French and German clusters link up for cross-border cooperation

The two clusters believe that moving from basic research to application increasingly demands an international outlook and transnational cooperation. Together they were one of ten winners of a competition for cluster cooperation projects run by the BMBF, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.

The aim of the cooperation is to unlock potential synergies between existing regional medtech networks, to boost the innovative strength, market opportunities and international competitiveness of the German and French companies involved. Areas of potential cooperation include the surface treatment of metals and other materials used in medical technology.

The Pôle Technologique de Haute-Champagne covers the Haute-Champagne region in the area enclosed by the three cities of Troyes, Nancy and Dijon. It is the first port of call in France for the manufacture and surface treatment of medical technology products and last year founded Pro+MeD, a cluster which will specialise in the development of prostheses and medical devices. The Pro+MeD cluster comprises a total of 35 medical technology companies, including firms such as GreatBatch Medical, Marle and Aesculap-France, as well as institutions such as the Regional Centre of Innovation and Technology Transfer for Material, Coating and Surface Treatment and engineering schools such as the Technological University of Troyes. They are involved in activities such as the development and surface treatment of new, longer-lasting prostheses and tracking the use of medtech instruments in operating theatres using RFID chips.

These issues are also of major interest to the STERN BioRegion, a biotech and medtech competence network covering the cities/regions of Stuttgart, Tübingen, Esslingen, Reutlingen and Neckar-Alb. The network includes around 90 biotech and 120 medtech companies, three universities and research institutes including the NMI (Natural and Medical Sciences Institute) in Reutlingen, the IGB (Fraunhofer Institute for Interfacial Engineering and Biotechnology) and the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research. One particular area of focus is combining biotech applications with established medical technology products. The STERN BioRegion’s key areas of expertise include instruments for minimally invasive surgery, retina implants, drug-coated vascular prostheses and artificial tissue and organs.

“As we see it, interregional cooperation offers the potential to share specialist know-how and profit from each other’s strengths so that this knowledge can be turned into products that work to everyone’s benefit,” said Klaus Eichenberg, Managing Director of BioRegio STERN Management GmbH.

This German-French cooperation is not only intended to help develop and market new bio-medtech products or treatments. Another important objective is to encourage close cooperation between research institutes in the two regions and between the companies located there. “The STERN BioRegion and Pôle Technologique de Haute-Champagne overlap and complement each other in many key areas so that our cooperation will create a win-win situation for both networks,” said Régis Flot, President of the Association pour le Pôle Technologique de Haute-Champagne.

The two clusters hope the synergies, knowledge transfer and intensive networking to create significant added value, in particular in terms of competition with companies from the Far East. Initial company presentations and cooperation meetings will take place in autumn 2009 at events such as business roundtables in France and German, to get the cooperation up and running.

Companies and research institutes who are interested in participating should get in touch directly with BioRegio STERN Management GmbH in Germany or the Pôle Technologique de Haute-Champagne in France.