Three years have gone by since SynBIOsis's Italian and Czech partners have accepted the challenges posed by the project, which was selected by the European Commission out of about one hundred high-quality proposals for the linking and strengthening of two technological districts: the molecular biomedicine technological district of Friuli Venezia Giulia, coordinated by the Cluster in Biomedicine - CBM, (www.cbm.fvg.it) hosted by Trieste's AREA Science Park, and CEITEC - the Central European Institute of Technology (www.ceitec.eu), located in South Moravia (Czech Republic).

Thanks to an intensive programme combining research, conferences, visits and personnel exchanges between the partner institutions and other research centres, private firms, and innovative agencies working in the biotechnology sector, a handbook was put together comparing some of the best examples of European cooperation regarding the setting up and sharing of top-rank research infrastructures, technology transfer, new business development, internationalization, and fund raising. For this purpose, the technology clusters in the two partner regions established direct links with other highly advanced regional clusters in Austria, France, Germany, and Italy.

In particular, thanks to a structured programme to study the local territories, analyze their specificities and complementarities (including mapping their strengths, weaknesses, risks, and opportunities), promote the exchange of researchers and corporate visits to major European research facilities, and encourage discussions of best practices with international experts, a solid foundation was built for long-term collaboration and a three-year Joint Action Plan. The action plan will promote synergies between the two technological districts and will enhance their competitiveness in light of the new European paradigm known as "smart specialization". The results achieved by the Italian and Czech facilities and the other stakeholders involved in the project will be shared at the European level in order to produce innovation and new projects.

The project has identified three fields of action: access to research infrastructures and firms, technology transfer, and internationalization.

With regards to the first field, one goal will be to make the research labs involved in the Joint Action Plan more accessible to the private sector, which should be able to make use of their services, technological equipment, and skills. By the same token, researches should be able to visit private sector firms and undergo training periods there. This should translate into increased collaboration between the research and private sectors, paving the way for spin-offs and start-ups, and indentifying funding sources and investment sectors for projects of interest to the local business community. Personnel exchanges between the scientific and sectors will be pursued, as will a qualitative increase in the standards of local firms.

Regarding technological and knowledge transfer, two fields of action were identified: life sciences and ICT. Working groups were created in which researchers participated in private sector activities, in order to foster cross-pollination processes that can produce innovation. It will be important to create technological roadmaps that can anticipate the development trends that will influence markets, thus steering investment and training efforts and improving the efficiency of programmes to promote and optimize the results of research and cutting-edge technologies.

Finally, concerning internationalization, the goal will be to establish inter-regional research platforms, with carefully selected partners, with both a strong record of scientific publications and a proven ability to develop market-oriented projects. Additionally, researchers and private firms will be encouraged to increase their participation in international fellowship programmes, and international project planning and management skills will be strengthened.

Partners of Synbiosis are: South Moravian Innovation Centre (Coordinator); Masarykova univerzita, CEITEC Cluster - bioinformatics, z.s.p.o; Consorzio per l'AREA di Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica di Trieste; CBM - Consorzio per il Centro di Biomedicina Molecolare S.c.r.l. (Cluster in Biomedicine); Elettra - Sincrotrone Trieste SCpA; APE - APE Research Srl.