Innovation incubator

Languedoc-Roussillon and its capital, Montpellier, are building jobs and growth through a focus on innovation and technology transfer, says Georges Frêche

The political leadership of the Languedoc-Roussillon region, in place since 2004, has focused its development efforts around three main areas: equality; jobs and growth; and sustainable development. With this in mind, we have created a unique document, a ‘regional pact’ which allows us to measure our progress in these three areas and how well they complement each other. This ‘road map’ also reaffirms the desire of the regional authority to ensure that the Languedoc-Roussillon region has the funds to achieve these development goals.

Economic development is the key to all our public policies. The region has significant R&D potential, with more than 200 labs, over 10,000 scientists and nearly 90,000 students, as well as a strong business network of more than 140,000 companies (some 90 per cent of which have fewer than 10 employees). As a result, we have focused our efforts on research and innovation as the main driver of economic growth for the whole region. The challenge for the region is to build on these strengths by putting the right conditions in place to create innovative companies and ensuring that innovation is at the heart of all other existing companies in the region as well. Innovation gives companies an advantage in markets where competition is fierce, and plays a major role in the growth and competitiveness of not only companies but also the entire region.

Not surprisingly, then, technology transfer between business and academia is a key part of our regional policy, and led, in 2004, to the creation of an organisation called Transferts LR, a body tasked with supporting not only innovative companies but also research bodies looking to find a market for their discoveries. Transferts LR was established by the regional authorities to facilitate the transfer of technology in five areas where the region is an active player – agronomics, environment and energy, ITC, electronics and health and biotechnology.

The region has also worked closely with the EU (through the FEDER 2007-2013 programme) and the national government to develop an innovation strategy for the region that is also based on the objectives of the Lisbon and Gothenburg strategies. For example, the region has created a wide network of business parks – 13 to date, of various shapes and sizes, depending on the needs of companies and the availability of real estate. These parks offer several advantages to the region.

They provide a much-needed economic boost to the region by attracting national and international companies – companies that are attracted by the range of services we offer them. But they also help local communities by bringing in new business, residents and tax payers, as well as acting as a concrete example of the work of the regional authorities in terms of creating jobs and growth. These parks are all subject to tough environmental criteria to ensure that they fit with the regions sustainable development ethos. The regional authorities also work hard to ensure that each park is able to provide a wide range of services to meet the needs of every possible company.

But the policy objective of a dynamic, innovation-focused local economy would not have been possible without the support of the authorities in the local capital, Montpellier, who have worked for the last 30 years to develop a knowledge-based economic model. Indeed, providing support for innovative companies has been the bread and butter work of the Montpellier Aglommeration’s Centre Européen d’Entreprises et d’Innovation (CEEI) since 1987, focusing on two ‘incubator’ sites - Cap Alpha and Cap Omega, which currently house 14 and 34 companies respectively. A further 24 companies are also assisted by CEEI outside the incubators. The work of the CEEI has been widely recognised. In April 2007, it won two prizes offered by the Seattle-based National Business Incubation Association (NBIA) – best incubator and technology incubator of the year. We have also signed an agreement with an incubator in Seattle – as well as one with Shanghai – to work closely together, and several more agreements are expected in the months to come, including with New York and Chicago.

It is clear that, in today’s globalised world, research and know-how are vital weapons in the battle for greater competitiveness. This is why the Languedoc-Roussillon region has decided to invest massively in an international campus bringing together all of Montpellier’s universities around a common project in a bid to take advantage, at the international level, of the training and research potential that exists in Languedoc-Roussillon. Here, too, the role of the regional authorities as the driving force behind the creation and implementation of the project has been a key element.