Brussels, 15/05/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 14 May, the European Commission decided not to raise any objections to the financial support of €46.3 million granted by France to the BioIntelligence research and development (R&D) programme. The programme, to be coordinated by Dassault Systèmes, will involve SMEs specialised in bioinformatics, life science industries and public research institutes. BioIntelligence will promote the use of systemic modelling and simulation tools to exploit biomedical data bases. This innovative approach, based on the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) method used by manufacturing industries, will enable life science industries to optimise their research phases. The Commission concluded that the programme was compatible with the EU R&D framework. In particular, the programme addresses a market failure and looks set to create positive effects in all bioinformatic and public health sectors without significantly changing competition conditions.
The BioIntelligence R&D programme will last for five years and will cost a total of €118.2 million of eligible expenditure for the purposes of calculating the aid. Public support, amounting to €46.3 million, will mainly benefit the project leader, Dassault Systèmes (€14.5 million, including €6.4 million in the form of repayable advances). Sophia BioSystems (SoBioS) will receive €12.9 million, €7 million in the form of repayable advances, while other partners in the IT and life sciences sectors (pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and plant health products), will also benefit, as will public research institutes (INRIA, INSERM and Genopole. (L.C./transl.rt)