On February 27, 2025, Yasmine Belkaid, President of the Institut Pasteur, and Nicolas Dufourcq, CEO of Bpifrance, signed a cooperation agreement aimed at using their resources and skills to improve the transfer to industry of research results. This strategic partnership is designed to encourage the emergence of startups and innovative projects based on the Institut Pasteur’s research. It follows on from a first partnership with Bpifrance via its InnoBio 2 Fund, in connection with the establishment and development of the ArgoBio startup studio.
The partnership is perfectly aligned with the Deeptech Plan, an initiative launched by the French government in 2019 and led by Bpifrance, aimed at positioning France as a global leader in groundbreaking technologies. The cooperation also aims to increase the impact of public investment in medical research and innovation, in particular to:
- improve the visibility of French and European medical research, and make it a key lever for economic and industrial development;
- boost the number of projects likely to lead to the creation of startups based on research results;
- make the practices of ecosystem stakeholders intelligible and strengthen links between research and the private sector;
- put in place the best possible conditions to develop projects that have launched.
Dedicated support for transforming research into real-world solutions
As part of this cooperation agreement, Bpifrance will provide the Institut Pasteur and its ecosystem with innovative digital tools, such as the platforms Tango and Tandem, to facilitate contact between researchers and entrepreneurs. Joint events, sessions to develop entrepreneurship awareness, and advice on fund raising will also be delivered to support project leaders.
In turn, the Institut Pasteur will actively promote the funding and support schemes offered by Bpifrance to its researchers and startup partners.
A collaboration serving innovation and public health
By pooling their respective expertise, the Institut Pasteur and Bpifrance aim to create an environment that is conducive to promoting innovations based on scientific research. This partnership will accelerate technology transfer and drive biotechnology sector growth in France.
“Without the inextricable link between basic research and innovation, science and progress as we know them today would simply not exist. Louis Pasteur said: ‘There is science and the application of science, and these two are linked as the fruit is to the tree.’ That’s why I’m particularly delighted with the signing of this new framework agreement, which strengthens the fruitful collaboration between the Institut Pasteur and Bpifrance. It marks a key milestone on the path to accelerating the development of diagnostic, therapeutic, and vaccine solutions to combat infectious and emerging diseases. The initiative is fully in line with our ambitious Pasteur 2030 strategic plan, which aims to rapidly transform groundbreaking scientific research into practical applications to tackle global health challenges,” said Institut Pasteur President Yasmine Belkaid.
Bpifrance CEO Nicolas Dufourcq added: “We’re delighted with our partnership with the Institut Pasteur, which, in keeping with our Deeptech Plan, will contribute to the emergence of startups and industrial projects based on disruptive technologies. These will respond to the main societal challenges of tomorrow, in particular with regard to health and quality of life, and help ensure greater resilience in the face of health challenges.”
As part of the Deeptech Plan, Bpifrance is keen to build and foster networking among all research commercialization stakeholders, with the objective of boosting startup numbers, scaling more startups into mid-sized companies, facilitating technology transfer to SMEs, mid-caps, and major industrial corporations, and increasing the number of collaborative research projects involving both public laboratories and the private sector.
© Institut Pasteur - François Gardy