French high tech clusters are attracting inward investment

The Pôles de Compétitivité develop three types of collaborative projects. While the core activity remains R&D projects, broad innovation platforms are being developed to promote innovation by businesses and R&D related projects, such as training, real-estate investment, building ICT infrastructures, economic intelligence and surveys, and international development, are also receiving support.

Over 2,000 R&D projects have been launched within the innovation clusters, for which more than €5 billion have been committed, half of which comes from the French Government. In total, there are 10,000 researchers working on various projects with 5,000 businesses, including SMEs.

State funding will be maintained from 2009 – 2011 when the government will invest €1.5 billion over three years. It will also provide funding for specific programmes, such as the development of a global cluster for excellence in nanotechnologies based in Grenoble.

The development of the cluster is being strengthened by the French R&D tax credit, which, since 2008, has offered the best tax incentive in Europe, at 30 per cent of R&D spending.

This is pulling in inward investment, and there are currently 500 international businesses taking part in various research projects at French innovation clusters, including 270 European companies.

The clusters are also trying to increase their scale and reach by establishing partnerships with clusters in other countries. For example, the Systematic Paris Region and Aerospace Valley clusters have a partnership with the Safe Trans cluster in Germany, which aims to set up a dedicated European platform for embedded systems. Meanwhile, three French clusters covering healthcare and life sciences at Cancer-Bio-Santé, Lyon Biopôle and Alsace Bio Valley, recently sealed an agreement with the Kansai Biomedical Cluster in Japan.

David Appia, Chairman and CEO of the inward investment agency Invest in France, said the innovation clusters are playing a major role in attracting foreign R&D centres to France. “[This is] combined with the particularly advantageous research tax credit, which offers the best incentives in Europe.”