 While continuing along its current path, the cluster has committed to changing direction. It continues to support excellence while ensuring that the technologies or products developed fulfil the market requirements and can be marketed as quickly as possible.
In practical terms, the strategy has been redefined: from the “top down” to the “bottom up”, placing more importance on opinions from members and SMEs, for example, whose project excellence will be promoted as well as any other company becoming associated with a school.
The next step requires Biowin to convert its research excellence into innovation excellence by creating new SMEs and with improved support to existing companies. This involves offering Walloon SMEs a competitive advantage on the emerging markets.
Assessment of the first years of operation of the Biowin competitive cluster:
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16 R&D projects, |
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89 players including 62 laboratories, |
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23 SMEs and 4 large companies involved with an overall budget of 52 million, |
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assessment of the specific training programmes for cross-disciplinary skills for the four clusters involved: 79,000 hours of training, 270 sessions for 3,500 people trained since the year 2007. |
With regards to employment: the 68 innovating member companies of Biowin created some 7,000 full-time jobs between 1999 and 2008 with an average annual growth rate of 9% in the large companies and 5% in the SMEs.
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06:00 - 03/04/2010 Copyright © L'Echo.be
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