"Valorisation Sud" Consortium: for the emergence of a technology market in the South

This new inter-establishment structure, which is classed as an «Investissement d’avenir» (investment for the future) and has a budget of 9 million euros over ten years, is intended to foster the transfer of technologies and know-how of value to the economies of tropical and equatorial regions and developing countries.

The Prime Minister announced on 9 May 2012 the themed development consortiums (CVTs) chosen as "Investissements d’avenir". Backed up by the experience of CIRAD, the Institut Pasteur and the IRD in terms of technology transfer and industrial partnerships in the South, the main task of Valorisation Sud is to ensure the promotion and transfer of technologies generated by research laboratories throughout France that are of socioeconomic interest for markets in developing countries. The CVT is coordinated by the three research organizations, within the framework of the Agence inter-établissements de recherche pour le développement (AIRD), and is being run in partnership with universities in the French overseas regions (Réunion, West Indies-French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia).

Valorisation Sud, a strategic opportunity for developing countries

With a budget of 9 million euros over ten years, Valorisation Sud will serve to establish a platform to:

• Build and manage a portfolio of 800 patents/softwares/PVPCs

• Generate income to market these technologies

• Contribute to the emergence of a technology market with the South and in the South

• Consolidate France's position as a preferred partner for economic players in the South

• Promote French scientific expertise by pooling what is on offer to emerging markets (India, Southeast Asia, Brazil, South Africa)

• Help implement a research and innovation strategy, following on from the "StratOM" approach initiated by the Ministry of Research, by fostering economic dynamism in the French overseas territories

• Contribute to economic growth in France and its overseas territories by addressing new markets, while fostering development in southern countries.

Valorisation Sud offers the national community new services, by working closely with technology transfer acceleration companies (SATTs), France Brevet, promotion structures and the other five CVTs. Its twenty or so staff members will offer "à la carte" services: intellectual property management support; building a portfolio of patents with promotion licences; technology marketing and promotion; pre-industrial maturation, project management, licensing contracts; advice on setting up innovative enterprises.

Alice Dautry, Director general of the Institut Pasteur, Gérard Matheron, CIRAD President Managing Director, and Michel Laurent, IRD President, are delighted to have signed the CVT funding agreement, which "opens up new opportunities to promote the inventions and know-how generated by French research in favour of development in southern countries ".