Toulouse White Biotechnology completes massive expansion of R&D space
In France, Toulouse White Biotechnology, a pre-industrial demonstrator and accelerator in industrial biotechnology based on renewable carbon, doubled its physical size, with 1700 m2 of surface area now available to accommodate new facilities and laboratories and host the numerous projects. Three new wings, of 400m2 each, are home to TWB’s technical platforms, with advanced equipment and laboratories hosting R&D project teams. For example, 15 people from EnobraQ; a start-up created in November 2015 on the basis of a TWB research project are currently working in the TWB premises.
The financing of these works and the robotics development of TWB technical platforms has been made possible by funding from 3 TWB partner regional authorities (Regional Council of Languedoc Roussillon Midi Pyrénées, Toulouse Métropole, SICOVAL Urban Community), the European Union in the framework of FEDER and the ANR (initial grant under the PIA – Program of Investments for the Future).
The restoration of the premises covered by the ANR grant amounted to €860K. The microbial culture robot totaling €950K, was funded by the Regional Council of Languedoc Roussillon Midi Pyrenees (€272K), the FEDER program (€182K), Toulouse Métropole (€200K), the SICOVAL Urban Community (€100K) with TWBs capital as a supplement.
TWB was designed to facilitate exchanges between public and private sectors in the field of research and industrialization of bioprocesses aimed at providing the means to by-pass fossil carbon.
Since 2011, TWB has signed €18 million in industrial contracts. For this, TWB has implemented an innovative model to give rise to collaboration between public and industrial researchers, to accelerate the transition from basic research to industrialization, while providing the expertise and equipment not available to its partners to carry out ambitious and value creating projects. The collaborations are supervised by customized contracts establishing clear and simple work rules between the diverse parties.
Category: Research
