Recent Activities
March 2013 – The European Biotechnology Network now is accredited in Belgium as an international non-profit network (AISBL, Association Internationale Sans But Lucratif). This month the network supported members into the latest Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) deadline.
February 2013 – A busy month for the Network, with a new office in central Brussels and coordination of an FP7 proposal. Dr. Claire Skentelbery, Secretary General of the European Biotechnology Network chaired the '6th Berlin conference on IP in Life Sciences'. More than 100 people had travelled to the Dutch Embassy in Berlin, to discuss the field of companion diagnostics, where the combination of precise testing systems with efficient treatments defines economic success.
21 January 2013 – The European Biotechnology Network has secured a panel session at the 2013 BIO Convention in Chicago. Network member Life Technologies will chair the panel session 'Innovation in Synthetic Biology Technologies for Biofuels, High-value Chemicals and Bio-based Products', with panellists Ginkgo Bioworks, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign and Monsanto.
28 November 2012 – The EBN visited Rome in November as a speaker at 'BioEconomy Rome 2012', delivering a message on factors hindering the translation of science.
18 October 2012 – The EBN delivered the SME stream as part of BioPartnering Future Europe in Brussels and completed its work for the last FP7 health deadlines, building and supporting 5 consortia into topics including anti-infectives and cancer immunology, with European and US partners working together.
28 September 2012 – The EBN chaired a workshop on skills development for the biotech industry in Finland, and assisted three SME-driven consortia for the FP7 health deadline around the topic of anti-infectives.
25 July 2012 – The EBN supported the submission of a pan-European proposal for the Innovative medicines Initiative, bringing together 15 organisations from industry and academia around anti-infective research.
28 June 2012 – The EBN held a call for industry-experienced evaluators in FP7 and attracted over 40 applicants for new technologies calls in the health programme for the autumn 2012. BIO2102 in Boston, also took place and the EBN extended its partner-building activities with the NIH for joint EU-US projects.
22 May 2012 – May saw EBN-supported proposals for the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) submitted. Two proposals, with strong SME participation, were submitted with a total value of €100 million, with the mission to revolutionize lead discovery and development in novel medicines.
27 April 2012 – April saw a busy month with the support of SME-driven consortia for the current Innovative Medicines Initiative call. SMEs plus academic partners met at the Network Headquarters to design and develop proposals for submission to the May deadline.
30 March 2012 – US partnerships was the theme for March, with our workshop 'Doing business in the US' on March 29th and the Network's conference 'Building Transatlantic Partnerships' on March 30th. The 'Partnerships' meeting at the Swiss Mission in central Brussels focussed on funding from the EC, NIH, US Department of Defense and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation as a tool to build partnerships. The Network also launched an initiative to build FP7 applications with NIH researchers, which will run through the summer.
17 February 2012 – Dr. Claire Skentelbery, Secretary General of the European Biotechnology Network chaired the '5th Berlin conference on IP in Life Sciences'. The meeting focussed on antibodies and the challenges that they face in complex IP management. Some 100 experts focused on this issue in the impressive rooms of the Swiss Embassy near the Federal Chancellery. A short video about the conference is online at: www.youtube.com/watch
25 January 2012 – The EBN has launched an ERASMUS project with the University of Pecs, Sanofi-Aventis and Finish SME Personmed with the mission to help universities to evolve teaching to produce industry-relevant biotechnology graduates. The Network will bring together an industry panel to provide input to recommendations.
12 December 2011 – The European Biotechnology Network delivered the last of the 2011 'Biotechnology in application' series, at the University of Warwick. Excellent academic and industry research was presented in all aspects of agriculture, food production, energy and environment. The highest impact research was nominated by delegates and included anaerobic digestion in food processing to reduce waste and produce electricity as well as targeted new foods that create protective gene response.
12 October 2011 – A busy month for the Network saw the assistance of Members in over €18 million of Stage 1 FP7 proposals for the health deadline on October 5th. The aim is to get as many through to the Stage 2 deadline as possible and helping Members fund new partnerships in 2012. The Funding Hub was also in action at BioPartnering Europe in London, with workshops on building, funding and managing partnerships, where member partnerships were showcased as examples of making partnerships work for you.
28 September 2011 – The Biotechnology Funding Hub was in action at the EAPB Annual meeting ‘Science into Practice’ on September 28th, with an afternoon workshop on all research funding open to biotechnology SMEs in Europe, including FP7, National Institutes of Health, Innovative Medicines Initiative and Eurostars under scrutiny.
06 July 2011 – The Biotechnology Funding Hub delivered a busy 2 day Funding Hub Surgery, where Network members could seek phone/skype advice on project and consortium development for all European funding programmes. Topics covered the current FP7 calls, IMI, Eurostars and NIH opportunities and Members came from health, agbio, food and industrial biotechnology.
06 June 2011 – The European Biotechnology Network hosted ‘Biotechnology in application: Food and non-food, Agriculture and Environment’ in Barcelona.
The meeting brought together 50 commercial and academic researchers from across Europe to develop projects and consortia for the 2011 FP7 KBBE call from the European Commission and is the first in a series of three meetings to build and showcase partnerships in agricultural and environmental biotechnology.
25 May 2011 – The European Biotechnology Network partnered and chaired the meeting 'Risk Management in Life Science Companies' on May 4th in Brussels. The meeting looked at all the key risk management points in the life cycle of commercial biotechnology - essential learning for all young biotechs. May 23rd the Network delivered it's own workshop ‘EC and NIH Funding; Building Transatlantic Partnerships‘ also in Brussels. The agenda brought together speakers active in European and NIH funding, including Ruxandra Draghia-Akli, Director of the EC’s Health Directory and Ian Magrath, President International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research, Office of the Director NIH plus speakers from both industry and academia who are in US partnerships.
15 April 2011 – Universities West Midlands has been confirmed as a Network supporter in 2011. This not-for-profit association represents 13 universities and colleges in the West Midlands region of the UK, with strong biotechnology focus. The region includes Europe-leading universities such as Warwick and will host the December showcase ‘Biotechnology in application: Agriculture, food and environment’, closing our 2011 series of partnership-building workshops which includes Barcelona and Brussels in June and October.
30 March 2011 – The European Biotechnology Network welcomed biopartner.co.uk as a Funding Hub Partner in March. Biopartner.co.uk is a trade organisation for life sciences in the UK. The partnership enables all UK life science companies to access Network activities through a dedicated and expert UK portal.
18 February 2011 – The European Biotechnology Network supported the 4th Berlin Conference on IP in Life Sciences. This year's topic was "Rare Diseases - Blockbusters in the Niche". Dr. Claire Skentelbery, Secretary General of the European Biotechnology Network, moderated the event in the impressive Spanish Embassy where some 100 world class experts from Europe and the United States discussed this challenging and increasingly significant business sector. A short video report about the conference is online at: http://www.biocom.de/events/movies/
31 January 2011 – Officials from the European Biotechnology Network travelled to Kenya and South Africa, building partnerships between leading agbio organisations and European Biotechnology Network Members. Together with the International Agri-Technology Centre (IATC), the Network visited the African Biotechnology Stakeholders Forum, Africa Harvest, CABI, the UN Industrial Development Organisation, National Council for Science and Technology Kenya, the Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, University of Nairobi, AfricaBio, Agroco Africa and the University of Stellenbosch. The Network and IATC will build African partners into the 2011 EC calls for the KBBE programme, supported by the Biotechnology Funding Hub.
01 December 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network took an active part in a joint tender for a EC project "Knowledge Based Bio-Economy - Knowledge transfer promotion scheme 2011-2013".
22 November 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network's Funding Hub delivered its second FP7 training day for members and partners, this time dedicated to the FP7 KBBE call for January 2011. The workshop took place in London - kindly supported by the International Agri-Technology Centre (IATC), a corporate member of the Network. The remarkably successful workshop demonstrated how a peer to peer approach in developing proposal ideas has great benefit to all participants.
28 October 2010 – This month, officials from the European Biotechnology Network took part in the opening ceremony of BIOTECHNICA in Hannover. Highlight in October, however, was the opening of our new offices at Rue d'Egmont, 15 in the heart of Brussels, where our new Office Manager Heike Kempas is responsible for the administrative management of the Network.
23 September 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network’s Funding Hub launched its training programmes for members and partners, with a day dedicated to the FP7 Health two stage process in Brussels. The successful workshop covered all aspects of creating a promising proposal, from building a consortium to avoiding the pitfalls most frequently the downfall of a good idea on its path to a proposal.
August 2010 – Council of European BioRegions (CEBR) and European Regions Research and Innovation Network (ERRIN) have become Funding Hub Partners, creating Europe-wide reach and expertise in finding partners and creating industry-driven biotechnology proposals.
22 July 2010 – EuropaBio, the European Association for Bioindustries, has become a partner of the Biotechnology Funding Hub. The two organisations share a common goal of supporting biotechnology in Europe and will work together to build European consortia and enable them to submit successful proposals to funding schemes including FP7, IMI, Eurostars and NIH.
10 June 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network attended the OneNucleus conference in Cambridge in early June and signed up over 20 new individual members in just 2 days.
15 May 2010 – The Biotechnology Funding Hub published its first analysis of funding from the European Commission, with the FP7 Health call under scrutiny. Members received a detailed breakdown of likely topics and their potential for SME involvement. The publication marks the start of a full funding support service from the Hub.
19 April 2010 – The new Biotechnology Funding Hub on the network's website initially focuses on FP7, IMI and NIH funding before expanding through 2010 to find all significant funding opportunities for biotech companies. Each month, all members will receive funding news and opinion from all biotechnology sectors. Moreover, the European Biotechnology Network will hold regular funding workshops in Brussels, free of charge to all members, to introduce new funding schemes and bring major updates in funding opportunities. Organisation members gain additional access to the dedicated funding service which helps them to identify the profile of funding sought, monitors funding opportunities that match their profile, assists with partner search/consortium creation and generates proposal advice and assistance.
30 March 2010 – In the first half-year of 2010 the European Biotechnology Network continues a series of cooperations with leading European life sciences trade fairs, congresses and conferences: Biotrinity/UK, IBIC/Italy, Bio-Europe Spring/Spain, 3rd Berlin Conference on IP in Life Sciences/Germany, ERBI conference/UK, Biomedica/Germany. Events supported by the network are displayed on our website and their dates on our events calendar are marked with our red star. The members of our network are informed in the eNewsletter about reduced entrance and participation fees and other benefits.
19 February 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network supported the 3rd Berlin Conference on IP in Life Sciences. This year's topic was "Effective Life Cycle Management". Dr. Claire Skentelbery, Secretary General of the European Biotechnology Network, moderated the event in the Belgian Embassy where some 80 high class experts from Europe and the United States discussed new types of cooperations between the pharmaceutical industry and the biotech sector.
15 January 2010 – The European Biotechnology Network announced today the appointment of Dr. Claire Skentelbery as Secretary General with immediate effect.
23 October 2009 – This month, official delegates from the European Biotechnology Network attended EuroBIO in France, Biotechnica in Germany, and EFIB in Portugal. Furthermore, EBN supported the organisation of an inaugurating board meeting for the Young European Biotech Network (YEBN) on the last October weekend in Berlin.
20 July 2009 – A new searchable database is now available at our network's website. It offers comprehensive information about more than 2,000 biotech companies active in the EU, Switzerland and Norway, based on OECD criteria. The European Biotechnology Network offers this service in cooperation with European Biotechnology News free of charge.
18 June 2009 – This month the European Biotechnology Network startet a series of cooperations with leading European life sciences trade fairs, congresses and conferences. Events supported by the network are displayed on our website, their dates on our event's calendar are marked with our red star. The members of our network will be informed via eMail about reduced entrance and participation fees and other benefits. The range of these supported events will be extended in the near future.
09 April 2009 – The second edition of the European Biotechnology Industry Guide will be published this coming June. The book contains information and addresses of all by OECD classification dedicated biotechnologie companies located in the EU, Switzerland, and Norway. Since most of the European countries have not yet conducted an official company survey according to the Biotechnology Statistical Framework of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this book and the corresponding databank is the only source, that makes the activities of the European biotech industry internationally comparable. The European Biotechnology Network officially supports this initiative and will present the results together with the publishing company and the OECD this summer.
10 March 2009 – The European Biotechnology Network took an active part in a joint tender for a EC study "Regional Biotechnology - Establishing a methodology and performance indicators for assessing bioclusters and bioregions relevant to the KBBE area".
02 March 2009 – After months of laying groundwork, the European Biotechnology Network officially threw open its doors in March of 2009 in Brussels on Square Ambiorix, beginning media cooperation with the well-known magazine European Biotechnology News and launching the European Biotechnology Network website at www.european-biotechnology.net. Network activities and member benefits will be expanded regularly over time.
