughout the organized events: the international seminar of Biosafety (February 2012; November 2012), Sfax International fair (March 2012), Meetings of preparation of the BioProtech International Conference on Bioproduction held in Sfax in November 2012 and in Europe at the occasion of participating to fairs, conferences and Steering Committee meetings. More than the expected 16 participations to EU conferences and fairs have been completed. Therefore the milestone M7 (conference participation) was met successfully.
Finally, the outputs in the field of BioProtech project concerned several axes related to sustainable development, research quality, technology transfer and job creation and the improvement of CBS visibility. Indeed:
1. The CBS currently benefit of a new microarray platform managed by experienced researchers
2. The fermentation technology shows a qualitative evolution in its utilization
3. For the first time in Tunisia, lab courses, workshops, flyers and recommendations related to biosafety best practices were provided to PhD students, laboratory technical staff, Engineer and researchers from different ministries (Higher education, Environment, Industry, Interior….
4. Training & coaching in technology transfer were provided to project promoters and moreover to Three CBS trainers and coachers in The incubator, TTO and Intellectual property
5. Contribution to the start-up and the first Tunisian cluster on health and tourism creation
6. The first scientific analysis in Tunisia on University- enterprise interaction and establishment of virtual matchmaking platform
7. Launch of new EU projects (Tempus n° 530312/tempus:"Développement de partenariats Universités-Entreprises du Domaine des Sciences et Technologies du Vivant en tunisie") as an extension of BioProtech WP2 activity
8. A very wide dissemination of CBS and the project activities through mainly the websites and participation to almost 22 EU meetings, conferences and fairs
9. Issued recommendations from brainstorming on bioproduction/job creation have been distributed to all ministries, stakeholders and actors involved in TTO/innovation and company creation in bioproduction.
10. Management of an EU project as a coordinator for the first time in Tunisia
At this effect, more than one hundred young researchers, technicians, engineers and administrative staff from CBS and other Tunisian institutions have participated to workshops and lectures in Bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and FP7 project buildup and management. This enabled CBS researchers to carry out experiences related to these technologies inside the CBS and the possibility to create by themselves their own start-ups. The main output of the project is the training and recruitment opportunity in the CBS offered to 3 unemployed graduates trained in EU project management, technology transfer and innovation and in fermentation technologies as means of contribution to sustainability and job creation.
Project Results:
WP1
The general objective for the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS) is to be a reference technological centre in the field of bioprocesses in North Africa, as well as to be considered by the European Union as a partner for different projects. It is with this understanding that the European project n°266519 entitled “Improve of research capacities of the centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Bio-Processes for biotech applications”, tying up with the European research area is undertaken.
One of the objectives of the CBS is to improve the technological level in 3 domains which are respectively (genomics/microarrays, biofermentation and biosafety). A workpackage 1 (WP1) entitled “joint research agenda in bioprocess”, under supervision of a European partner: Pr Joel Lachuer (University Claude Bernard, Lyon1, France) and consisting on three tasks has been created to reach this objective.
The strategy used to improve the CBS capacities (representing the core activity of WP1) in these three domains consisted 1) to map, analyzed and evaluate the CBS performance in the three domains of competences (at the beginning of the project : November 2010) by the way of measurement of some indicators including publications, patents, collaborations, etc and to perform a SWOT analysis in order to list the weaknesses associated to the 3 activities (TASK 1) 2) To propose different actions (training, workshops, lecturers) to eliminate the weaknesses and increase the performance of CBS (TASK 2) 3) To evaluate at the end of the project (October 2013) the impact of the actions done by measuring the evolution of the indicators chosen at the beginning of the project (TASK 3).
Task 1.1 Map and analyse CBS research fields
This work of activity mapping has been performed for each topic by the association of one or two partners coming from the EU consortium members and BioProtech staff from the CBS. The adopted strategy for mapping included: (1) Analysis of the 2010 CBS activities report and CBS web site (see following URL http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn) (2) CBS data collection realised by BioProtech local staff, (3) CBS visits by European members of the BioProtech and interviews of each responsible associated to the targeted topics. For biosafety activity a survey was performed in anonymous on-line and direct contact with scientist of CBS. All data have been summarized and analysed by the different teams (by the way of email, phone and skype calls, during visit exchanges and steering committee meetings). The final result have been summarised in report deliverable (D1.1) shared among all the project partners. The Task 1.1 is necessary to prepare tasks 1.2 and 1.4 and contribute to succeed WP2, 3 and 4
From the analysis of the map, different failures have been detected in the three domains, which need corrective actions necessary to reach the technological level decided at the beginning of the project. The analysis is detailed in the deliverable D1.1 of the WP1. Interestingly, we can observe in the three domains the same failure which can be displayed in 3 items (problem of organization, lack of equipment, lack of technological skill). Concerning the organization, which is to our mind, the principal weakness, it was difficult to find a real organization chart for each domain. We didn’t know who decided and pilot the activities.
Task 1.2 Staff secondments to EU partners and other relevant research centres
The task 1.2 consisted to propose different actions (training, workshops, and lectures) to answer to the weaknesses detected previously and increase the performance of CBS, to enable the development of novel research ideas and set up of joint experimental strategies together with the EU partners. The work consisted to schedule and organise lectures and lab trainings about knowledge in bioprocesses. In this context, European specialists in the three domains have been invited to perform high-level lectures in specific domains of each topics for which a lack of knowledge have been detected. Secondments of CBS researchers (12 days/topics) in high-level laboratories through European Union (France, Italy, Germany, Belgium) have been done also to increase the skills of the staff. These lectures, lab trainings and secondments provide CBS researchers, engineers, technicians and PhD students an opportunity to engage discussions with distinguished scientists. The different actions done are summarized below and detailed in the deliverable D1.2 and D1.4 of the WP1.
- Two conferences in CBS related to microarrays and sequencing technologies applications and biofermentation processes presented by two French partners.
- Five theoretical and practical courses in CBS related to:
1- Transcrptomic microarray application with participation of 6 European experts Joel Lachuer and Anthony Besse (ProfileXpert, France), Veronique Le berre and Lidwine Trouilh (INSA Toulouse, France) and Didier Goidin and Danielle Fletcher (Agilent Technology)
2- Sensibilisation, initiation, acquisition of basics languages and quantitative backgrounds in «Industrial Microbiology» and Fermentation
3- Fermentation: from batch to bioreactor, optimization of parameters and transfer balance, calculation of growth parameters (balance C, X, P, yield, gas transfer …) animated by Pr Gérard Goma and Luc Fillaudeau from INSA Toulouse (France)
4- Evaluation and management of risk assessment and learn more about good lab practices with participation of Patrick Rüdelsheim (Pereus BVBA, Belgium), Walter Kempenaers (Vrije university, Belgium), Philippe Stroot (Xibios Biosafety Consulting, Belgium), Philippe Herman (Scientific Institute of Public Health, Belgium) and Wendy Craig (ICGEB, Italy).
5- Recognizing a genetically modified organism (GMO) (definition, obtaining and detection), to estimate and to manage the risk related to GMO in a stuffy environment, laboratory, under greenhouse and in field and also make sensitive the environment ministry of the current situation (inventory of fixtures) of GMOs in Tunisia with participation of Guy Blache (Switzerland), Environment Ministry and the University of Sfax (Tunisia).
- Two Lab courses in Profilexpert platform (France) for one CBS researcher (objective: DNA Sample preparation Quantification, quality control for microarray study) and one CBS Technician (objective: Training for DNA microarray analysis using Agilent technologies DNA methylation analysis)
- Two Lab courses in INSA Toulouse (France). The first was to assist a CBS research to develop her project of production of Chitin and Chitosan (evaluation of the scientific feasibility of the biological production system of the enzyme, management of derived products obtained from shrimp waste processing and European regulations in force related to CHITO-PROD products). The second focused especially in the exploitation of fermentation data: Methods and concepts.
- One workshop on the Biosecurity and Biosafety in Italy. The participant was an Engineer from CBS.
- Six short term secondments with participation of eight CBS researchers:
- Microarray:
Objective: Genomic platform organization, microarray development (DNA spotting and mini-sequencing on microarray) and socio-economic potential of the development of custom microarrays and development of wheat marker assistant selection.
Location: Department of medical genetics, Faculty of medicine of Ege, Azmir, Turkey; Microarray Platform, INSA Toulouse; Dendris society; Profilexpert platform; GENTYANE platform, France. Gesim Company and Genomic Platform at the Institute of Technical Chemistry of the University of Hanover, Germany.
- Fermentation:
Objective: Development of novel research ideas and acquiring new skills in the field of fermentation and bioproduction to develop the valorization units of the CBS
Location: INSA Toulouse and UTC Compiègne, France
- Biosafety:
Objective: elaboration of the questionnaire needed for the WP1 mapping, become acquainted with conditions of health and biosafety in the laboratory at different scales (scale ranges1, 2, 3 and 4), risk assessment and evaluation of the risk, gain first-hand experience about biosafety guidelines, rules and practices in public and private institutions
Location: ICGEB, Italy; Luigi Sacco Hospital, Italy, public and private institutions in Belgium.
Task1.3 Lectures and lab courses at CBS and at project partners locations: see in the impact part
WP2
One of the main objectives addressed by BioProtech deals with the improvement of research capacities of the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Bio-processes for biotech applications, tying up with the European Research Area. The WP2 “Technology transfer and incubation” is included in this objective, with the following expected results:
– To assess the state of the art in exploitation of scientific results in life sciences.
– To build up the knowledge base for commercialisation of research results proposing a specific plan in CBS by the organisation of 3 two-day training sessions on valorisation of scientific results.
– To contribute to the regional development and to improve the national economic situation through the creation of spin-offs and start-ups starting a pilot plan.
– Promoting the activities of the existing start-ups and spin-offs.
During the project life different initiatives and events have been realised targeted in reaching such goals and specifically they has been realised around the following tasks:
• Task 2. 1 Map technology transfer activities
• Task 2.2 Training and awareness to commercialisation of research results
• Task 2.3 Build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network
Task 2. 1 Map technology transfer activities
The mapping (D.1.1. Report of mapping of technological potential in technology transfer) exercise has been performed following two parallel and synergistic approaches.
From one side a desk analysis has been realised collecting and evaluating from a TT perspective all the available documents regarding the CBS activities and the Tunisian/North Africa situation: the topics that have been particularly addressed are those of research capabilities and results, IP and technology transfer.
In parallel, a surveyabout the perception and the willingness to perform TT activities has been delivered, in an anonymous on-line way, to a sample of around 50 scientists of CBS atdifferent organisational level. The results of those parallel activities have been validated through a series of in deepp hysical interviews with key personnel in CBS, and benched again with the results of the mapping exercise performed in WP1. The final results have been summarized in a report deliverable (D2.1) shared among all the project partners in autumn 2011. Therefore the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully.
Task 2.2 Training and awareness to commercialisation of research results
In parallel, has been launched different activities targeted to stimulate TT awareness and activities in CBS (D.2.2 Training session programme)
Basic and avanced training material has been developed and shared among partner and CBS scientists. The training material (D.2.3 Collection of training material), developed following the perspective of TT and scientific results exploitation, covers the following topics:
• General introduction to the world of Biotech from an industrial perspective
• Patent issues: introduction
• Technology evaluation
• Licensing
• Business models and start-ups
• Marketing
• Case studies on sectors (Red, green and White biotech)
The material has been delivered in the form of a series of connected PPT standard presentations and different training events have been organised in Sfax.
Task 2.4 Build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network
In parallel, linked to the need to stimulate the local environment a coaching activity has been launched in order to support different scientist to identify the best exploitation paths for their scientific results. At the end of the process a total of 13 project ideas has been assessed and supported with a coaching approach and 3 (only 2 planed) of them have been specifically supported from a business plan point of view (Biotech rdp, Chitoprod and AAC). (D.2.6 Annex “Report on network and cluster implementation Incubated/coached initiatives “2011 – 2012 – 2013”. Therefore the milestone M4 (Technology transfer plan) was met successfully .
The synergistic activity to support CBS to create a local “community” involving scientists “public” stakeholders and companies has been implemented. Such activity starts not only from the coaching process and particularly from the support to start-up creation but also from the need to analiyze and nurture already existing links with companies operating in the Sfax territory. Direct participation in local events, in order to share among the different players a common culture/knowledge about the importance of innovation, the issues related to project building and the relations between private companies and Universities/R&D centres and the development of standard guidelines for Technology Transfer and Networking/clustering has been the 2 main axes of intervention (D 2.6 Guidelines for networking and clustering at territorial level).Also the international dimension has been considered through the involvement of CBS staff and scientists in key European events and the creation of links with european and not europeans science and technology parks and clusters. The final goals were not to create directly and in an “artificial” way the local cluster but to transfer to CBS skills and knowledge about community/network building and about TT project building in order to make possible to dynamize the local system in a sustainable way and to make easier to interact as a system with counter parts both in the developed and developing world. 2 Internships organised in Europe were synergistic to this goal.
Task 2.3 Map and analysis of the local environment: needs of companies and growth trajectories
At the same time a continuous support targeted to the creation of a regional customer relations and networks with collaborators and service suppliers, in order to define products and services, to scale up activities and formulations and to provide business support for the creation of spin-offs has been realized. To complement and integrate a top-down approach in activities a bottm up effort ha been implemented starting from the assesement of specific needs and percepetion by companies (D 2.5 “Report of Mapping and analysis of local environment: needs of companies and build up ofa database to better match their R&D capabilities”). The aim of this activity has been to enable the CBS to identify the key sectors of the local market (mainly in the fields of pharmaceuticals and agro-food), draw up a list with the possible interactions between research and industrial sectors, take the contacts of these enterprises and identify their needs through potential visits and meetings. The general feeling is that companies are used to consider the local environment as a phisical place more than as an “ecosystem” or a cluster. They are used to develop links based on the supply chain paradigm and the relations with Universities and R&D centers are short term and more technical than scientific.It seems that TT activities have been based on such elements and are passive in term of creation of links. In other words they are waiting for contacts from companies and they are not actively approaching companies.
In this context two databases were created from the results of two surveys conducted with the competencies/scientific know/how/capability to deliver scientific services in one hand and with the companies on the other hand. In such perspective basic elements considered was the level innovation and technology transfer possibilities. The directory has been developed published and hosted on the project website ( http:// bioprotech.org) and is now accessible both by companies and scientists . These two dynamic databases are closely linked via the virtual matchmaking tool (a search engine) that allows to:
• Identify potential partners through standardized keywords
• build the capacity of these partners
• select the most suitable partner (company or research institution )
• Contact partner
• Etc.
At external level the 2 databases could be the first step to present the local community as a cluster and to be a territorial marketing tool. The directories
could be also used by external companies to find partners for EU funded projects or for industrial/commercial collaborations.
Referring to the previous cited activities, we can stipulate that the milestone M6 (Analyses results of local industry mapping) was met successfully .
WP3
Task 3.1 FP7 and research management trainings
In order to collaborate closer with EU research partners it is necessary to understand and use the research funding instruments available within the EU (FP7, Horizon 2020 and others). The focus area was on funding programmes related to health, food, agriculture, biotechnology and environment. This WP allowed building up knowledge about European research funding instruments through training. The target groups for this WP were the scientists from CBS and neighbouring institutions, several research managers from local industry and technology parks (start-ups and spin-off) and EU programme support organisations such as the Tunisian NCP. Training were organised in small groups to allow case work and practical examples in group discussion.
Task 3. 2 Coaching 3 concrete proposal preparations
With this task of WP3, BioProtech supported CBS staff and neighbouring institutions in coaching sessions for the concrete EU research project preparation. The coaching sessions were organised at the CBS, each interested participant handed in beforehand a one page project interest notification sheet in order for the coach from SFZ to get prepared. The bilateral coaching last each about one hour and were moderated by one representative of the CBS BioProtech local committee. The coaching was organised in conjunction with the WP3 and WP2 training to allow synergies in organising the event.
Implemented activities (details are included in the deliverables):
• Schedule of 3 training modules with case studies and practical exercises
• Trainings:
o June 21, 2011, Sfax, 25 participants, How to manage an EU project
o November 1st 2011, Sfax; 20 participants; From bench to industry through technology transfer and EU funded project
o May 14th 2012, Sfax, 15 participants; How to develop a project and prepare a research proposal
• Coachings
o Nov. 2nd, 2011,Sfax, 7 project ideas discussed
o May 15th 2012, Sfax, 3 project ideas discussed
o Nov. 7th 2012, Sfax, 5 projects ideas discussed
The kind of training and coaching set up proved to be the right tool for the target group.
In addition CBS staff visits EU events in Brussels and France 4 times in order to received updated information on future funding issues and build networks with European institutions relevant for EU funding.
Finally more than 5 projects proposals were submitted, thereof already now 3 were positively evaluated and started as follow up activities in various fields. Therefore the milestone M5 (Participation in 3 EU project proposals) was met successfully.
List of projects:
• EU FP7 health call in October 2011 (HEALTH.2012.2.4.5-2 Name: European pre-rheumatoid arthritis family study); The project was rejected
• EU Tempus project submitted with Sfax University and the University of Rennes as coordinator, Main objective of Tempus for the University of Sfax is to strengthen the relation between academics and the industrial sector. The WP4 coordinated by the Sfax University aims to re-qualify 30 doctors in the domain of Life sciences in order to ensure for them a better integration in Agrofood, Health and Environment sectors and also to review the doctoral school system in Tunisia . The major goal of this activity is to decrease the number of unemployed doctors in life sciences in Tunisia after the revolution. The efforts to build up connections to local industry are in line with the BioProtech WP2 approach. The WP2 matchmaking database for industry profiles and research competences will be followed up and continues as part of the TEMPUS project. The project started in 2012.
• PASRI (Europe Aid – 12 Mio. €) : Mobilisation d’expertise au profit d’institutes et d’enterprise tunisienne dans le cadre de la mise en coeur du project d’appui au system de recherche et innovation. The project includes one component about building a network of TT offices so called Bureau de transfert de technologie (BUTT). In this activity the BioProtech partner Steinbeis is involved as expert. The TTO of the CBS and also University of Sfax are main recipients of this activity. The network of BUTT shall enable to build an independent network organization providing services for the single BUTT and allow for joint projects and interdisciplinary solutions for industry demands. All WP2 results and activities will thus be followed up in the BUTT of the CBS and will be further developed in the PASRI frame. The project stared in 2012
• German –Tunisian technological cooperation programme, project DIAPOULTRY, Partners are the CBS start up Biotech RDP, the University of Sfax and 3 organisations from Germany (Research institute for infective diseases, SME for Diagnostic, TT-Steinbeis for management). The project aims to build up state of the art diagnostic solutions for Tunisians poultry branch in order to minimize potential and risk of severe poultry infections which also have a huge influence to Europe as main market. This project is a result of WP2 and WP3 coaching activities. The project was positively evaluated but due to funding limitation, the Tunisian government put energy related project in the focus for this year. The same call comes out next year and the group will prepare a proposal again.
• EU FP7 People IIF project” Sensogenes” submitted by Prof Ayadi (CBS and University of Sfax) with Institute Pasteur in Paris (Coordinator), Sensogenes aims to study in silico genes and proteins involved in hereditary diseases and in the development of sensorial organs ( ear and eye). The proposal includes also dissemination activities in the related domain. The project is still under negotiation.
WP4
One of the main objectives addressed by the BioProtech project deals with the dissemination of CBS activities and BioProtech results. The WP4 activities were focused on the following five tasks:
Task 4.1 Symposium in Sfax, Tunisia
The event was entitled “BioProtech International Conference on Bioproduction (BICB)”. A draft program was approved during the 3rd steering committee meeting of BioProtech project. Then, the Scientific and Organizational committees (SC and OC) were established and three meetings were organized with all committee members for the discussion of the seminar sessions, program and speakers. After many discussions in the frame of steering Committee meetings and BICB specific meetings of SC and OC regrouping scientists from CBS and other research and educational institutions and stakeholders and industrials , the final title and program of the event were approved.. A detailed description is still available in the deliverable 4.1.b. All of these information were included in the project website (www.bioprotech-conference.org). For dissemination of the seminar, the first announcement was printed in April 2012 and was distributed in several events to academics and industrials.
In continuation of the preparation of the BICB event, the final program has been approved and edited in the form of an agenda booklet and distributed as a promotional tool during the event. All received abstracts (posters, oral communications), via the dedicated web site (www.bioprotech-conference.org) have been selected by the scientific committee. Then registration has been ensured on line via the web site.
The main objective of the seminar was to gather all the bioproduction components since research till the creation of industrial start ups. The ideas exchanges and business opportunities between European institutions, local stakeholders and policy makers during this meeting were promising. This event started in November 5, 2012 and gathered more than 140 participants. It included six scientific sessions ensured by 24 eminent speakers, 20 Business to Business "B2B" meetings putting together local industrials, academicians and national and international experts in the domain of biotechnology and technology transfer and Exhibition area dedicated to 8 local service providers related to Biotechnology. At this effect it is important to mention that for the first time in Tunisia an EU project has succeed to put together unemployed graduates ( doctors and engineers), researchers and industrials and experts the frame of a scientific event. The close collaboration with the local stakeholders has efficiently contributed to interest industrials and offers real business opportunities between academicians, experts and professionals in the sector of Biotechnology.
Several promotional materials have been edited and distributed during the inaugural day meeting to the participants (Agenda participant booklet, leather briefcases, note pad and printed pen). A detailed description is available in the deliverable 4.1.
At the end of this event some recommendations have been issued jointly prepared by The CBS, Pasteur institute of Tunis and Genopole of Evry France and have been approved by all the participants mainly by the two representatives from respectively the ministry of health and higher education as well as the Healthtechnopark of SidiThabet and presented during the closing ceremony (See the annex of final report).
Task4.2 Promotional material
The preparation of the promotional material is the key step for the dissemination activities. For this raison: briefcase, poster (BioProtech, microarray, First announcement), flyer, biosafety workshop CD, printed pens and first announcement of the BICB, were prepared and edited in large number and used in various project events. Two Leaflets were prepared to give an early visibility to the BioProtech projects as an example of ERA-WIDE project. The first one was sent for the EU to prepare the ERA-WIDE brochure and the second one was showed in the Euro-Mediterranean Conference in BCN in a poster created by MIRA project. Finally, to give more opportunity to the dissemination of our project activities a mail was sent to a meeting associating all ERA-wide and bilat coordinators containing 50 flyers of BioProtech objectives and expected output. Moreover, a package of informatics and multimedia has been used for dissemination, workshops, participation to EU conferences and fairs and for the organization of the BICB conference in 2012 and for local BioProtech project committee meetings in CBS held at least twice per week to follow up the project activities ongoing. A detailed list of this materials and events is available in deliverable 4.3.
Task 4. 3 Webpage
The webpage (http://BioProtech.org) was subcontracted by a start-up from ENIS (National Engineering School of Sfax) in order to encourage the young high graduated competencies. It was first created in November 30th, 2010 and delivered in February 2011. During all the project period running, the web site was all the time functional and updated for each project event. In this website, you can find two parts: a public part and a privacy one. The private zone is reserved only to the partners of the project (via specific login) and included various private documents shared by only the consortium members. In the public part, public information is available and actually chaired by all visitors. This home page is connected to the CBS web site www.cbs.rnrt.tn. Therefore the milestone M2 ( BioProtech website established) was met successfully.
The webpage http://bioprotech.org of the project has been regularly updated according to all the events organized during the biorotech project. At this effect, a new design has been affected to the Webpage. In fact, we have added new platform "matchmaking" implemented in the frame of WP2 amended activities which consists in a virtual tool which do the link between the created two databases related respectively to companies and CBS competencies. Furthermore, we added a French version to the home page and the new created platform to facilitate the communication between professionals and researchers in Tunisia.
Task4.4 EU database /matchmaking
In order to disseminate the CBS research potential and competencies, several activities were made in this task. Firstly, the project was attended in the national and international events, which were an opportunity of matchmaking with industrials and young promoters.
At the local level, the project has participated to two national events on innovation “CAT2012” in November 2012 in Tunis and “salon de l’Entreprise in Sfax” in March 2012. In addition, at two International economic forums held in Sfax on october 2012 and 2013, which enabled to contact and provide matchmaking opportunities with professionals in the field of Bioprocesses. On May 14, 2012 EU matchmaking activities and databases have been explained to the CBS staff in the frame of the organization of WP3 workshop. Moreover, there were several relevant participations to networking and or matchmaking opportunities mainly with:
- Other ERA-Wide projects in Tunisia CB-WR-MED coordinated by CERTE BorjCedria and GM_NCD_in_co coordinated by Pasteur institute of Tunis
- the German cooperation GIZ during the panel discussion on best practices in knowledge and technology transfer in June 27, 2013 in Hammamet and the presentation of the virtual matchmaking platform
- the University of Sfax and Tempus project consortium :"Developing University-Enterprise Partnerships life sciences and technologies in Tunisia" (http://tempus-tunisie-2012.agrocampus-ouest.fr via the dissemination of the companies needs analysis and the virtual matchmaking platform achieved in the frame of WP2 activities to academicians and graduated students present during June 6, 2013.
At the European and Mediterranean levels the project has participated to:
- BioPmed innovation cluster ( www.biopmed.eu) initiated by our Italian project partner Bioindustry park SilvanoFumero "BiPC" and which mission is to create and develop an innovative cluster inHealth care (biotech, Pharma, diagnostic, med tech and h-health and health services) sectors in Piedmont, Italy
- MED-SPRING (Mediterranean Science, Policy, Research & Innovation Gateway), an important FP7 project, launched in February 2013 and dedicated to the support of the bi-regional Euro-Mediterranean STI dialogue, MED-SPRING will bring together a large variety of stakeholders (policy makers, researchers, the civil society, etc.) from the Mediterranean Partner Countries and EU Member states in a dialogue and action platform to identify common priorities in Research and Innovation,
- The "2ème Sommet Maghrebin de la santé" for innovation and technology transfer represented an excellent opportunity to disseminate the BioProtech project results in the related domains in presence of academics and industrials in biopharma field , stakeholders and policy makers in Maghreb . In fact BioProtech project in its self and its impact were clearly highlighted.
Task4.5: Visit EU conference and fairs related to bioprocesses
Since the starting of the project , 21 participations of CBS scientists to 9 EU conferences and 2 EU fairs and other relevant EU events related to technology transfer, networking with other ERA-Wide projects and Buil-up of EU projects, etc. have been completed to ensure a wider dissemination of the project activities. In fact referring to Annex1, it was expected that 16 participants from CBS staff will visit 8 EU conferences and fairs these figures have been increased in order to ensure a better visibility of the project at European level and exchange of knowhow not only in bioprocesses but also in technology transfer and innovation knowing that this does not affect the allocated budget for these actions. In this context one interesting result following the participation to theses EU events consisted in the selection of two poster abstracts presented by two young researchers from CBS during the 15th European Congress on biotechnology in Turkey in September 2012 that were published on the proceeding book of the congress. Therefore the milestone M7 (conference participation) was met successfully.
WP5
Task5.1 Evaluation process
This WP was reduced in content and budget according to the amendment in June 2012.
The evaluation was implemented based on a questionnaire to the project partners and a bit different one for CBS. The evaluation was prepared and implemented from an EU expert of SFZ who was so far not involved in the project. The feedback included in the 9 filled-in evaluation forms by CBS and partners has been analysed and summarised by a Steinbeis experts (see details of the results in the deliverables). The results have been discussed with the project partners as well as regional stakeholders from research and industry in the framework of a conference held in Sfax September 19, 2013 and defined future steps. Therefore the milestone M8 (Evaluation of BioProtech) was met successfully.
WP6
Task 6.1 Starting of the project
The first project steering committee meeting or Kick Off Meeting “KOM” has been organized in the CBS in month 2 (2-3 December 2010) with the presence of the EU project scientific officer. Therefore the milestone M1 (Kick-off meeting) was met successfully.
This meeting was attended by almost 80 researchers mainly from CBS and others from Sfax university, local research institutions, stakeholders and media to ensure a wider dissemination of the project overall activities. In fact, we profited from the visit of the EU representative to visit the main regional policy makers such as the Sfax municipality, the business centre the Tunisian Agency for Promoting Industry "API", the Sfax University and the olive research institute in order to give them a wider idea about the BioProtech project environment. Moreover, a detailed work plan and schedule including risk management aspects has been discussed and explained to WP partners during the second day of the KOM. The consortium agreement between the partners has been prepared and an advanced draft has been discussed during the KOM and the final version has been completed and signed by all the project partners in January 2011.
Task 6.2 Implementation
We prepared and delivered reports and any other material requested by the European Commission. Such as the Periodic reports which should be delivered in month 18 and 36 as stipulated in Annex I and amended text. The coordinator also ensured the financial and administrative management of the project including the distribution and controlling of funding among the partners. The third party: Agence Nationale de Promotion de la Recherche Scientifique (ANPR) charged by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the financial management for all EU projects.
At this effect, the CBS mandated the ANPR to administer the financial issues and holding bank account in euro with an interest bearing account for BioProtech project during the whole project duration. In order to assure an efficiency financial management of this project, we assumed that the main coordination action activity is the close collaboration with the ANPR (Tunisian Agency for Promoting Scientific Research) and the ETC project coordinated by the Tunisian NCP. This action led to the set up of common rules for the administrative and financial management of EU projects at national level. The EU pre-financing has been distributed to project partners according to the budget table and has been agreed among the consortium. Moreover, the project supported the recruitment of three young graduated persons respectively in EU project management, Fermentation technology and technology transfer to be employed in the CBS, especially after their interesting experience and know how acquired during the project running period. A budget control table template has been sent to all partners to give an overview on Budget and incurred expenditures regularly updated every half year since the starting of the project. A new amendment has been discussed between the project consortium and in presence of the EU Scientific project officer during the third steering committee meeting held in Sfax during November 3, 2012. The main objectives of this amendment were the modification of the project duration (from 30 months to 36 months) and a new budget reallocation between work packages and partners budgets in order to achieve new activities related to WP2. In fact, the activities of WP5 will be reduced to avoid duple work due to the fact that the Tunisian national ministry of higher education and scientific research has initiated a program to evaluate research centers. This amendment was approved by the project consortium and submitted to the EC for final signature in March 2012.
Regular internal meetings between CBS BioProtech local committee members are organized at least twice per week in order to ensure an efficient follow up of BioProtech activities ongoing. In this context it is important to notify that 4 doctors from the CBS in the fields of Microarray, fermentation and biosafety have integrated the local Committee in May 2012 to ensure a bigger impact and dissemination towards CBS activities.
Furthermore, a regular evaluation of performance and a follow up of work package leaders at least once per semester during the steering committee meetings has been done during the all period of project.
Six steering committee meetings have been chaired by the coordinator. The second and fourth meeting took place at project partners and respectively in BiPCa, Italy and UCBL, France.
The fifth steering committee meeting took place in Sfax on November 6, 2012 coinciding with the organization of the BioProtech International Conference on BioProduction “BICB” in November 5-8, 2012 and an extra and final one was held in September 20, 2013 organized jointly with the final project evaluation meeting which took place in the CBS on September 19,2013 .
During the whole project running, we ensured regular communication and permanent support with the project partners at individual needs to enhance efficient running of the project mainly by e-mail, phone and skype communications. We also prepared and delivered reports and minutes related to the two further steering committee meetings held in Sfax during the project second period and any other material requested by the European Commission.
Moreover, the coordinator has been contacted by ECRAAL (European Centre for Research in Asia Africa and Latin America) in January 2012 to present BioProtech and to give a presentation on GMO in Brussels and become membership to plan for a future cooperation activities. Another meeting was held in Marseilles in October 2011 allowed the coordinator to present BioProtech project to other ERA Wide projects in the perspective of creating networks.
Networking and coordination with other ERA WIDE projects and with ANPR
Also it is necessary to mention that to ensure a bigger impact on the regional development FP7 know-how and support in EU project management, the coordinator has attended four meetings in Tunis with the ANPR, Tunisian EU delegation, consortium of Tunisian ERA Wide projects:
- Meeting in the ANPR with the national NCP and other Research institutions involved in FP7 to discuss the financial management of existing EU projects and preparation of a Tunisian financial guide for EU projects. ( February 11th, 2011)
- Meeting with the Tunisian ERA wide coordinators to discuss the common problems and in the aim to creating a local network. ( May 25th, 2012)
- Information day on EU cooperation opportunities in the EU delegation in Tunisia in the frame of PASRI program which aims in reinforcing partnership between Tunisia and Europe in research and innovation management trades (May 26th,2011)
- Meeting on management of EU projects in the ANPR ( July 5th, 2011)
In order to ensure a bigger impact on the regional development FP7 know-how and support in EU project management and networking with other ERA Wide projects coordinators in Tunisia. Two participations to meetings and workshops took place in Tunis with other ERA- Wide projects coordinators:
- Meeting with ERA Wide coordinators consortium in the Agronomy Institute Tunis “INAT” to exchange experiences and acquired know how in capacity building ( April 27, 2013)
- Workshop on EU collaborative project Buil-up and management in Pasteur institute of Tunis (June 27-28,2012).
The main output of the organized meetings between Tunisian ERA WIDE project coordinators , ETC project and the ANPR was the elaboration of a national financial guideline for EU projects The content of this document was carefully elaborated taking into account its accordance with both EU and national financial management rules.
Furthermore, The collaboration with the ANPR was efficiently ongoing and a regular communication was continually ensured by exchanged financial periodic reports, phone and exchange of emails. At this effect and to implement a sustainable expertise in EU project management not only in the CBS but also in Sfax university and the ANPR , the recruited person in Financial issues has achieved a mission in INSA Toulouse in June 24-29,2013 to learn more about EU project management tools and to coordinate the financial management of BioProtech project, In fact in close collaboration with the INSA financial officer they achieved the state of incurred expenses and their repartition regarding each WP activity.
Finally Gender issues and ethical questions have been taken into consideration through the coordinator during the whole project duration.
Task 6.3 Finalisation
The principal aim of the final SCM held in Sfax in conjunction with the internal project evaluation meeting was to do the sum-up and to auto-evaluate all achieved actions and to prepare the schedule and necessary material of the second reporting and the final report in presence of all project partners. The coordinator will assume the coordination of the redaction of the final report .
Potential Impact:
WP1
Task1.3 "Lectures and lab courses at CBS and at project partner’s locations" consisted in analyzing the impact of the different actions done by the follow up of the different indicators chosen at the beginning of the project and propose some recommendations for the future. These indicators should be able to evaluate the performance evolution of the CBS in the 3 domains and includes (publications rates, patents rate, publications impact factors, contract with private and public laboratories, international contract, turn-over, invited speakers, implementation of new technologies, staff skill). The analysis of indicators is presented in deliverable D1.3. Analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the third year project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in the 3 fields.
For genomics/microarray topic, these improvements concern the management of the activities with now a clear organisation chart and a real policy of core facility development. A real policy for CBS staff training in order to have a critical mass necessary to develop the service activity is validated. The implementation of new technologies necessary to reach the European level and necessary to answer the challenging problematic coming from health, environmental and agricultural fields etc…is on-going (New generation sequencing technology is one of the major implementation). The visibility of the platform is now improved and validated by the increase of the number of national and international communications and thesis. The expertise acquired by CBS led him to become a coordinator of international genomic projects funded by ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology) and TWAS – French Foundation for rare diseases. For the next year (year 4 after the beginning of the BioProtech project), it is necessary to concretise the policy of core facility development by taking account 4 other indicators. The first concerns the follow up of the number of genomics analysis realised on the platform with a display between 1) the inside and the outside projects 2) private companies or public institution 3) Tunisian or other countries etc... The second indicator is the turnover of the platform which is the only indicator reflecting the real activity of the facility. The third is the follow-up of the publications number and impact factor. The last indicator is the integration of CBS in horizon 2020 European project related to genomics to improve diseases' diagnosis and treatment.
For biofermentation topic, analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the three years of the project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in this field. The development of the valorization unit of the CBS to a bioproduction platform has been recently adopted by the scientific council of the CBS. Thus, the centre of transfer will have the critical size to supply the tasks. In addition to the creation of the “fermentation Committee”, much was done to create a close and practical working relationship between the participants in the activities. Thus, two theses and one master will be co-supervised by engineer and researchers taking advantages of the new acquired knowledge in the domain of fermentation. The CBS teams are now sufficiently interacted to share experience or to build new skills.
This fact will fill the CBS gap between the lab scale design of a bioprocess and the phase of commercial production. In term of technology development and transfer, the BioProtech project has succeeded, through the secondments and the theoretical and the practical courses, to assist the competencies of CBS in term of Microbial cultivation technology. The intent is to facilitate the screening and production of metabolites and bioactive compounds through;
• Screening of enzymes of interest: development of genomic and metagenomic banks and optimization of enzymes by mutagenesis,
• Physiology and Microbial Metabolism: Identification of nutritional requirements and metabolic limits,
• Microbial systems and Bioprocesses,
• Transfer, Interface, Mixing,
• Separation, Oxidation, hybrid Process for the environment.
• Process modeling and analysis technique for managing complex design projects using advanced simulation.
• Theoretical evaluation of stoichiometric reactions that support microbial growth as applied to bioproduction and environmental problems, co evolution of microbial dynamics and microbial physiology and mechanisms of gas–liquid mass transfer in bioreactors.
However some indicators remain without value and concern international project. Biofermentation activity improvement is on progress. Some indicators are still without value indicating a difficulty to valorise the effort for training and equipment implementation. These indicators should be considered in more details in 2014. The activities in this action will not be stopped up, and then we have planned for a Scale-up training and follow-up for the technicians of all the different laboratory of the CBS. A multidisciplinary regional health-care worker symposium will be organized on the topic of probiotic (production, formulation and use).
For biosafety topic, Analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the three years of the project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in the field of Biosafety. The involvement of European specialized institutions as well as competencies are gained for the implementation of the CBS recommendations for biosafety and good lab practices. This is concomitantly occurring with the drawing of national measures and policies related to GMO use and production. The BioProtech project has succeeded, through the secondments and the theoretical and the practical training and lectures, to assist the competencies of CBS in term of good lab practices on laboratories and GMO manipulations. In this regard, a large number of researchers, laboratory technician and engineers from CBS and outside CBS are now trained and can be considered as trainer in their institutions. The creation and diffusion of recommendations and flyers (flyers for gloves, pictograms, compatibility of chemicals products, management of chemicals product risk) in CBS and outside of CBS (Pharmaceutical industries and different universities) as a necessary material support for biosafety.
Moreover, the management of the biosecurity with the creation of a CBS biosafety officer (BO) was already done in 2013 at the Faculty of Sciences of Sfax and a key person (engineer from CBS) was prepared and skilled on biosafety to reach the BO position.
Many collaborations were done in the frame of the BioProtech project: the first collaboration was with the Ministry of Environment that asked the CBS local committee to act with them in order to disseminate rules of biosafety in Tunisia and it is the first time that many different Ministry participate (Ministry of Health, Ministry de of higher education and scientific research, Ministry of industry and technology, Ministry of finance). The second collaboration with the University of Sfax, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax (october 22, 2013) to highlight the biosafety practices at the University.
The BioProtech project has and will continuous the 1) increase CBS and other university institutions capacities for the safe handling and monitoring of microorganisms, active biomolecules and GMOs, in conformity to national regulations and in line with European practice and acquisition of best practices and research protocols to result in less stringent regulatory measures.2) contribution to Set-up of a GMO office that conforms to national requirements, incorporating key strategic advances in the area of sampling and traceability in line with current European standards and procedures in this arena. 3) improve the acquisition of basic safety laboratory practices in line with the WHO rules on biosafety, local legislation, and in conformity with EU directives
A real policy for biosafety in CBS is also validated. All the indicators used to evaluate the improvement of the biosafety in CBS are positive.
WP2
Realized activities in perpective could have impact on 3 main problematic area:
1) At cultural level the perception fo scientists on the importance of technology transfer and more in general the awareness of the so-called “third mission” of universities and R&D centers related to the economic development
2) At internal (CBS) level the creation of standard approaches for the technology transfer and the incubation of innovative start-ups as element of the mission (Science and technology park/incubator paradigm)
3) At external level (the local environment) the creation of dynamics involving all the local stakeholders for the creation of a local ecosystem focused on life sciences (cluster paradigm)
Life sciences clusters have an important role in the growth of the industry, because concentrate activities of various actors in a geographical area. In such perspective the geographical concentration of the biotech industry offers many advantages:
• Productivity advantages: geographical concentration of the biotech industry offers some advantages to increase the purchasing power for laboratory supplies, raw materials and services. Another one is the use of shared infrastructure provided by biotech park or by the scientific centre it allows to reduce costs and find funds to help the start-up companies.
• Innovation advantages: the concentration academic institutes allows to create networking among professional and researchers and help to sharing ideas and information.
• New business establishment advantages: the idea of cluster is to develop incubators, technology transfer centres and professional networks, adapted infrastructure and government support.
The enterprises benefit from cluster because it creates collaboration and competition in the same time. There are three dimensions of a cluster development, to be considered
• The dimension of framework conditions: cluster needs to develop a favourable framework inside to support the activities of cluster companies. The general framework conditions are for example specific infrastructure, labor force skills or institutes and regulatoryissues (taxation).
• The dimension of cluster actors: clusterhas to contain strong companies and strong interaction among different actors. The strengthis the cooperation between companies and other stakeholders as universities and research institutes.
• The dimension of cluster management organization: the main activity of cluster management is to support strong dynamic samong companies and other actors of cluster.
The Science and Technology Parks’ (STPs) role in such perspective seems particularly interesting. STPs are like a hub between market and global knowledge economy. They are an useful tool to facilitate and to reduce costs of the journey between support needs and possible solutions. They allow a strong communication among scientific research and production of goods and services. Within the Science and Technology Parks there are both services and incubation facilities for the development of new enterprises that are incubated with the Park. The Parks develop activities in order stimulate innovation production and to identify technological and innovation needs in companies, particularly SMEs. To achieve this goals the Parks coordinate the flow of knowledge e technologies between Universities, research centres, enterprises and markets. Science and Technology Parks promote the economic development and competitiveness of regions and cities by creating business opportunities, generating knowledge-basesjobs, creating synergy between universities and companies, assisting small enterprises.
In such perspective, Science Parks, or organisations that are covering suchrole, are enabling factors for the growth of territorial and local networks/clusters focused on innovation and technology transfer (TT) . In case of TT if the R&D centers are willing to build synergies with the local environment they have to identify local strengths and to concentrate on suchstrengths the growth of their TT activities at local level. And such R&D centers have to makeclear to theirs cientists not only the opportunity and the know-howbutalso the importance to be “part” of the local community.
The basic idea is that R&D centers have to build a “portfolio” of complementary different industrial sectors activities that could over camecris is balancing the “risk”and at the same time could be interestingat global level and/or basic for the local development. The approach that seems to be more efficient in such perspectiveis the creation of a local system and network, a cluster that could represent the basictool to support the growth of a particular industrial sector and of the actors inside suchsector.
Activities realised during the project was targeted exactly in working on such 3 dimension in order to create and to express all the prerequisite for a cluster development. This is exactly the possible future development for the local community. It is clear that , for the Tunisian specific environment, it is not a short term activity that could bring to the creation/development of a life science cluster. Cultural and economic barriershave to be managed. The creation of a country-wide network has to be realised. A better relations between R&D centers/universities and companies has to be realised. Some specific problems (e.g. the rate of unenployed biotech students) have to be adressed at country level. Specific actions to stimulate the relations between companies and universities has to be launched, a strong internationalisation activity has to be realized.
At CBS level it is clear that a better cordination between the different departments and a higher professionalization of TT officers is necessary in order to maximise positive impacts of activities and to make clear the role of CBS at local level. The creation of strong links between science, industry and Public administration following a triple helix aproach could be an outcome of the project and could be at the basis of a sustainable approach.
WP3
The main impact from WP3 is that the CBS staff has better knowledge of EU funding sources, understanding of the procedures and success factors and capabilities to manage projects. Besides the training and coaching events the project management team of CBS received hands on coaching from Steinbeis in all issues related to the EU project implementation as it was the first EU project to coordinate for the CBS. This expertise will help to attract and run further EU or other international projects in the future.
Another important impact is realised through the new projects (see above) which came out of the BioProtech activities. Especially the technology transfer structures and capacities will gain further momentum through the projects PASRI and TEMPUS and enable a long lasting perspective at the CBS.
WP4
An interesting question could be what is the impact of the BioProtech dissemination activities at local and environmental levels?
In fact the WP4 activities have benefited to CBS and its direct environment:
1/ to encourage a young start up in the conception and design of the web site
2/ to organize in Sfax an international symposium on Bioproduction and to put together industrials , researchers, stakeholders ,unemployed graduates, project promoters and to elaborate recommendations ( see annex) for policy makers.
At CBS level, the main impact is:
1/ The participation of CBS young researchers and technical staff in EU scientific meetings and fairs related to biotechnology have contributed to ameliorate positively the visibility of the CBS activities at local and international level. In such perspective, the direct contact between young CBS researchers and their European homologues will enable complementary skills in a better and more competitive way, making use also of the power of the network that will be created to maintain talent in its labs. The establishment of new collaborations will allow a better EU integration through the creation of Tunisian- European networks and additional bidirectional mobility of human resources.
2/ The organization for the first time in Tunisia of an International Conference on Bioproduction " BICB" gathering in the same time unemployed graduates, researchers , stakeholders , industrials and policy makers related to industrial biotechnology and job creation in this field. The issued recommendations (see annex) met a very favorable echo among involved ministries. Moreover a wide and consistent report on BioProtech activities ( 20 pages) has been issued by a Tunisian magazine entitled " Revue de l'Entreprise" in its edition of May-June ,2013 illustrated by photos and interviews ( see annex) .All these dissemination tools have placed the CBS in the heart of the actuality in the Tunisia post revolution during these last 36 months.
Moreover, contact and meetings with stakeholders and civil society were very beneficial for the project activity among the socioeconomic cloth in Sfax and all over Tunisia.
WP5
CBS could play an important role in targeting fields of bioprocessing related to health, food, energy/ environment and marine resources. Whereas participation of research organisations in the framework programmes is substantial in comparison with SME/ Industry involvement, there is stillroom and potential for improvement. Capacity building through research could have a positive effect, both regionally and nationally.
Building an innovation eco-system involving collaborative research, industry – notably SMEs and the regional community - could prove beneficial to increase this effect. The CBS incubator and valorisation structure (BUTT) activities should be in this respect promoted.
Even if there is a strong will to collaborate across the South-North border, there are still hurdles as to Southern partners being perceived as the junior partner or even as a source of exploitation. Leveraging upon Win-Win scenarios and concrete actions/ cooperation between South and North e.g. in the fields of infectious diseases (e.g. malaria & HIV), poverty-related diseases, drought and sustainable agriculture/ energy efficiency… etc. to name a few might attract greater participation of Mediterranean partners. As a consequence, specialisation patterns could be identified as source of interest for potential Northern partners from Europe.
To this effect, there is an urgent need to increase the human and research capacity in the field as well as the region, and to work at increasing the perception amongst potential European partners that the local Tunisian “ecosystem” is “interesting”. CBS research projects should be strongly linked to the Tunisian needs but should not ignore its regional dimension.
These efforts should be pursued and intensified on the short term in the frame of the sequel EU research Framework programme Horizon 2020 in order to reap the results both at mid- as well as long term, since these actions are of much a strategic nature and need time to get established as a sustainable innovation management tool within the overall CBS institutional strategy.
WP6
Following the close collaboration between Tunisian ERA WIDE projects coordinators and the ANPR, Tunisia currently disposes of a qualified structure ( ANPR) for the financial management of EU projects composed mainly by young graduated human resources implemented in the ministry and some institutions including the CBS.
In terms of capacity building and sustainable development, the project has supported the recruitment of three human resources ensuring a sustainable development in the CBS and as project coordinator, we are currently in contact with the ministry office to support their employment.
Recommendations issued from the project evaluation
To enable a sustainable effect of the BioProtech at a regional, national and wider level, it is of utmost importance that structures be put at place to secure the knowledge gained and support those structures partly built in the form of an EU-Reference and TT centre.
Maintaining the (virtual) Match-making website and continuously nurturing it with further concrete projects should increase the exploitation of research results, as well as triggering business collaboration between industry and academia for services, contract research, exploiting intellectual property or creating spin offs. The match-making virtual site can also be used to position the local ecosystem following a cluster internationalisation approach.
Projects with other institutions e.g. chamber of commerce, Technopole, and the University of Sfax should be consolidated and animated through regular information exchange, best practice and collaborative projects. This could lead to regional cluster building.
It is advisable to engage in activities with European-wide networks in clustering (such as CEBR – Council of European Bioregions) and TT like the Enterprise Europe Network and The National Contact Points NCPs in order to reinforce the capability to build international partnerships. At this stage, existing profiles of the regional actors of Sfax area in the virtual matchmaking tool might add visibility to the latter. A possible partnership in the Tunisian Enterprise Europe Network would, indeed, enable further EU access, represent, and promote the innovative Sfax region.
Improving local and national standards (e.g. laboratory safety and biosafety) to be comparable to those in the EU would facilitate collaboration as well as access to markets due to the requirement of quality assurance in future FP cooperation. One cost-effective way to nurture current efforts to improve standards would be for the CBS as an institution, or key BioProtech staff, to become members of the European Biosafety Association (EBSA; www.ebsaweb.eu) so that strategic partnerships are made to focus national and institutional capacity building on attaining European standards.
In addition to the application to collaborative proposals and projects, it is worthwhile to explore other programmes of the EU e.g. the mobility programme “Marie Slodowska Curie fellowship as a source of capacity building, especially Industry Academia Public Partnership for training and recruiting staff in an industrial environment as well as stimulating the transnational transfer of knowledge between research and industry.
Interdisciplinary is a must in providing complex solutions to research and industry partners. Thus, collaboration in the region could further allow developing interdisciplinary topics. It also needs a particular mind-set to enable interdisciplinary work.
Strengthening the 3 platforms of arrays, analytical and bioprocess in terms of standards and quality rules should be at the heart of the internal Strategy of CBS. Furthermore, mastering the technological aspect and developing the areas of utilisation as well as implementing the technologies of apparatus would increase the attractiveness of CBS as a partner for further projects both regionally and EU wide.
Overlapping WP's
1- Improvement of the CBS capacities to joint EU research
BioProtech timely strengthen the CBS research capacities to joint EU research by improving the following areas:
- The technological level in the 3 focus areas which are respectively: Genomics/ Microarrays, Biofermentation and Biosafety to balance the scientific background and research skills in the CBS with the highest level centres in Europe (WP1)
- A better knowledge of EU funding sources opportunities (FP7, CIP, Horizon 2020, etc..)and understanding of the procedures and success factors and capabilities to write and manage EU projects (WP3)
- Direct contact between young CBS researchers and their EU homologues via participations to EU conferences and fairs enabled a better EU integration and creation of Tunisian-European networks (WP4)
2- Improve the socio-economic Impact of CBS
BioProtech project participates to reduce the gap between the scientific and the industrial communities by organizing many exhibitions–manifestations (BICB, Colloque on Technology transfer and innovation, meetings with local stakeholders) gathering researchers (from CBS and outside), experts (Tunisian/European) and policy makers. This offered a unique opportunity to discuss how they can work together and define a strategy for the future enabling a wider opening of the CBS on its socio economic environment.
In fact during the BICB event ( WP4) , the 20 organized B2B sessions enabled to identify real business opportunities between academicians, experts and professionals in the sector of Biotechnology which will enhance the investment in Biotechnology ( economic level) and job creation for unemployed graduates .
Three coachs respectively from the CBS TTO, business incubator and from the of ministry of employment have benefited from two coaching sessions organized in the CBS ( WP2) in order to upgrade their skills not only in Technology transfer but also in EU project build-up ( WP3) and management (WP6) enabling a sustainable development.
Furthermore during the colloque of TT and innovation (WP2), has been presented for the first time in Tunisia a virtual matchmaking platform to ensure the linkage between two created databases related to local scientific competencies and companies in the domain of Biotechnology . This action contributed to the regional development and to strengthen the national economic situation by creating specialized clusters in the domain of Biotechnology.
3-Evaluation and Improvement of CBS capacities on Bioproduction
Since its creation, the CBS laboratories elaborated many patents but till now there is no an external/internal study aimed to evaluate their credibility and their valorization possibilities.
The mapping realized in the frame of the (WP1) showed that the number of national patents is very important ( 42) however of international patent is very low (3 PCT)
The three day training sessions and coachings on valorization of scientific results and the two organized clustering/ networking meetings involving experts, relevant local companies and stakeholders in the frame of WP2 and the BICB-event in the frame of WP4, offered the opportunity to the CBS researchers, having patents, to evaluate their work and discuss with European experts mainly from EU project partners (SFZ, BiPCa) to point out their weaknesses and how these national patents could be more competitive at international level and also to buil up the knowlege base for their commercialization. In this context Dr souad Rouis from CBS ( Biotech rdp start-up) has benefited from a personalized coaching ensured by the BIPCa expert in technology transfer and startup creation to develop more and disseminate the activities of itsalready existing start up. As well as Dr Olfa Kilani ( Chito-Prod start up project) who also benefited from a coaching to improve the economic feasibility of her project and also of a training in INSA Toulouse to strengthen her skills in fermentation (WP1).
4- Scientific Vulgarization
The acquisition of basic biosafety laboratory practices (WP1) has been extended to further laboratories outside the CBS such as universities, private food industries etc. through the distribution to a large public of several promotional materials :flyers" Evaluation, storage and risk management of Chemical products" ( WP4).
The project dedicated website achieved in the frame of WP4 includes all the organized events during the project life cycle and a virtual matchmaking platform (WP2) facilitating the interaction and identifying of potential collaborations between scientists and industrials. At this effect this platform enables researchers and enterprises to communicate easily and to exchange mutual needs and competencies in the field of bioprocesses ( WP1) and related fields such as technology transfer ( WP2) , EU project build up ( WP3), project evaluation ( WP5) and management ( WP6).
In order to disseminate through large public the CBS activities and to highlight the BioProtech project results. At this effect, many press newspapers and media ( TV, radio) have covered the main project events . Indeed, 20 pages related to BioProtech project including Sfax university, Agrofood and paharmceutical entreprises activities showing how BioProtech project has contributed to improve their collaboration, have been issued by a Tunisian magazine entitled " Revue de l'Entreprise" illustrated by photos and interviews. Moreover , a recommendation booklet has been elaborated and distributed to policy makers for a better vision mainly related to biosafety best practices and brainstorming on bioproduction/job creation and TT/innovation .
List of Websites:
www.bioprotech.org
This project aims to support the CBS in the improvement of its capacities in bioprocesses development such as fermentation and microarrays technologies as well as all related fields such as technology transfer mechanisms, know-how about the EU research framework program and biosafety competencies to be better integrated in the ERA. The interaction between CBS and the European partners about bioprocesses and related fields as transfer, valorization and biosafety allowed to a better level and quality of CBS competencies and upgrade their skills and opening on its environment enabling a sustainable development.
The CBS, in collaboration with all project partners mainly through surveys actions pointed out different insufficiencies and proposed a large panel of actions to improve the CBS capacities in bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and innovation and EU project build up and management.
Different actions related to the bioprocess technologies (microarray, fermentation and biosafety) were performed allowing the CBS to ameliorate capacity building and technologies mastering.
Different coaching activities have been realized and in 3 cases advanced support has been assured for the start-up growth, the business plan development and for the identification of exploitation path. Analysis based on a survey was also performed through 50 researchers and 30 enterprises. Our results showed that no interface exists between these two worlds at our local level (Sfax, Tunisia: the most important industrial region). Therefore, a new virtual matchmaking platform enabling the linkage between academia and industry has been realized. Partners have collected a lot of valuable project ideas discussed in the coaching but also at other occasions such as project meetings. Six projects ideas (e.g. for FP7 RegPot, ENPI-CBCMED, FP7 Health, Tempus) were submitted. A new Tempus project has been accepted. Two proposals were handed in already. More than 16 participations to EU conferences and fairs have been completed. Twenty B2B meetings have been organized on transferring innovative ideas from research to business communities in the frame of the organized symposium on bioproduction on November 2012. At the occasion policy makers, industrials and experts have enriched the debate and contributed to the elaboration of the recommendations issued to enhance the bioproduction sector in Tunisia. Promotional material such as flyers, posters, booklets, etc.. have been continually prepared and diffused in Tunisia and abroad. An internal evaluation of the project results at the end of the project based on a questionnaire for CBS staff and a bit different one for the project partners. The report gave furthermore suggestions for actions to take in the future based on the overall positive outcome of the evaluation and the project.
In conclusion, more than one hundred young researchers, technicians, engineers and administrative staff from CBS and other Tunisian institutions have participated to workshops and lectures in Bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and FP7 project buildup. This enabled CBS researchers to carry out experiences related to these technologies inside the CBS and the possibility to create by themselves their own start-ups. The main output of the project is the training and recruitment opportunity in the CBS offered to 3 unemployed graduates from Sfax University trained respectively in EU project management, technology transfer and innovation and in fermentation technologies as means of contribution to sustainability and job creation in Tunisia. At this effect, all the project planed milestones and deliverables have been met successfully and delivered in due time.
Project Context and Objectives:
Tunisia has launched necessary policies and measures to set up and improve the efficiency of research centres such as the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS). As a key element of the Tunisian Biotechnology Plan the CBS focuses on applied research particularly in terms of use, development, transfer and application of bioprocesses.
BioProtech project is an ERA-WIDE action supported and funded under 7th Framework program (FP7) by European Commission On the way to a more knowledge based economy and in accordance with scientific and technological agreements with the European Union.
This project aims to support the CBS in the improvement of its capacities in bioprocesses development such as fermentation and microarray technologies as well as all related fields such as technology transfer, know-how about the EU research framework program and biosafety competencies to be better integrated in the ERA. To achieve these objectives, five European partners have been selected who are highly qualified and specialized in each of the topics. The amendment signed by the Commission on June 29, 2013 gave more efficiency to the project implementation and impact. It aims mainly to achieve a new activity which consists in a scientific analysis of the research centres and companies interaction.
BioProtech project is organized into 6 work packages(WP) covering the technological aspect of bioprocesses (fermentation, microarray and biosafety), the incubation and transfer of bioprocesses especially to the local industry: “questionnaire” on R&D company needs, training and coaching in EU-FP7, dissemination of scientific results, internal evaluation regarding the focus of CBS and the further integration in the ERA, and the project management.
The implementation of new technologies necessary to reach the European level and to answer the challenging problematic coming from health, environmental and agricultural field etc…is on-going (New generation sequencing technology is one of the major implementation). The visibility of the Microarray platform in CBS is now improved and validated by the increase of the number of national and international communication and thesis.
In addition to the creation of the “fermentation Committee”, much was done to create a close and practical working relationship between the participants in the activities. Thus, two theses and one master will be co-supervised by engineer and researchers taking advantages of the new acquired knowledge in the domain of fermentation.
The involvement of European specialized institutions as well as competencies are gained for the implementation of the CBS recommendations for bisafety and good lab practices. This is concomitantly occurring with the drawing of national measures and policies related to GMO use and production with the collaboration of the Ministry of Environment and other ministries.
The CBS teams are now sufficiently interacted to share experience or to build new skills related to bioprocesses
The results support local economic development through the creation of new or support of existing high-tech companies and more scientific collaborations with the EU. In the field of bioprocesses, one of the project objectives is to improve the technical skills of the CBS staff in microarray and fermentation technologies in order to create wealth enabling to identify promising results and support their path through cooperation, licensing or start-up creation. Comparison and matching between what exist in Tunisia and in the EU helped updating and adjusting the local competencies. This will also benefit the European actors as know-how and capacities will be better integrated and available in the ERA.
The interaction between CBS and the European partners about bioprocesses and related fields as transfer, valorization and biosafety allowed to a better level and quality of CBS competencies and to
upgrade their skills and their opening on the exterior environment enabling a sustainable development. The kick-off meeting was organizing at the beginning of the December 2010 and the website was established at month 4. Therefore, the milestones M1 and M2 were meet successfully.
The CBS, in collaboration with all project partners mainly through surveys actions pointed out different insufficiencies and proposed a large panel of actions to improve the CBS capacities in bioprocesses, technology transfer, biosafety and innovation and EU project build up and management. Referring to these mapping reports and to implement the project objectives we have proposed a series of events such as organization of exchange programs, joint lab courses, “secondements” and training courses, workshops and expert meetings and bringing CBS scientists into European biotech fairs and conferences. Therefore, the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully
The follow up of these indicators during the 3 year project shows a real improvement of the CBS capacity in terms of equipment, technological skills and EU project management. However, some indicators as the publications rate and impact factor should be addressed with more attention.
Concerning Technology Transfer and Innovation activities, we have achieved the report on mapping of technological potential in technology transfer in the CBS. Therefore the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully. We have then planed and accomplished successfully three Training Sessions program. Moreover, the coaching activity started in parallel and a total of 13 project ideas has been assessed and supported with a coaching approach and 3 (only 2 planned in the annex B) of them have been specifically supported from a business plan point of view. Therefore the milestone M4 (Technology transfer plan) was met successfully.Training materials, innovative process and the acquisition of technologies in life sciences are in an intermediate version. Activities are ongoing and the final deliverable will be delivered, with the actual situation, following the schedule. Furthermore, we have launched activities focused on cluster building through meetings, events and analysis of the local environment through interviews to measure companies’ needs and build up databases related to scientific competencies and companies and created a virtual matchmaking platform to ensure the linkage. The main goal of this activity was to build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network and in parallel to identify potential synergies with international partner. The new virtual matchmaking platform enabling the linkage between academia and industry is now functional on the project web page. Referring to the previous cited activities, we can confirm that the milestone M6 (Analyses results of local industry mapping) was met successfully.
Twenty B2B meetings have been organized on transferring innovative ideas from research to business communities. Furthermore, Policy makers have enriched the debate and contributed to the elaboration of the recommendations issued to enhance the bioproduction sector in Tunisia. Promotional material such as flyers, posters, booklets, etc.. have been continually prepared and diffused in Tunisia and abroad.
The WP5 "Evaluation" focused on an internal evaluation of the project results at the end of the project. The findings were based on a questionnaire for CBS staff and a bit different one for the project partners. The questions addressed the three topics: Contribution to main objectives; Contribution to work packages and Impact and exploitation. In total 9 feedbacks were analyzed and the findings presented at the final meeting in Sfax in September 2013. The report gave furthermore suggestions for actions to be taken in the future based on the overall positive outcome of the evaluation and the project. Therefore the milestone M8 (Evaluation of BioProtech) was met successfully.
Furthermore, two internships have been realized in project partner institution (BiPCa) on topics linked to technology transfer and clustering.
Moreover, partners have collected a lot of valuable project ideas were discussed in the coaching but also at other occasions such as project meetings. Six project ideas (e.g. for FP7 RegPot, ENPI-CBCMED, FP7 Health, Tempus) reached a more advanced status in the preparation. Two proposals were handed in already. The kind of implemented training sessions and coaching set up proved to be the right tool for the target group. Two visits to Brussels of CBS staff allowed an increased interaction with the European Commission representatives. Furthermore, the WP focused on one more training workshop on EU research project preparation with 15 participants and two coaching sessions where 8 project ideas have been discussed. The concrete proposal preparation process was supported by e-mail and skype consultations. In summary out of WP3, five EU proposals were handed in and already two projects started their activities and one proposal is still under negotiation. Therefore the milestone M5 (Participation in 3 EU project proposals) was met successfully.
The promotional materials are already used in Tunisia and Europe events. Therefore posters and brochures were distributed throughout the organized events: the international seminar of Biosafety (February 2012; November 2012), Sfax International fair (March 2012), Meetings of preparation of the BioProtech International Conference on Bioproduction held in Sfax in November 2012 and in Europe at the occasion of participating to fairs, conferences and Steering Committee meetings. More than the expected 16 participations to EU conferences and fairs have been completed. Therefore the milestone M7 (conference participation) was met successfully.
Finally, the outputs in the field of BioProtech project concerned several axes related to sustainable development, research quality, technology transfer and job creation and the improvement of CBS visibility. Indeed:
1. The CBS currently benefit of a new microarray platform managed by experienced researchers
2. The fermentation technology shows a qualitative evolution in its utilization
3. For the first time in Tunisia, lab courses, workshops, flyers and recommendations related to biosafety best practices were provided to PhD students, laboratory technical staff, Engineer and researchers from different ministries (Higher education, Environment, Industry, Interior….
4. Training & coaching in technology transfer were provided to project promoters and moreover to Three CBS trainers and coachers in The incubator, TTO and Intellectual property
5. Contribution to the start-up and the first Tunisian cluster on health and tourism creation
6. The first scientific analysis in Tunisia on University- enterprise interaction and establishment of virtual matchmaking platform
7. Launch of new EU projects (Tempus n° 530312/tempus:"Développement de partenariats Universités-Entreprises du Domaine des Sciences et Technologies du Vivant en tunisie") as an extension of BioProtech WP2 activity
8. A very wide dissemination of CBS and the project activities through mainly the websites and participation to almost 22 EU meetings, conferences and fairs
9. Issued recommendations from brainstorming on bioproduction/job creation have been distributed to all ministries, stakeholders and actors involved in TTO/innovation and company creation in bioproduction.
10. Management of an EU project as a coordinator for the first time in Tunisia
At this effect, more than one hundred young researchers, technicians, engineers and administrative staff from CBS and other Tunisian institutions have participated to workshops and lectures in Bioprocesses, biosafety, technology transfer and FP7 project buildup and management. This enabled CBS researchers to carry out experiences related to these technologies inside the CBS and the possibility to create by themselves their own start-ups. The main output of the project is the training and recruitment opportunity in the CBS offered to 3 unemployed graduates trained in EU project management, technology transfer and innovation and in fermentation technologies as means of contribution to sustainability and job creation.
Project Results:
WP1
The general objective for the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax (CBS) is to be a reference technological centre in the field of bioprocesses in North Africa, as well as to be considered by the European Union as a partner for different projects. It is with this understanding that the European project n°266519 entitled “Improve of research capacities of the centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Bio-Processes for biotech applications”, tying up with the European research area is undertaken.
One of the objectives of the CBS is to improve the technological level in 3 domains which are respectively (genomics/microarrays, biofermentation and biosafety). A workpackage 1 (WP1) entitled “joint research agenda in bioprocess”, under supervision of a European partner: Pr Joel Lachuer (University Claude Bernard, Lyon1, France) and consisting on three tasks has been created to reach this objective.
The strategy used to improve the CBS capacities (representing the core activity of WP1) in these three domains consisted 1) to map, analyzed and evaluate the CBS performance in the three domains of competences (at the beginning of the project : November 2010) by the way of measurement of some indicators including publications, patents, collaborations, etc and to perform a SWOT analysis in order to list the weaknesses associated to the 3 activities (TASK 1) 2) To propose different actions (training, workshops, lecturers) to eliminate the weaknesses and increase the performance of CBS (TASK 2) 3) To evaluate at the end of the project (October 2013) the impact of the actions done by measuring the evolution of the indicators chosen at the beginning of the project (TASK 3).
Task 1.1 Map and analyse CBS research fields
This work of activity mapping has been performed for each topic by the association of one or two partners coming from the EU consortium members and BioProtech staff from the CBS. The adopted strategy for mapping included: (1) Analysis of the 2010 CBS activities report and CBS web site (see following URL http://www.cbs.rnrt.tn) (2) CBS data collection realised by BioProtech local staff, (3) CBS visits by European members of the BioProtech and interviews of each responsible associated to the targeted topics. For biosafety activity a survey was performed in anonymous on-line and direct contact with scientist of CBS. All data have been summarized and analysed by the different teams (by the way of email, phone and skype calls, during visit exchanges and steering committee meetings). The final result have been summarised in report deliverable (D1.1) shared among all the project partners. The Task 1.1 is necessary to prepare tasks 1.2 and 1.4 and contribute to succeed WP2, 3 and 4
From the analysis of the map, different failures have been detected in the three domains, which need corrective actions necessary to reach the technological level decided at the beginning of the project. The analysis is detailed in the deliverable D1.1 of the WP1. Interestingly, we can observe in the three domains the same failure which can be displayed in 3 items (problem of organization, lack of equipment, lack of technological skill). Concerning the organization, which is to our mind, the principal weakness, it was difficult to find a real organization chart for each domain. We didn’t know who decided and pilot the activities.
Task 1.2 Staff secondments to EU partners and other relevant research centres
The task 1.2 consisted to propose different actions (training, workshops, and lectures) to answer to the weaknesses detected previously and increase the performance of CBS, to enable the development of novel research ideas and set up of joint experimental strategies together with the EU partners. The work consisted to schedule and organise lectures and lab trainings about knowledge in bioprocesses. In this context, European specialists in the three domains have been invited to perform high-level lectures in specific domains of each topics for which a lack of knowledge have been detected. Secondments of CBS researchers (12 days/topics) in high-level laboratories through European Union (France, Italy, Germany, Belgium) have been done also to increase the skills of the staff. These lectures, lab trainings and secondments provide CBS researchers, engineers, technicians and PhD students an opportunity to engage discussions with distinguished scientists. The different actions done are summarized below and detailed in the deliverable D1.2 and D1.4 of the WP1.
- Two conferences in CBS related to microarrays and sequencing technologies applications and biofermentation processes presented by two French partners.
- Five theoretical and practical courses in CBS related to:
1- Transcrptomic microarray application with participation of 6 European experts Joel Lachuer and Anthony Besse (ProfileXpert, France), Veronique Le berre and Lidwine Trouilh (INSA Toulouse, France) and Didier Goidin and Danielle Fletcher (Agilent Technology)
2- Sensibilisation, initiation, acquisition of basics languages and quantitative backgrounds in «Industrial Microbiology» and Fermentation
3- Fermentation: from batch to bioreactor, optimization of parameters and transfer balance, calculation of growth parameters (balance C, X, P, yield, gas transfer …) animated by Pr Gérard Goma and Luc Fillaudeau from INSA Toulouse (France)
4- Evaluation and management of risk assessment and learn more about good lab practices with participation of Patrick Rüdelsheim (Pereus BVBA, Belgium), Walter Kempenaers (Vrije university, Belgium), Philippe Stroot (Xibios Biosafety Consulting, Belgium), Philippe Herman (Scientific Institute of Public Health, Belgium) and Wendy Craig (ICGEB, Italy).
5- Recognizing a genetically modified organism (GMO) (definition, obtaining and detection), to estimate and to manage the risk related to GMO in a stuffy environment, laboratory, under greenhouse and in field and also make sensitive the environment ministry of the current situation (inventory of fixtures) of GMOs in Tunisia with participation of Guy Blache (Switzerland), Environment Ministry and the University of Sfax (Tunisia).
- Two Lab courses in Profilexpert platform (France) for one CBS researcher (objective: DNA Sample preparation Quantification, quality control for microarray study) and one CBS Technician (objective: Training for DNA microarray analysis using Agilent technologies DNA methylation analysis)
- Two Lab courses in INSA Toulouse (France). The first was to assist a CBS research to develop her project of production of Chitin and Chitosan (evaluation of the scientific feasibility of the biological production system of the enzyme, management of derived products obtained from shrimp waste processing and European regulations in force related to CHITO-PROD products). The second focused especially in the exploitation of fermentation data: Methods and concepts.
- One workshop on the Biosecurity and Biosafety in Italy. The participant was an Engineer from CBS.
- Six short term secondments with participation of eight CBS researchers:
- Microarray:
Objective: Genomic platform organization, microarray development (DNA spotting and mini-sequencing on microarray) and socio-economic potential of the development of custom microarrays and development of wheat marker assistant selection.
Location: Department of medical genetics, Faculty of medicine of Ege, Azmir, Turkey; Microarray Platform, INSA Toulouse; Dendris society; Profilexpert platform; GENTYANE platform, France. Gesim Company and Genomic Platform at the Institute of Technical Chemistry of the University of Hanover, Germany.
- Fermentation:
Objective: Development of novel research ideas and acquiring new skills in the field of fermentation and bioproduction to develop the valorization units of the CBS
Location: INSA Toulouse and UTC Compiègne, France
- Biosafety:
Objective: elaboration of the questionnaire needed for the WP1 mapping, become acquainted with conditions of health and biosafety in the laboratory at different scales (scale ranges1, 2, 3 and 4), risk assessment and evaluation of the risk, gain first-hand experience about biosafety guidelines, rules and practices in public and private institutions
Location: ICGEB, Italy; Luigi Sacco Hospital, Italy, public and private institutions in Belgium.
Task1.3 Lectures and lab courses at CBS and at project partners locations: see in the impact part
WP2
One of the main objectives addressed by BioProtech deals with the improvement of research capacities of the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Bio-processes for biotech applications, tying up with the European Research Area. The WP2 “Technology transfer and incubation” is included in this objective, with the following expected results:
– To assess the state of the art in exploitation of scientific results in life sciences.
– To build up the knowledge base for commercialisation of research results proposing a specific plan in CBS by the organisation of 3 two-day training sessions on valorisation of scientific results.
– To contribute to the regional development and to improve the national economic situation through the creation of spin-offs and start-ups starting a pilot plan.
– Promoting the activities of the existing start-ups and spin-offs.
During the project life different initiatives and events have been realised targeted in reaching such goals and specifically they has been realised around the following tasks:
• Task 2. 1 Map technology transfer activities
• Task 2.2 Training and awareness to commercialisation of research results
• Task 2.3 Build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network
Task 2. 1 Map technology transfer activities
The mapping (D.1.1. Report of mapping of technological potential in technology transfer) exercise has been performed following two parallel and synergistic approaches.
From one side a desk analysis has been realised collecting and evaluating from a TT perspective all the available documents regarding the CBS activities and the Tunisian/North Africa situation: the topics that have been particularly addressed are those of research capabilities and results, IP and technology transfer.
In parallel, a surveyabout the perception and the willingness to perform TT activities has been delivered, in an anonymous on-line way, to a sample of around 50 scientists of CBS atdifferent organisational level. The results of those parallel activities have been validated through a series of in deepp hysical interviews with key personnel in CBS, and benched again with the results of the mapping exercise performed in WP1. The final results have been summarized in a report deliverable (D2.1) shared among all the project partners in autumn 2011. Therefore the milestone M3 (Analyzes results of WP1and WP2) was met successfully.
Task 2.2 Training and awareness to commercialisation of research results
In parallel, has been launched different activities targeted to stimulate TT awareness and activities in CBS (D.2.2 Training session programme)
Basic and avanced training material has been developed and shared among partner and CBS scientists. The training material (D.2.3 Collection of training material), developed following the perspective of TT and scientific results exploitation, covers the following topics:
• General introduction to the world of Biotech from an industrial perspective
• Patent issues: introduction
• Technology evaluation
• Licensing
• Business models and start-ups
• Marketing
• Case studies on sectors (Red, green and White biotech)
The material has been delivered in the form of a series of connected PPT standard presentations and different training events have been organised in Sfax.
Task 2.4 Build up local customer and supporter/collaborator network
In parallel, linked to the need to stimulate the local environment a coaching activity has been launched in order to support different scientist to identify the best exploitation paths for their scientific results. At the end of the process a total of 13 project ideas has been assessed and supported with a coaching approach and 3 (only 2 planed) of them have been specifically supported from a business plan point of view (Biotech rdp, Chitoprod and AAC). (D.2.6 Annex “Report on network and cluster implementation Incubated/coached initiatives “2011 – 2012 – 2013”. Therefore the milestone M4 (Technology transfer plan) was met successfully .
The synergistic activity to support CBS to create a local “community” involving scientists “public” stakeholders and companies has been implemented. Such activity starts not only from the coaching process and particularly from the support to start-up creation but also from the need to analiyze and nurture already existing links with companies operating in the Sfax territory. Direct participation in local events, in order to share among the different players a common culture/knowledge about the importance of innovation, the issues related to project building and the relations between private companies and Universities/R&D centres and the development of standard guidelines for Technology Transfer and Networking/clustering has been the 2 main axes of intervention (D 2.6 Guidelines for networking and clustering at territorial level).Also the international dimension has been considered through the involvement of CBS staff and scientists in key European events and the creation of links with european and not europeans science and technology parks and clusters. The final goals were not to create directly and in an “artificial” way the local cluster but to transfer to CBS skills and knowledge about community/network building and about TT project building in order to make possible to dynamize the local system in a sustainable way and to make easier to interact as a system with counter parts both in the developed and developing world. 2 Internships organised in Europe were synergistic to this goal.
Task 2.3 Map and analysis of the local environment: needs of companies and growth trajectories
At the same time a continuous support targeted to the creation of a regional customer relations and networks with collaborators and service suppliers, in order to define products and services, to scale up activities and formulations and to provide business support for the creation of spin-offs has been realized. To complement and integrate a top-down approach in activities a bottm up effort ha been implemented starting from the assesement of specific needs and percepetion by companies (D 2.5 “Report of Mapping and analysis of local environment: needs of companies and build up ofa database to better match their R&D capabilities”). The aim of this activity has been to enable the CBS to identify the key sectors of the local market (mainly in the fields of pharmaceuticals and agro-food), draw up a list with the possible interactions between research and industrial sectors, take the contacts of these enterprises and identify their needs through potential visits and meetings. The general feeling is that companies are used to consider the local environment as a phisical place more than as an “ecosystem” or a cluster. They are used to develop links based on the supply chain paradigm and the relations with Universities and R&D centers are short term and more technical than scientific.It seems that TT activities have been based on such elements and are passive in term of creation of links. In other words they are waiting for contacts from companies and they are not actively approaching companies.
In this context two databases were created from the results of two surveys conducted with the competencies/scientific know/how/capability to deliver scientific services in one hand and with the companies on the other hand. In such perspective basic elements considered was the level innovation and technology transfer possibilities. The directory has been developed published and hosted on the project website ( http:// bioprotech.org) and is now accessible both by companies and scientists . These two dynamic databases are closely linked via the virtual matchmaking tool (a search engine) that allows to:
• Identify potential partners through standardized keywords
• build the capacity of these partners
• select the most suitable partner (company or research institution )
• Contact partner
• Etc.
At external level the 2 databases could be the first step to present the local community as a cluster and to be a territorial marketing tool. The directories
could be also used by external companies to find partners for EU funded projects or for industrial/commercial collaborations.
Referring to the previous cited activities, we can stipulate that the milestone M6 (Analyses results of local industry mapping) was met successfully .
WP3
Task 3.1 FP7 and research management trainings
In order to collaborate closer with EU research partners it is necessary to understand and use the research funding instruments available within the EU (FP7, Horizon 2020 and others). The focus area was on funding programmes related to health, food, agriculture, biotechnology and environment. This WP allowed building up knowledge about European research funding instruments through training. The target groups for this WP were the scientists from CBS and neighbouring institutions, several research managers from local industry and technology parks (start-ups and spin-off) and EU programme support organisations such as the Tunisian NCP. Training were organised in small groups to allow case work and practical examples in group discussion.
Task 3. 2 Coaching 3 concrete proposal preparations
With this task of WP3, BioProtech supported CBS staff and neighbouring institutions in coaching sessions for the concrete EU research project preparation. The coaching sessions were organised at the CBS, each interested participant handed in beforehand a one page project interest notification sheet in order for the coach from SFZ to get prepared. The bilateral coaching last each about one hour and were moderated by one representative of the CBS BioProtech local committee. The coaching was organised in conjunction with the WP3 and WP2 training to allow synergies in organising the event.
Implemented activities (details are included in the deliverables):
• Schedule of 3 training modules with case studies and practical exercises
• Trainings:
o June 21, 2011, Sfax, 25 participants, How to manage an EU project
o November 1st 2011, Sfax; 20 participants; From bench to industry through technology transfer and EU funded project
o May 14th 2012, Sfax, 15 participants; How to develop a project and prepare a research proposal
• Coachings
o Nov. 2nd, 2011,Sfax, 7 project ideas discussed
o May 15th 2012, Sfax, 3 project ideas discussed
o Nov. 7th 2012, Sfax, 5 projects ideas discussed
The kind of training and coaching set up proved to be the right tool for the target group.
In addition CBS staff visits EU events in Brussels and France 4 times in order to received updated information on future funding issues and build networks with European institutions relevant for EU funding.
Finally more than 5 projects proposals were submitted, thereof already now 3 were positively evaluated and started as follow up activities in various fields. Therefore the milestone M5 (Participation in 3 EU project proposals) was met successfully.
List of projects:
• EU FP7 health call in October 2011 (HEALTH.2012.2.4.5-2 Name: European pre-rheumatoid arthritis family study); The project was rejected
• EU Tempus project submitted with Sfax University and the University of Rennes as coordinator, Main objective of Tempus for the University of Sfax is to strengthen the relation between academics and the industrial sector. The WP4 coordinated by the Sfax University aims to re-qualify 30 doctors in the domain of Life sciences in order to ensure for them a better integration in Agrofood, Health and Environment sectors and also to review the doctoral school system in Tunisia . The major goal of this activity is to decrease the number of unemployed doctors in life sciences in Tunisia after the revolution. The efforts to build up connections to local industry are in line with the BioProtech WP2 approach. The WP2 matchmaking database for industry profiles and research competences will be followed up and continues as part of the TEMPUS project. The project started in 2012.
• PASRI (Europe Aid – 12 Mio. €) : Mobilisation d’expertise au profit d’institutes et d’enterprise tunisienne dans le cadre de la mise en coeur du project d’appui au system de recherche et innovation. The project includes one component about building a network of TT offices so called Bureau de transfert de technologie (BUTT). In this activity the BioProtech partner Steinbeis is involved as expert. The TTO of the CBS and also University of Sfax are main recipients of this activity. The network of BUTT shall enable to build an independent network organization providing services for the single BUTT and allow for joint projects and interdisciplinary solutions for industry demands. All WP2 results and activities will thus be followed up in the BUTT of the CBS and will be further developed in the PASRI frame. The project stared in 2012
• German –Tunisian technological cooperation programme, project DIAPOULTRY, Partners are the CBS start up Biotech RDP, the University of Sfax and 3 organisations from Germany (Research institute for infective diseases, SME for Diagnostic, TT-Steinbeis for management). The project aims to build up state of the art diagnostic solutions for Tunisians poultry branch in order to minimize potential and risk of severe poultry infections which also have a huge influence to Europe as main market. This project is a result of WP2 and WP3 coaching activities. The project was positively evaluated but due to funding limitation, the Tunisian government put energy related project in the focus for this year. The same call comes out next year and the group will prepare a proposal again.
• EU FP7 People IIF project” Sensogenes” submitted by Prof Ayadi (CBS and University of Sfax) with Institute Pasteur in Paris (Coordinator), Sensogenes aims to study in silico genes and proteins involved in hereditary diseases and in the development of sensorial organs ( ear and eye). The proposal includes also dissemination activities in the related domain. The project is still under negotiation.
WP4
One of the main objectives addressed by the BioProtech project deals with the dissemination of CBS activities and BioProtech results. The WP4 activities were focused on the following five tasks:
Task 4.1 Symposium in Sfax, Tunisia
The event was entitled “BioProtech International Conference on Bioproduction (BICB)”. A draft program was approved during the 3rd steering committee meeting of BioProtech project. Then, the Scientific and Organizational committees (SC and OC) were established and three meetings were organized with all committee members for the discussion of the seminar sessions, program and speakers. After many discussions in the frame of steering Committee meetings and BICB specific meetings of SC and OC regrouping scientists from CBS and other research and educational institutions and stakeholders and industrials , the final title and program of the event were approved.. A detailed description is still available in the deliverable 4.1.b. All of these information were included in the project website (www.bioprotech-conference.org). For dissemination of the seminar, the first announcement was printed in April 2012 and was distributed in several events to academics and industrials.
In continuation of the preparation of the BICB event, the final program has been approved and edited in the form of an agenda booklet and distributed as a promotional tool during the event. All received abstracts (posters, oral communications), via the dedicated web site (www.bioprotech-conference.org) have been selected by the scientific committee. Then registration has been ensured on line via the web site.
The main objective of the seminar was to gather all the bioproduction components since research till the creation of industrial start ups. The ideas exchanges and business opportunities between European institutions, local stakeholders and policy makers during this meeting were promising. This event started in November 5, 2012 and gathered more than 140 participants. It included six scientific sessions ensured by 24 eminent speakers, 20 Business to Business "B2B" meetings putting together local industrials, academicians and national and international experts in the domain of biotechnology and technology transfer and Exhibition area dedicated to 8 local service providers related to Biotechnology. At this effect it is important to mention that for the first time in Tunisia an EU project has succeed to put together unemployed graduates ( doctors and engineers), researchers and industrials and experts the frame of a scientific event. The close collaboration with the local stakeholders has efficiently contributed to interest industrials and offers real business opportunities between academicians, experts and professionals in the sector of Biotechnology.
Several promotional materials have been edited and distributed during the inaugural day meeting to the participants (Agenda participant booklet, leather briefcases, note pad and printed pen). A detailed description is available in the deliverable 4.1.
At the end of this event some recommendations have been issued jointly prepared by The CBS, Pasteur institute of Tunis and Genopole of Evry France and have been approved by all the participants mainly by the two representatives from respectively the ministry of health and higher education as well as the Healthtechnopark of SidiThabet and presented during the closing ceremony (See the annex of final report).
Task4.2 Promotional material
The preparation of the promotional material is the key step for the dissemination activities. For this raison: briefcase, poster (BioProtech, microarray, First announcement), flyer, biosafety workshop CD, printed pens and first announcement of the BICB, were prepared and edited in large number and used in various project events. Two Leaflets were prepared to give an early visibility to the BioProtech projects as an example of ERA-WIDE project. The first one was sent for the EU to prepare the ERA-WIDE brochure and the second one was showed in the Euro-Mediterranean Conference in BCN in a poster created by MIRA project. Finally, to give more opportunity to the dissemination of our project activities a mail was sent to a meeting associating all ERA-wide and bilat coordinators containing 50 flyers of BioProtech objectives and expected output. Moreover, a package of informatics and multimedia has been used for dissemination, workshops, participation to EU conferences and fairs and for the organization of the BICB conference in 2012 and for local BioProtech project committee meetings in CBS held at least twice per week to follow up the project activities ongoing. A detailed list of this materials and events is available in deliverable 4.3.
Task 4. 3 Webpage
The webpage (http://BioProtech.org) was subcontracted by a start-up from ENIS (National Engineering School of Sfax) in order to encourage the young high graduated competencies. It was first created in November 30th, 2010 and delivered in February 2011. During all the project period running, the web site was all the time functional and updated for each project event. In this website, you can find two parts: a public part and a privacy one. The private zone is reserved only to the partners of the project (via specific login) and included various private documents shared by only the consortium members. In the public part, public information is available and actually chaired by all visitors. This home page is connected to the CBS web site www.cbs.rnrt.tn. Therefore the milestone M2 ( BioProtech website established) was met successfully.
The webpage http://bioprotech.org of the project has been regularly updated according to all the events organized during the biorotech project. At this effect, a new design has been affected to the Webpage. In fact, we have added new platform "matchmaking" implemented in the frame of WP2 amended activities which consists in a virtual tool which do the link between the created two databases related respectively to companies and CBS competencies. Furthermore, we added a French version to the home page and the new created platform to facilitate the communication between professionals and researchers in Tunisia.
Task4.4 EU database /matchmaking
In order to disseminate the CBS research potential and competencies, several activities were made in this task. Firstly, the project was attended in the national and international events, which were an opportunity of matchmaking with industrials and young promoters.
At the local level, the project has participated to two national events on innovation “CAT2012” in November 2012 in Tunis and “salon de l’Entreprise in Sfax” in March 2012. In addition, at two International economic forums held in Sfax on october 2012 and 2013, which enabled to contact and provide matchmaking opportunities with professionals in the field of Bioprocesses. On May 14, 2012 EU matchmaking activities and databases have been explained to the CBS staff in the frame of the organization of WP3 workshop. Moreover, there were several relevant participations to networking and or matchmaking opportunities mainly with:
- Other ERA-Wide projects in Tunisia CB-WR-MED coordinated by CERTE BorjCedria and GM_NCD_in_co coordinated by Pasteur institute of Tunis
- the German cooperation GIZ during the panel discussion on best practices in knowledge and technology transfer in June 27, 2013 in Hammamet and the presentation of the virtual matchmaking platform
- the University of Sfax and Tempus project consortium :"Developing University-Enterprise Partnerships life sciences and technologies in Tunisia" (http://tempus-tunisie-2012.agrocampus-ouest.fr via the dissemination of the companies needs analysis and the virtual matchmaking platform achieved in the frame of WP2 activities to academicians and graduated students present during June 6, 2013.
At the European and Mediterranean levels the project has participated to:
- BioPmed innovation cluster ( www.biopmed.eu) initiated by our Italian project partner Bioindustry park SilvanoFumero "BiPC" and which mission is to create and develop an innovative cluster inHealth care (biotech, Pharma, diagnostic, med tech and h-health and health services) sectors in Piedmont, Italy
- MED-SPRING (Mediterranean Science, Policy, Research & Innovation Gateway), an important FP7 project, launched in February 2013 and dedicated to the support of the bi-regional Euro-Mediterranean STI dialogue, MED-SPRING will bring together a large variety of stakeholders (policy makers, researchers, the civil society, etc.) from the Mediterranean Partner Countries and EU Member states in a dialogue and action platform to identify common priorities in Research and Innovation,
- The "2ème Sommet Maghrebin de la santé" for innovation and technology transfer represented an excellent opportunity to disseminate the BioProtech project results in the related domains in presence of academics and industrials in biopharma field , stakeholders and policy makers in Maghreb . In fact BioProtech project in its self and its impact were clearly highlighted.
Task4.5: Visit EU conference and fairs related to bioprocesses
Since the starting of the project , 21 participations of CBS scientists to 9 EU conferences and 2 EU fairs and other relevant EU events related to technology transfer, networking with other ERA-Wide projects and Buil-up of EU projects, etc. have been completed to ensure a wider dissemination of the project activities. In fact referring to Annex1, it was expected that 16 participants from CBS staff will visit 8 EU conferences and fairs these figures have been increased in order to ensure a better visibility of the project at European level and exchange of knowhow not only in bioprocesses but also in technology transfer and innovation knowing that this does not affect the allocated budget for these actions. In this context one interesting result following the participation to theses EU events consisted in the selection of two poster abstracts presented by two young researchers from CBS during the 15th European Congress on biotechnology in Turkey in September 2012 that were published on the proceeding book of the congress. Therefore the milestone M7 (conference participation) was met successfully.
WP5
Task5.1 Evaluation process
This WP was reduced in content and budget according to the amendment in June 2012.
The evaluation was implemented based on a questionnaire to the project partners and a bit different one for CBS. The evaluation was prepared and implemented from an EU expert of SFZ who was so far not involved in the project. The feedback included in the 9 filled-in evaluation forms by CBS and partners has been analysed and summarised by a Steinbeis experts (see details of the results in the deliverables). The results have been discussed with the project partners as well as regional stakeholders from research and industry in the framework of a conference held in Sfax September 19, 2013 and defined future steps. Therefore the milestone M8 (Evaluation of BioProtech) was met successfully.
WP6
Task 6.1 Starting of the project
The first project steering committee meeting or Kick Off Meeting “KOM” has been organized in the CBS in month 2 (2-3 December 2010) with the presence of the EU project scientific officer. Therefore the milestone M1 (Kick-off meeting) was met successfully.
This meeting was attended by almost 80 researchers mainly from CBS and others from Sfax university, local research institutions, stakeholders and media to ensure a wider dissemination of the project overall activities. In fact, we profited from the visit of the EU representative to visit the main regional policy makers such as the Sfax municipality, the business centre the Tunisian Agency for Promoting Industry "API", the Sfax University and the olive research institute in order to give them a wider idea about the BioProtech project environment. Moreover, a detailed work plan and schedule including risk management aspects has been discussed and explained to WP partners during the second day of the KOM. The consortium agreement between the partners has been prepared and an advanced draft has been discussed during the KOM and the final version has been completed and signed by all the project partners in January 2011.
Task 6.2 Implementation
We prepared and delivered reports and any other material requested by the European Commission. Such as the Periodic reports which should be delivered in month 18 and 36 as stipulated in Annex I and amended text. The coordinator also ensured the financial and administrative management of the project including the distribution and controlling of funding among the partners. The third party: Agence Nationale de Promotion de la Recherche Scientifique (ANPR) charged by the Tunisian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of the financial management for all EU projects.
At this effect, the CBS mandated the ANPR to administer the financial issues and holding bank account in euro with an interest bearing account for BioProtech project during the whole project duration. In order to assure an efficiency financial management of this project, we assumed that the main coordination action activity is the close collaboration with the ANPR (Tunisian Agency for Promoting Scientific Research) and the ETC project coordinated by the Tunisian NCP. This action led to the set up of common rules for the administrative and financial management of EU projects at national level. The EU pre-financing has been distributed to project partners according to the budget table and has been agreed among the consortium. Moreover, the project supported the recruitment of three young graduated persons respectively in EU project management, Fermentation technology and technology transfer to be employed in the CBS, especially after their interesting experience and know how acquired during the project running period. A budget control table template has been sent to all partners to give an overview on Budget and incurred expenditures regularly updated every half year since the starting of the project. A new amendment has been discussed between the project consortium and in presence of the EU Scientific project officer during the third steering committee meeting held in Sfax during November 3, 2012. The main objectives of this amendment were the modification of the project duration (from 30 months to 36 months) and a new budget reallocation between work packages and partners budgets in order to achieve new activities related to WP2. In fact, the activities of WP5 will be reduced to avoid duple work due to the fact that the Tunisian national ministry of higher education and scientific research has initiated a program to evaluate research centers. This amendment was approved by the project consortium and submitted to the EC for final signature in March 2012.
Regular internal meetings between CBS BioProtech local committee members are organized at least twice per week in order to ensure an efficient follow up of BioProtech activities ongoing. In this context it is important to notify that 4 doctors from the CBS in the fields of Microarray, fermentation and biosafety have integrated the local Committee in May 2012 to ensure a bigger impact and dissemination towards CBS activities.
Furthermore, a regular evaluation of performance and a follow up of work package leaders at least once per semester during the steering committee meetings has been done during the all period of project.
Six steering committee meetings have been chaired by the coordinator. The second and fourth meeting took place at project partners and respectively in BiPCa, Italy and UCBL, France.
The fifth steering committee meeting took place in Sfax on November 6, 2012 coinciding with the organization of the BioProtech International Conference on BioProduction “BICB” in November 5-8, 2012 and an extra and final one was held in September 20, 2013 organized jointly with the final project evaluation meeting which took place in the CBS on September 19,2013 .
During the whole project running, we ensured regular communication and permanent support with the project partners at individual needs to enhance efficient running of the project mainly by e-mail, phone and skype communications. We also prepared and delivered reports and minutes related to the two further steering committee meetings held in Sfax during the project second period and any other material requested by the European Commission.
Moreover, the coordinator has been contacted by ECRAAL (European Centre for Research in Asia Africa and Latin America) in January 2012 to present BioProtech and to give a presentation on GMO in Brussels and become membership to plan for a future cooperation activities. Another meeting was held in Marseilles in October 2011 allowed the coordinator to present BioProtech project to other ERA Wide projects in the perspective of creating networks.
Networking and coordination with other ERA WIDE projects and with ANPR
Also it is necessary to mention that to ensure a bigger impact on the regional development FP7 know-how and support in EU project management, the coordinator has attended four meetings in Tunis with the ANPR, Tunisian EU delegation, consortium of Tunisian ERA Wide projects:
- Meeting in the ANPR with the national NCP and other Research institutions involved in FP7 to discuss the financial management of existing EU projects and preparation of a Tunisian financial guide for EU projects. ( February 11th, 2011)
- Meeting with the Tunisian ERA wide coordinators to discuss the common problems and in the aim to creating a local network. ( May 25th, 2012)
- Information day on EU cooperation opportunities in the EU delegation in Tunisia in the frame of PASRI program which aims in reinforcing partnership between Tunisia and Europe in research and innovation management trades (May 26th,2011)
- Meeting on management of EU projects in the ANPR ( July 5th, 2011)
In order to ensure a bigger impact on the regional development FP7 know-how and support in EU project management and networking with other ERA Wide projects coordinators in Tunisia. Two participations to meetings and workshops took place in Tunis with other ERA- Wide projects coordinators:
- Meeting with ERA Wide coordinators consortium in the Agronomy Institute Tunis “INAT” to exchange experiences and acquired know how in capacity building ( April 27, 2013)
- Workshop on EU collaborative project Buil-up and management in Pasteur institute of Tunis (June 27-28,2012).
The main output of the organized meetings between Tunisian ERA WIDE project coordinators , ETC project and the ANPR was the elaboration of a national financial guideline for EU projects The content of this document was carefully elaborated taking into account its accordance with both EU and national financial management rules.
Furthermore, The collaboration with the ANPR was efficiently ongoing and a regular communication was continually ensured by exchanged financial periodic reports, phone and exchange of emails. At this effect and to implement a sustainable expertise in EU project management not only in the CBS but also in Sfax university and the ANPR , the recruited person in Financial issues has achieved a mission in INSA Toulouse in June 24-29,2013 to learn more about EU project management tools and to coordinate the financial management of BioProtech project, In fact in close collaboration with the INSA financial officer they achieved the state of incurred expenses and their repartition regarding each WP activity.
Finally Gender issues and ethical questions have been taken into consideration through the coordinator during the whole project duration.
Task 6.3 Finalisation
The principal aim of the final SCM held in Sfax in conjunction with the internal project evaluation meeting was to do the sum-up and to auto-evaluate all achieved actions and to prepare the schedule and necessary material of the second reporting and the final report in presence of all project partners. The coordinator will assume the coordination of the redaction of the final report .
Potential Impact:
WP1
Task1.3 "Lectures and lab courses at CBS and at project partner’s locations" consisted in analyzing the impact of the different actions done by the follow up of the different indicators chosen at the beginning of the project and propose some recommendations for the future. These indicators should be able to evaluate the performance evolution of the CBS in the 3 domains and includes (publications rates, patents rate, publications impact factors, contract with private and public laboratories, international contract, turn-over, invited speakers, implementation of new technologies, staff skill). The analysis of indicators is presented in deliverable D1.3. Analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the third year project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in the 3 fields.
For genomics/microarray topic, these improvements concern the management of the activities with now a clear organisation chart and a real policy of core facility development. A real policy for CBS staff training in order to have a critical mass necessary to develop the service activity is validated. The implementation of new technologies necessary to reach the European level and necessary to answer the challenging problematic coming from health, environmental and agricultural fields etc…is on-going (New generation sequencing technology is one of the major implementation). The visibility of the platform is now improved and validated by the increase of the number of national and international communications and thesis. The expertise acquired by CBS led him to become a coordinator of international genomic projects funded by ISESCO (Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), ICGEB (International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology) and TWAS – French Foundation for rare diseases. For the next year (year 4 after the beginning of the BioProtech project), it is necessary to concretise the policy of core facility development by taking account 4 other indicators. The first concerns the follow up of the number of genomics analysis realised on the platform with a display between 1) the inside and the outside projects 2) private companies or public institution 3) Tunisian or other countries etc... The second indicator is the turnover of the platform which is the only indicator reflecting the real activity of the facility. The third is the follow-up of the publications number and impact factor. The last indicator is the integration of CBS in horizon 2020 European project related to genomics to improve diseases' diagnosis and treatment.
For biofermentation topic, analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the three years of the project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in this field. The development of the valorization unit of the CBS to a bioproduction platform has been recently adopted by the scientific council of the CBS. Thus, the centre of transfer will have the critical size to supply the tasks. In addition to the creation of the “fermentation Committee”, much was done to create a close and practical working relationship between the participants in the activities. Thus, two theses and one master will be co-supervised by engineer and researchers taking advantages of the new acquired knowledge in the domain of fermentation. The CBS teams are now sufficiently interacted to share experience or to build new skills.
This fact will fill the CBS gap between the lab scale design of a bioprocess and the phase of commercial production. In term of technology development and transfer, the BioProtech project has succeeded, through the secondments and the theoretical and the practical courses, to assist the competencies of CBS in term of Microbial cultivation technology. The intent is to facilitate the screening and production of metabolites and bioactive compounds through;
• Screening of enzymes of interest: development of genomic and metagenomic banks and optimization of enzymes by mutagenesis,
• Physiology and Microbial Metabolism: Identification of nutritional requirements and metabolic limits,
• Microbial systems and Bioprocesses,
• Transfer, Interface, Mixing,
• Separation, Oxidation, hybrid Process for the environment.
• Process modeling and analysis technique for managing complex design projects using advanced simulation.
• Theoretical evaluation of stoichiometric reactions that support microbial growth as applied to bioproduction and environmental problems, co evolution of microbial dynamics and microbial physiology and mechanisms of gas–liquid mass transfer in bioreactors.
However some indicators remain without value and concern international project. Biofermentation activity improvement is on progress. Some indicators are still without value indicating a difficulty to valorise the effort for training and equipment implementation. These indicators should be considered in more details in 2014. The activities in this action will not be stopped up, and then we have planned for a Scale-up training and follow-up for the technicians of all the different laboratory of the CBS. A multidisciplinary regional health-care worker symposium will be organized on the topic of probiotic (production, formulation and use).
For biosafety topic, Analysis of indicators shows that the different actions done during the three years of the project, regarding the weaknesses detailed in the deliverable 1, have improved the CBS capacity in the field of Biosafety. The involvement of European specialized institutions as well as competencies are gained for the implementation of the CBS recommendations for biosafety and good lab practices. This is concomitantly occurring with the drawing of national measures and policies related to GMO use and production. The BioProtech project has succeeded, through the secondments and the theoretical and the practical training and lectures, to assist the competencies of CBS in term of good lab practices on laboratories and GMO manipulations. In this regard, a large number of researchers, laboratory technician and engineers from CBS and outside CBS are now trained and can be considered as trainer in their institutions. The creation and diffusion of recommendations and flyers (flyers for gloves, pictograms, compatibility of chemicals products, management of chemicals product risk) in CBS and outside of CBS (Pharmaceutical industries and different universities) as a necessary material support for biosafety.
Moreover, the management of the biosecurity with the creation of a CBS biosafety officer (BO) was already done in 2013 at the Faculty of Sciences of Sfax and a key person (engineer from CBS) was prepared and skilled on biosafety to reach the BO position.
Many collaborations were done in the frame of the BioProtech project: the first collaboration was with the Ministry of Environment that asked the CBS local committee to act with them in order to disseminate rules of biosafety in Tunisia and it is the first time that many different Ministry participate (Ministry of Health, Ministry de of higher education and scientific research, Ministry of industry and technology, Ministry of finance). The second collaboration with the University of Sfax, Faculty of Sciences of Sfax (october 22, 2013) to highlight the biosafety practices at the University.
The BioProtech project has and will continuous the 1) increase CBS and other university institutions capacities for the safe handling and monitoring of microorganisms, active biomolecules and GMOs, in conformity to national regulations and in line with European practice and acquisition of best practices and research protocols to result in less stringent regulatory measures.2) contribution to Set-up of a GMO office that conforms to national requirements, incorporating key strategic advances in the area of sampling and traceability in line with current European standards and procedures in this arena. 3) improve the acquisition of basic safety laboratory practices in line with the WHO rules on biosafety, local legislation, and in conformity with EU directives
A real policy for biosafety in CBS is also validated. All the indicators used to evaluate the improvement of the biosafety in CBS are positive.
WP2
Realized activities in perpective could have impact on 3 main problematic area:
1) At cultural level the perception fo scientists on the importance of technology transfer and more in general the awareness of the so-called “third mission” of universities and R&D centers related to the economic development
2) At internal (CBS) level the creation of standard approaches for the technology transfer and the incubation of innovative start-ups as element of the mission (Science and technology park/incubator paradigm)
3) At external level (the local environment) the creation of dynamics involving all the local stakeholders for the creation of a local ecosystem focused on life sciences (cluster paradigm)
Life sciences clusters have an important role in the growth of the industry, because concentrate activities of various actors in a geographical area. In such perspective the geographical concentration of the biotech industry offers many advantages:
• Productivity advantages: geographical concentration of the biotech industry offers some advantages to increase the purchasing power for laboratory supplies, raw materials and services. Another one is the use of shared infrastructure provided by biotech park or by the scientific centre it allows to reduce costs and find funds to help the start-up companies.
• Innovation advantages: the concentration academic institutes allows to create networking among professional and researchers and help to sharing ideas and information.
• New business establishment advantages: the idea of cluster is to develop incubators, technology transfer centres and professional networks, adapted infrastructure and government support.
The enterprises benefit from cluster because it creates collaboration and competition in the same time. There are three dimensions of a cluster development, to be considered
• The dimension of framework conditions: cluster needs to develop a favourable framework inside to support the activities of cluster companies. The general framework conditions are for example specific infrastructure, labor force skills or institutes and regulatoryissues (taxation).
• The dimension of cluster actors: clusterhas to contain strong companies and strong interaction among different actors. The strengthis the cooperation between companies and other stakeholders as universities and research institutes.
• The dimension of cluster management organization: the main activity of cluster management is to support strong dynamic samong companies and other actors of cluster.
The Science and Technology Parks’ (STPs) role in such perspective seems particularly interesting. STPs are like a hub between market and global knowledge economy. They are an useful tool to facilitate and to reduce costs of the journey between support needs and possible solutions. They allow a strong communication among scientific research and production of goods and services. Within the Science and Technology Parks there are both services and incubation facilities for the development of new enterprises that are incubated with the Park. The Parks develop activities in order stimulate innovation production and to identify technological and innovation needs in companies, particularly SMEs. To achieve this goals the Parks coordinate the flow of knowledge e technologies between Universities, research centres, enterprises and markets. Science and Technology Parks promote the economic development and competitiveness of regions and cities by creating business opportunities, generating knowledge-basesjobs, creating synergy between universities and companies, assisting small enterprises.
In such perspective, Science Parks, or organisations that are covering suchrole, are enabling factors for the growth of territorial and local networks/clusters focused on innovation and technology transfer (TT) . In case of TT if the R&D centers are willing to build synergies with the local environment they have to identify local strengths and to concentrate on suchstrengths the growth of their TT activities at local level. And such R&D centers have to makeclear to theirs cientists not only the opportunity and the know-howbutalso the importance to be “part” of the local community.
The basic idea is that R&D centers have to build a “portfolio” of complementary different industrial sectors activities that could over camecris is balancing the “risk”and at the same time could be interestingat global level and/or basic for the local development. The approach that seems to be more efficient in such perspectiveis the creation of a local system and network, a cluster that could represent the basictool to support the growth of a particular industrial sector and of the actors inside suchsector.
Activities realised during the project was targeted exactly in working on such 3 dimension in order to create and to express all the prerequisite for a cluster development. This is exactly the possible future development for the local community. It is clear that , for the Tunisian specific environment, it is not a short term activity that could bring to the creation/development of a life science cluster. Cultural and economic barriershave to be managed. The creation of a country-wide network has to be realised. A better relations between R&D centers/universities and companies has to be realised. Some specific problems (e.g. the rate of unenployed biotech students) have to be adressed at country level. Specific actions to stimulate the relations between companies and universities has to be launched, a strong internationalisation activity has to be realized.
At CBS level it is clear that a better cordination between the different departments and a higher professionalization of TT officers is necessary in order to maximise positive impacts of activities and to make clear the role of CBS at local level. The creation of strong links between science, industry and Public administration following a triple helix aproach could be an outcome of the project and could be at the basis of a sustainable approach.
WP3
The main impact from WP3 is that the CBS staff has better knowledge of EU funding sources, understanding of the procedures and success factors and capabilities to manage projects. Besides the training and coaching events the project management team of CBS received hands on coaching from Steinbeis in all issues related to the EU project implementation as it was the first EU project to coordinate for the CBS. This expertise will help to attract and run further EU or other international projects in the future.
Another important impact is realised through the new projects (see above) which came out of the BioProtech activities. Especially the technology transfer structures and capacities will gain further momentum through the projects PASRI and TEMPUS and enable a long lasting perspective at the CBS.
WP4
An interesting question could be what is the impact of the BioProtech dissemination activities at local and environmental levels?
In fact the WP4 activities have benefited to CBS and its direct environment:
1/ to encourage a young start up in the conception and design of the web site
2/ to organize in Sfax an international symposium on Bioproduction and to put together industrials , researchers, stakeholders ,unemployed graduates, project promoters and to elaborate recommendations ( see annex) for policy makers.
At CBS level, the main impact is:
1/ The participation of CBS young researchers and technical staff in EU scientific meetings and fairs related to biotechnology have contributed to ameliorate positively the visibility of the CBS activities at local and international level. In such perspective, the direct contact between young CBS researchers and their European homologues will enable complementary skills in a better and more competitive way, making use also of the power of the network that will be created to maintain talent in its labs. The establishment of new collaborations will allow a better EU integration through the creation of Tunisian- European networks and additional bidirectional mobility of human resources.
2/ The organization for the first time in Tunisia of an International Conference on Bioproduction " BICB" gathering in the same time unemployed graduates, researchers , stakeholders , industrials and policy makers related to industrial biotechnology and job creation in this field. The issued recommendations (see annex) met a very favorable echo among involved ministries. Moreover a wide and consistent report on BioProtech activities ( 20 pages) has been issued by a Tunisian magazine entitled " Revue de l'Entreprise" in its edition of May-June ,2013 illustrated by photos and interviews ( see annex) .All these dissemination tools have placed the CBS in the heart of the actuality in the Tunisia post revolution during these last 36 months.
Moreover, contact and meetings with stakeholders and civil society were very beneficial for the project activity among the socioeconomic cloth in Sfax and all over Tunisia.
WP5
CBS could play an important role in targeting fields of bioprocessing related to health, food, energy/ environment and marine resources. Whereas participation of research organisations in the framework programmes is substantial in comparison with SME/ Industry involvement, there is stillroom and potential for improvement. Capacity building through research could have a positive effect, both regionally and nationally.
Building an innovation eco-system involving collaborative research, industry – notably SMEs and the regional community - could prove beneficial to increase this effect. The CBS incubator and valorisation structure (BUTT) activities should be in this respect promoted.
Even if there is a strong will to collaborate across the South-North border, there are still hurdles as to Southern partners being perceived as the junior partner or even as a source of exploitation. Leveraging upon Win-Win scenarios and concrete actions/ cooperation between South and North e.g. in the fields of infectious diseases (e.g. malaria & HIV), poverty-related diseases, drought and sustainable agriculture/ energy efficiency… etc. to name a few might attract greater participation of Mediterranean partners. As a consequence, specialisation patterns could be identified as source of interest for potential Northern partners from Europe.
To this effect, there is an urgent need to increase the human and research capacity in the field as well as the region, and to work at increasing the perception amongst potential European partners that the local Tunisian “ecosystem” is “interesting”. CBS research projects should be strongly linked to the Tunisian needs but should not ignore its regional dimension.
These efforts should be pursued and intensified on the short term in the frame of the sequel EU research Framework programme Horizon 2020 in order to reap the results both at mid- as well as long term, since these actions are of much a strategic nature and need time to get established as a sustainable innovation management tool within the overall CBS institutional strategy.
WP6
Following the close collaboration between Tunisian ERA WIDE projects coordinators and the ANPR, Tunisia currently disposes of a qualified structure ( ANPR) for the financial management of EU projects composed mainly by young graduated human resources implemented in the ministry and some institutions including the CBS.
In terms of capacity building and sustainable development, the project has supported the recruitment of three human resources ensuring a sustainable development in the CBS and as project coordinator, we are currently in contact with the ministry office to support their employment.
Recommendations issued from the project evaluation
To enable a sustainable effect of the BioProtech at a regional, national and wider level, it is of utmost importance that structures be put at place to secure the knowledge gained and support those structures partly built in the form of an EU-Reference and TT centre.
Maintaining the (virtual) Match-making website and continuously nurturing it with further concrete projects should increase the exploitation of research results, as well as triggering business collaboration between industry and academia for services, contract research, exploiting intellectual property or creating spin offs. The match-making virtual site can also be used to position the local ecosystem following a cluster internationalisation approach.
Projects with other institutions e.g. chamber of commerce, Technopole, and the University of Sfax should be consolidated and animated through regular information exchange, best practice and collaborative projects. This could lead to regional cluster building.
It is advisable to engage in activities with European-wide networks in clustering (such as CEBR – Council of European Bioregions) and TT like the Enterprise Europe Network and The National Contact Points NCPs in order to reinforce the capability to build international partnerships. At this stage, existing profiles of the regional actors of Sfax area in the virtual matchmaking tool might add visibility to the latter. A possible partnership in the Tunisian Enterprise Europe Network would, indeed, enable further EU access, represent, and promote the innovative Sfax region.
Improving local and national standards (e.g. laboratory safety and biosafety) to be comparable to those in the EU would facilitate collaboration as well as access to markets due to the requirement of quality assurance in future FP cooperation. One cost-effective way to nurture current efforts to improve standards would be for the CBS as an institution, or key BioProtech staff, to become members of the European Biosafety Association (EBSA; www.ebsaweb.eu) so that strategic partnerships are made to focus national and institutional capacity building on attaining European standards.
In addition to the application to collaborative proposals and projects, it is worthwhile to explore other programmes of the EU e.g. the mobility programme “Marie Slodowska Curie fellowship as a source of capacity building, especially Industry Academia Public Partnership for training and recruiting staff in an industrial environment as well as stimulating the transnational transfer of knowledge between research and industry.
Interdisciplinary is a must in providing complex solutions to research and industry partners. Thus, collaboration in the region could further allow developing interdisciplinary topics. It also needs a particular mind-set to enable interdisciplinary work.
Strengthening the 3 platforms of arrays, analytical and bioprocess in terms of standards and quality rules should be at the heart of the internal Strategy of CBS. Furthermore, mastering the technological aspect and developing the areas of utilisation as well as implementing the technologies of apparatus would increase the attractiveness of CBS as a partner for further projects both regionally and EU wide.
Overlapping WP's
1- Improvement of the CBS capacities to joint EU research
BioProtech timely strengthen the CBS research capacities to joint EU research by improving the following areas:
- The technological level in the 3 focus areas which are respectively: Genomics/ Microarrays, Biofermentation and Biosafety to balance the scientific background and research skills in the CBS with the highest level centres in Europe (WP1)
- A better knowledge of EU funding sources opportunities (FP7, CIP, Horizon 2020, etc..)and understanding of the procedures and success factors and capabilities to write and manage EU projects (WP3)
- Direct contact between young CBS researchers and their EU homologues via participations to EU conferences and fairs enabled a better EU integration and creation of Tunisian-European networks (WP4)
2- Improve the socio-economic Impact of CBS
BioProtech project participates to reduce the gap between the scientific and the industrial communities by organizing many exhibitions–manifestations (BICB, Colloque on Technology transfer and innovation, meetings with local stakeholders) gathering researchers (from CBS and outside), experts (Tunisian/European) and policy makers. This offered a unique opportunity to discuss how they can work together and define a strategy for the future enabling a wider opening of the CBS on its socio economic environment.
In fact during the BICB event ( WP4) , the 20 organized B2B sessions enabled to identify real business opportunities between academicians, experts and professionals in the sector of Biotechnology which will enhance the investment in Biotechnology ( economic level) and job creation for unemployed graduates .
Three coachs respectively from the CBS TTO, business incubator and from the of ministry of employment have benefited from two coaching sessions organized in the CBS ( WP2) in order to upgrade their skills not only in Technology transfer but also in EU project build-up ( WP3) and management (WP6) enabling a sustainable development.
Furthermore during the colloque of TT and innovation (WP2), has been presented for the first time in Tunisia a virtual matchmaking platform to ensure the linkage between two created databases related to local scientific competencies and companies in the domain of Biotechnology . This action contributed to the regional development and to strengthen the national economic situation by creating specialized clusters in the domain of Biotechnology.
3-Evaluation and Improvement of CBS capacities on Bioproduction
Since its creation, the CBS laboratories elaborated many patents but till now there is no an external/internal study aimed to evaluate their credibility and their valorization possibilities.
The mapping realized in the frame of the (WP1) showed that the number of national patents is very important ( 42) however of international patent is very low (3 PCT)
The three day training sessions and coachings on valorization of scientific results and the two organized clustering/ networking meetings involving experts, relevant local companies and stakeholders in the frame of WP2 and the BICB-event in the frame of WP4, offered the opportunity to the CBS researchers, having patents, to evaluate their work and discuss with European experts mainly from EU project partners (SFZ, BiPCa) to point out their weaknesses and how these national patents could be more competitive at international level and also to buil up the knowlege base for their commercialization. In this context Dr souad Rouis from CBS ( Biotech rdp start-up) has benefited from a personalized coaching ensured by the BIPCa expert in technology transfer and startup creation to develop more and disseminate the activities of itsalready existing start up. As well as Dr Olfa Kilani ( Chito-Prod start up project) who also benefited from a coaching to improve the economic feasibility of her project and also of a training in INSA Toulouse to strengthen her skills in fermentation (WP1).
4- Scientific Vulgarization
The acquisition of basic biosafety laboratory practices (WP1) has been extended to further laboratories outside the CBS such as universities, private food industries etc. through the distribution to a large public of several promotional materials :flyers" Evaluation, storage and risk management of Chemical products" ( WP4).
The project dedicated website achieved in the frame of WP4 includes all the organized events during the project life cycle and a virtual matchmaking platform (WP2) facilitating the interaction and identifying of potential collaborations between scientists and industrials. At this effect this platform enables researchers and enterprises to communicate easily and to exchange mutual needs and competencies in the field of bioprocesses ( WP1) and related fields such as technology transfer ( WP2) , EU project build up ( WP3), project evaluation ( WP5) and management ( WP6).
In order to disseminate through large public the CBS activities and to highlight the BioProtech project results. At this effect, many press newspapers and media ( TV, radio) have covered the main project events . Indeed, 20 pages related to BioProtech project including Sfax university, Agrofood and paharmceutical entreprises activities showing how BioProtech project has contributed to improve their collaboration, have been issued by a Tunisian magazine entitled " Revue de l'Entreprise" illustrated by photos and interviews. Moreover , a recommendation booklet has been elaborated and distributed to policy makers for a better vision mainly related to biosafety best practices and brainstorming on bioproduction/job creation and TT/innovation .
List of Websites:
www.bioprotech.org
