DISCOVER

Territory

Rhône-Alpes: France’s no.2 region in terms of research potential…

More than 6,500 researchers in the Life Sciences

The Lyon/Grenoble corridor brings together distinct yet complementary know-how:
• Lyon, a world reference in diagnostics, vaccines and infectious diseases
• Grenoble is home to industrial firms such as BD and Roche, public research centers and the CRSSA (Military Healthcare Service Research Center). It is an international center of excellence in micro nanotechnology and structural biology.

The NanoBio core project, which started as part of Minatec, the innovation cluster in micro and nanotechnology, fully capitalizes on these assets.

2,500 researchers in the field of infectious diseases

> half in the private sector (Sanofi Pasteur, Merial and bioMérieux)

> and half in the public sector (CEA, Inserm, CNRS, Claude Bernard University Lyon 1, Lyon Civil Hospitals, Joseph Fourier University, CRSSA and others).

4,000 researchers in micro and nanotechnologies in Grenoble, including 300 specialized in healthcare applications (CEA, Leti...).

R&D infrastructures

The INSERM Jean Mérieux Biosafety Level 4 Laboratory in Lyon Gerland, the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) in Grenoble are world-renowned facilities located in Rhône- Alpes. Two WHO laboratories, the Office for National Epidemic Preparedness and Response (EPR) and International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), and national research organizations (INSERM, CNRS, Institut Pasteur, INRIA and others) are also based in Rhône-Alpes. The University of Lyon and Joseph Fourier
University in Grenoble are also key local assets, as are high-level medical centers (Lyon Civil Hospitals, the Centre Léon Bérard Cancer Research Center, the Grenoble University Hospital and CRSSA) and research networks (The FINOVI Innovations in Infectiology Foundation, the Cluster 10 « Infectiology » network, NanoBio and CLARA). Lyon also features a laboratory for approval of healthcare products, the French Healthcare Products Safety Agency (AFSSAPS), which specialize in authorizing immunological products before they are sold. Recently, the Lyonbiopole’s Infectious Diseases Center opened on April 1st, 2009 and host today 6 R&D research teams.

High-level training

20,000 students in the Life Sciences and Healthcare are trained in the Rhône-Alpes region. Today, cutting-edge higher education institutes in the Life Sciences are federated in what are called Higher Education and Research Clusters (PRES):
• The University of Lyon: France’s largest university outside of the Paris region, 20 schools, 120,000 students, 11,500 teacher-researchers, 5,000 PhD students and 550 public and private laboratories.
• The University of Grenoble: France’s ninth largest network of universities, 59,000 students, 93 research laboratories, 2,000 teacher-researchers, and 3,482 PhD students.

In 2008, two projects in Rhône-Alpes - « Lyon Cité Campus » and « Grenoble – Innovation University » - were selected and accredited by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research.

The region is also an important center for training PhD students and engineers as well as high-level technicians in biological and medical engineering. Training in vaccinology, epidemiology, public health and humanitarian careers is provided by various organizations such as the Mérieux Foundation, Bioforce and the WHO as well as by major firms such as Sanofi Pasteur and bioMérieux.

… and entrepreneurial spirit

France’s no.2 employer in the health sector with 50,000 employees and 600 companies (20% of France’s jobs and 5% European’s job in the sector). 53% of the SMBs have less than 20 employees. On average, 10 Life Sciences companies are created per year in the Rhône-Alpes region, in the field of biotechnology and medical devices.

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