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[ Introduction
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| LINKING
THE ABILITY TO DISCOVER TO THE ABILITY TO EXPLOIT |
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The Cell Factory is one of the six
Key Actions of the Quality of Life and Management of Living
Resources Programme (1).
This programme is a part of the Fifth Framework Programme
for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration
Activities of the European Community (1998-2002) (2).
This book contains the summaries of the 126 RTD projects
that have been selected in the call for proposals launched
in 1999 and 2000. The Community financial support to these
projects amounts 226 millions €.
With a budget of 400 millions €,
the objective of the Cell Factory is to support research
activities that aim at the integration of innovative research
and technologies with their exploitation by industry and/or
other socio-economic entities in the fields of health,
environment, agro-industry, agri-food and high value added
chemicals. Particular attention is to be given to strengthening
European industrial competitiveness by improving the potential
for creation of small research-based biotechnology firms
and entrepreneurial initiatives. These knowledge-based
new industries are a reservoir of industrial competitiveness,
scientific and technological innovation, opportunities
for investors, and jobs creation, which are under-exploited
in Europe.
The Cell Factory promotes an environment
in which scientific results can be rapidly exploited and
transformed into products and processes of interest to
society. This approach is facilitated through integrating
the whole innovation process, from advanced fundamental
research, through technological development to practical
demonstration. Such an integrated innovation approach
is considered a pre-requisite for projects in the Cell
Factory key action. The exploitation phase may take place
in the industrial sector, but in certain cases may also
be a non-industrial one, depending on the particular socio-economic
environment associated with a given scientific and technological
area, e.g. biosafety research to be used by public-interest
organisations, in vitro alternative testing to
replace animal experimentation, research results to be
used by clinicians and in hospitals, etc. The Cell Factory
has made a particular effort to reach this goal by mobilising
the necessary operators (e.g. scientists, industrialists,
start-up incubators, consumer and patient's associations,
public-interest groups) to address the research objectives
in a co-ordinated and convergent way, linking the ability
to discover and the ability to exploit. The following
two aspects should be reflected in any successful project:
The use of innovative science and technologies
and the exploitation of the results.
Innovative
technologies. New knowledge will be generated on
the functioning of cells, including GMOs, as biological
factories, by advanced research such as functional and
structural genomics, proteomics, patterns of metabolites,
combinatorial biochemistry, high-throughput screening,
nanobiotechnology, structural biology, molecular evolution,
bioinformatics, genetic and biochemical engineering. These
multidisciplinary technologies applicable to many fields
of the cell factories will provide new processes and molecules,
for implementing the priorities given in the work programme.
In the context of the overall Quality of Life Programme
activities, the key action will link these innovative
technologies, e.g. functional and structural genomics,
with exploitation strategies focussing on the research
fields addressed in the three different areas: health,
environmental biotechnology and bioproducts and bioprocesses.
Exploitation
of results. Scientific and technological excellence
is necessary but not sufficient. It must be closely linked
to a firm commitment to knowledge transfer and to a convincing
exploitation strategy by industry and/or public interest
organisations. Efficient risk capital markets, creation
and development of high-tech small and medium enterprises
(SMEs), and promoting the dialogue of technology producers
with technology users are crucial for linking research
to socio-economic needs, leading to future wealth and
job creation. The challenge is therefore to set up a nurturing
environment both for the development of established bio-industries
and for a new generation of European entrepreneurs to
start up and flourish.
These general objectives are addressed
in the following three priority areas of Cell Factory:
- Improving the diagnostic and therapeutic arsenal for
health care
- Improving environmental sustainability
- New biological and biotechnological products and processes
for agro-industry,
agri-food and high value added chemicals.
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| CALLS
FOR PROPOSALS |
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Researchers and other stakeholders
of the Cell Factory were invited to submit proposals for
shared cost projects to four deadlines in the years 1999
and 2000. The successful projects have started operations
in 2000 and 2001 and will run for three years and some
up to four years, i.e. the latest projects from these
deadlines will finish in the year 2005.
In the first two years of the Quality
of Life programme, the Cell Factory received a total of
906 eligible proposals for RTD projects. Proposals were
peer-reviewed in two stages by independent external experts
who assessed the proposals towards five blocks of criteria.
Stage one, minimum threshold
of 4 in both criteria in a scale from 0 to 5 to pass to
stage two
1. Scientific excellence and innovation
2. Quality of the partnership, the management and appropriateness
of resources.
Stage two, not threshold required,
but a minimum of 3.5 as overall final mark is required
to be considered for funding
3. Community added value and contribution to EU policies
4. Contribution to Community social objectives
5. Economic developments and S&T prospects.
Additional information on the detailed
mechanisms of the peer-review evaluation, composition
of the panels and weightings of the different selection
criteria can be obtained from the Commission services
or on the web: http://cordis.europa.eu/life/
Out of the 906 proposals received,
126 were selected by the European Commission as being
of the highest merit and best addressing the programme
objectives. This selection, which was entirely based on
the recommendations of the independent external evaluators,
taking into account the available budget, received a positive
opinion from the Quality of Life Programme Committee,
which is composed of representatives of all the Member
States of the EU and Countries associated to the programme.
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| AN
OUTLINE OF THE RESPONSE |
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The response from the scientific
and industrial communities greatly exceeded the budgetary
possibilities. In the first two years of Cell Factory,
906 eligible proposals have been received, which led,
following evaluation by independent experts and contract
negotiations, to 69 projects from the call launched in
1999 and 57 from the call launched in 2000. The EC contribution
amounts to 119 millions € for the 1999 projects and
103 millions € for the 2000 projects. The total research
investment in all the projects is thus in excess of 400
million € as the EC only finances about 50% of the
costs of each project (maximum 50% of the total costs
of industrial and other "full cost" partners
and only the marginal costs for "additional cost"
partners, e.g. universities). The overall average EC contribution
per project is 1.72million € in 1999 and 1.80 million
in 2000.
One interesting feature is the increase
of the budgetary dimension of the projects. Thus, in 1999,
16% of the projects had an EC contribution of less than
1 million e. The percentage of projects of less than 1million
€ in 2000 was only 3%. Similar pattern is found for
the projects ranging between 1-1.5millione, 32% in 1999,
and only 23% in 2000. However, when comparing the group
of projects between 1.5-2 million €, the figures
for 1999 is 22% and the one for 2000 has increased up
to 47%. There is not a significant change for projects
over 2 millions €. This linked to the fact that the
average number of partners per project went down from
8.6 in 1999 to 7.7 in 2000, confirms the tendency towards
larger projects, in terms of financial dimension, where
each partner has a more ambitious research plan.
The Cell Factory is organised in
three areas and the number of projects selected in each
of the areas for the period 1999-2000 is the following:
Health: 56; Environment: 29 and Bioprocesses: 41. Over
90% of the projects belong to the category of research
projects, and only a small proportion belong to the
other categories: thematic networks, concerted actions,
demonstration or combined (research and demonstration)
projects.
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| STRONG
INTEREST FROM INDUSTRY |
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Cell Factory has elicited a very
strong interest from industry. Of the 1999 projects, 18%
of the partners are industrial ones. This figure increased
up to 22% in 2000. However, industry is not so present
in the coordination of projects. Thus, the percentage
of projects coordinated by industry were 13% in 1999 and
8% in 2000. In the pre-competitive type of projects supported
by the EC, two concepts related to the direct industrial
participation are particularly relevant: Industrial Penetration
and Exploitability, both are aimed at providing semi-quantitative
indicators of the industrial relevance of the projects
and their adherence to the Community objectives, namely:
to strengthen the scientific and technological basis of
European industry and make it more competitive at international
level.
Industrial penetration is defined
as the percentage of projects having at least one industrial
partner in the consortium. The figures for 1999 is 72%
and for 2000, 93%. This indicates that industry not only
participates very actively in the projects, but also that
industry is present in most of the projects independently
of the sector. Other indicator aimed at measuring the
interest of the private sector in Cell Factory is the
so-called "Exploitability factor". It is defined
as the percentage of private and commercial partners.
Those organisations do need to find a good value for money
in participating in the Cell Factory Key Action, where
according to Community rules they must contribute with
at least 50% of the total cost of the project. The Exploitability
factor for 1999 and 200 has reached the figure of 34%.
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| INTERNATIONAL
DIMENSION |
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The Cell Factory Key Action, fully
in line with the overall policy of openess and collaboration
with laboratories other than the ones in the Member States,
has actively promoted and encouraged the participation
of laboratories from Eastern Europe, the so-called Newly
Associated Countries (NAS), but also the participation
of other Associates Countries, and Third Countries.
The participation of Associated Countries
and Third Countries in Cell Factory represents 11% of
the total number of partners for both 1999 and 2000. The
specific figures for the participation of partners from
NAS represent 5% of the total in 1999 and 2% in 2000.
The countries with the higher number of participants are:
Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary followed by Slovakia,
Slovenia and the Baltic Republics. However, in spite of
the still suboptimal presence of laboratories from the
Newly Associated Countries in the Cell Factory, their
incidence in the projects is noticeable: as many as 13%
of 1999 Cell Factory projects do have at least a partner
form the NAS. For 2000 the figure is roughly the same:
12%.
The Commission is committed to encourage
the participation from NAS partners in the Framework Programmes
and in addition to the more intensive dissemination campaigns
on FP5 in the NAS, two new Calls for Proposals have been
published in 2002 (3,
4) aimed at
promoting the integration of NAS laboratories in ongoing
FP5 projects and to support Networks of Excellence in
these countries.
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| THE
EXTERNAL ADVISORY GROUP (EAG) ON CELL FACTORY (5) |
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The role of the External Advisory
Group on Cell Factory is to provide the Commission with
independent advice concerning the content and direction
of research work to be carried out under this Key Action.
This involves proposing guidelines for the detailed work
programme, including the time table of calls for proposals,
the criteria to be used for evaluating project proposals,
and verifiable objectives for achieving the aims of the
Key Action. The commission has also benefited from the
EAG advice on the strategic nature and exploitation of
the work to be carried out and on the analysis of the
results. This advice has resulted in different revisions
of the work programme. The EAG discussions have lead to
a number of reports, covering the revision of the yearly
work programme and other broader issues, such as: From
Medical Biotechnology to Clinical Practice, GMO Research
in perspective, Entrepreneurship: Networking of Biovalleys
in Europe, and Pivotal Role of the "Cell Factory"
Key Action (6).
These reports have been invaluable for the Commission
Services in steering the activities of the Cell Factory
towards a better use of resources and achievements of
deliverables.
More specific and detailed introductions
on each of the three areas of Cell Factory can be found
at the beginning of each chapter addressing each area.
Alfredo AGUILAR
Head of Unit The "Cell Factory"
Directorate Life Sciences I
EC Directorate General for Research
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