editorials

2024: An outstanding year!

Now more than 20 years in to Genopole's existence, I'm proud to share our biocluster's accomplishments and ambitions with you. The year was notable for significant advancements that reinforced our position as a reference in biotechnologies and fortified our commitment to scientific and collective excellence.

Thanks to the work done by our teams, 2024 passed many milestones for structuring projects:

• Strengthening academics:
  Genopole signed a convention with Paris-Saclay University, twelfth in the Shanghai Ranking and first in Continental Europe, to affirm our place at the heart of a world-leading science and education ecosystem.

• New infrastructures for the future:
  The launch of Protopia and Phase 1 of the biofoundry (GATEX) open new possibilities for supporting innovation and the scale-up of our start-ups and research units.

• Entrepreneurial excellence:
  Four of our start-ups: endogene.bio, CGenetix, bYoRNA and Fungu'it, were laureates of the 2024 i-Lab competition. That accomplishment reflects the quality of our accompaniment and that of the incubated projects.

• eHealth:
  With D4Medtech, a project for combatting diabetes selected by the Tiers-Lieux d’Expérimentation call for projects in eHealth, we are playing key roles in the national France 2030 strategy and in the acceleration of medical innovation.

This dynamic continued to grow at the end of the year with the strategic deliberation underway, involving teams from the Île-de-France Administrative Region, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research and Genopole, that should enable the nine-year renewal of our constitutive convention in February 2026 and the repositioning of Genopole.

Our course is clear: make Genopole a gold-standard hub for excellence, in association with all its research partners: University of Évry-Paris Saclay, Paris-Saclay University, CEA, Inserm, AFM-Téléthon and the South Île-de-France Medical Center (CHSF).

In other developments the GIP and SEM teams continue their shared work to improve the biocluster's ability to respond to the needs of its actors.

Together, we have the ability to write a new chapter in biotech innovation and continue shaping a sustainable future for all.

I wish to express my profound gratitude to the Île-de-France Administrative Region, the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, the AFM-Téléthon, the Grand Paris Sud Urban Area and the Essonne Administrative Department for their unwavering support. Their commitment is an essential lever for making our projects real and developing our innovation ecosystem, which, moreover, allows us to development high-quality employment for the citizens of our territory.

To all: be audacious, be demanding and be united. Together, we have the ability to write a new chapter in biotech innovation and continue shaping a sustainable future for all.

With my heartfelt thanks,

Stéphane Beaudet
President of Genopole

Between transition and continuity, year 2024 was dense and fruitful

Within the perspective of shaping the renewal of the GIP, several studies were launched to characterize Genopole's significance. They included an analysis on socioeconomic and scientific outcomes, another on publications driven by the Genopole ecosystem, and a reflection on the organizations around us and their functions, all to inspire us, and provide us with a larger picture.

These studies provided the GIP teams with not only a better view, but also the certitude that choices have to be made for an environment where Genopole appears original, renowned and impactful for businesses and laboratories.

The GIP renewal process was then set underway, with the constitution of an ad hoc evaluation commission, which provided its report in early 2025.

The entirety of that period was very rich, generating many debates in-house, to challenge ideas and ultimately provide ourselves with a collective and clear vision of the major orientations to pursue. At the same time, Genopole continued to position itself at the vanguard of innovation and progress in biotechnologies.

Our current position as an indispensable gold-standard for biotechnologies was attained not only through excellence in research but also thanks to our programs for accompaniment and the dedication of our teams. Their work, in partnership with SEM Genopole, enabled the deployment of two new infrastructures, GATEX and Protopia, both of which will allow us to better accompany start-ups, laboratories and businesses looking to develop and validate demonstration capacities for their innovations. This positions Genopole for supporting industrial scale-up and demonstration, both a part of the continuum between scientific proof of concept and industrial deployment of an innovation. Genopole's internal competencies were incremented to ensure the operation of these new structures. Providing accompaniment for the risks innate to any entrepreneurial project remains a core aspect of the activities of all of the GIP's teams.

Our current position as an indispensable gold-standard for biotechnologies was attained not only through excellence in research but also thanks to our programs for accompaniment and the dedication of our teams.

In that same vein, to accompany demonstration capacities, Genopole's project managers developed a Tiers-Lieux d’Expérimentation project for eHealth, which was validated in December 2024. That project's purpose is to validate a digital innovation in health. It involves a partnership with the CHSF and other institutions, centered initially on diabetes but destined to expand in scope.

These examples illustrate perfectly how Genopole's dynamically evolving programs and projects bring significant competitive advantages to researchers and entrepreneurs. Indeed, Genopole offers these latter not only a state of the art technological environment but also a singularity that makes them stand out in a constantly evolving scientific landscape.

Gilles Trystram
Chief Executive of Genopole