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Cell Factory - Community funded projects |
Researchers and other stakeholders of the Cell Factory were invited to submit proposals for shared cost projects to four deadlines in the years 1999 and 2000. The successful projects have started operations in 2000 and 2001 and will run for three years and some up to four years, i.e. the latest projects from these deadlines will finish in the year 2005. In the first two years of the Quality of Life programme, the Cell Factory received a total of 906 eligible proposals for RTD projects. Proposals were peer-reviewed in two stages by independent external experts who assessed the proposals towards five blocks of criteria.
Stage one, minimum threshold of 4 in both criteria in a scale from 0 to 5 to pass to stage two:
Stage two, no threshold required, but a minimum of 3.5 as overall final mark is required to be considered for funding
Out of the 906 proposals received, 126 were selected by the European Commission as being of the highest merit and best addressing the programme objectives. This selection, which was entirely based on the recommendations of the independent external evaluators, taking into account the available budget, received a positive opinion from the Quality of Life Programme Committee, which is composed of representatives of all the Member States of the EU and Countries associated to the programme.
An Outline of the Response
The response from the scientific and industrial communities greatly exceeded the budgetary possibilities. In the first two years of Cell Factory, 906 eligible proposals have been received, which led, following evaluation by independent experts and contract negotiations, to 69 projects from the call launched in 1999 and 57 from the call launched in 2000. The EC contribution amounts to 119 millions € for the 1999 projects and 103 millions € for the 2000 projects. The total research investment in all the projects is thus in excess of 400 million € as the EC only finances about 50% of the costs of each project (maximum 50% of the total costs of industrial and other "full cost" partners and only the marginal costs for "additional cost" partners, e.g. universities). The overall average EC contribution per project is 1.72million € in 1999 and 1.80 million in 2000.
One interesting feature is the increase of the budgetary dimension of the projects. Thus, in 1999, 16% of the projects had an EC contribution of less than 1 million euro. The percentage of projects of less than 1million € in 2000 was only 3%. Similar pattern is found for the projects ranging between 1-1.5millione, 32% in 1999, and only 23% in 2000. However, when comparing the group of projects between 1.5-2 million €, the figures for 1999 is 22% and the one for 2000 has increased up to 47%. There is not a significant change for projects over 2 millions €. This linked to the fact that the average number of partners per project went down from 8.6 in 1999 to 7.7 in 2000, confirms the tendency towards larger projects, in terms of financial dimension, where each partner has a more ambitious research plan.
The Cell Factory is organised in three areas and the number of projects selected in each of the areas for the period 1999-2000 is the following: Health: 56; Environment: 29 and Bioprocesses: 41. Over 90% of the projects belong to the category of research projects, and only a small proportion belong to the other categories: thematic networks, concerted actions, demonstration or combined (research and demonstration) projects.
Strong Interest from Industry
Cell Factory has elicited a very strong interest from industry. Of the 1999 projects, 18% of the partners are industrial ones. This figure increased up to 22% in 2000. However, industry is not so present in the coordination of projects. Thus, the percentage of projects coordinated by industry were 13% in 1999 and 8% in 2000. In the pre-competitive type of projects supported by the EC, two concepts related to the direct industrial participation are particularly relevant: Industrial Penetration and Exploitability, both are aimed at providing semi-quantitative indicators of the industrial relevance of the projects and their adherence to the Community objectives, namely: to strengthen the scientific and technological basis of European industry and make it more competitive at international level.
Industrial penetration is defined as the percentage of projects having at least one industrial partner in the consortium. The figures for 1999 is 72% and for 2000, 93%. This indicates that industry not only participates very actively in the projects, but also that industry is present in most of the projects independently of the sector. Other indicator aimed at measuring the interest of the private sector in Cell Factory is the so-called "Exploitability factor". It is defined as the percentage of private and commercial partners. Those organisations do need to find a good value for money in participating in the Cell Factory Key Action, where according to Community rules they must contribute with at least 50% of the total cost of the project. The Exploitability factor for 1999 and 200 has reached the figure of 34%.
International Dimension
The Cell Factory Key Action, fully in line with the overall policy of openess and collaboration with laboratories other than the ones in the Member States, has actively promoted and encouraged the participation of laboratories from Eastern Europe, the so-called Newly Associated Countries (NAS), but also the participation of other Associates Countries, and Third Countries.
The participation of Associated Countries and Third Countries in Cell Factory represents 11% of the total number of partners for both 1999 and 2000. The specific figures for the participation of partners from NAS represent 5% of the total in 1999 and 2% in 2000. The countries with the higher number of participants are: Poland, Czech Republic and Hungary followed by Slovakia, Slovenia and the Baltic Republics. However, in spite of the still suboptimal presence of laboratories from the Newly Associated Countries in the Cell Factory, their incidence in the projects is noticeable: as many as 13% of 1999 Cell Factory projects do have at least a partner form the NAS. For 2000 the figure is roughly the same: 12%.
The Commission is committed to encourage the participation from NAS partners in the Framework Programmes and in addition to the more intensive dissemination campaigns on FP5 in the NAS, two new Calls for Proposals have been published in 2002 (3, 4) aimed at promoting the integration of NAS laboratories in ongoing FP5 projects and to support Networks of Excellence in these countries.
The External Advisory Group (EAG) on Cell Factory
The role of the External Advisory Group on Cell Factory is to provide the Commission with independent advice concerning the content and direction of research work to be carried out under this Key Action. This involves proposing guidelines for the detailed work programme, including the time table of calls for proposals, the criteria to be used for evaluating project proposals, and verifiable objectives for achieving the aims of the Key Action. The commission has also benefited from the EAG advice on the strategic nature and exploitation of the work to be carried out and on the analysis of the results. This advice has resulted in different revisions of the work programme. The EAG discussions have lead to a number of reports, covering the revision of the yearly work programme and other broader issues, such as: From Medical Biotechnology to Clinical Practice, GMO Research in perspective, Entrepreneurship: Networking of Biovalleys in Europe, and Pivotal Role of the "Cell Factory" Key Action. These reports have been invaluable for the Commission Services in steering the activities of the Cell Factory towards a better use of resources and achievements of deliverables.
Further information
More specific and detailed introductions on each of the three areas of Cell Factory can be found at the beginning of each chapter addressing each area. In keeping with the interests of Biomatnet, information is provided for area 3.3. New biological and biotechnological products and processes for agro-industry, agri-food and high value added chemicals
This part of the Cell Factory key action covers many of the traditional fields of biotechnology, the use of living cells to produce industrial products for various applications. The area is organised in four sub-areas as follows:
The first of these sub-areas (3.3.1) addresses nanobiotechnology, covering both the application of new scientific tools to biological systems, the use of biological systems as tools in the development of new products and technologies. Investigations are invited at the level of molecules, the coupling of molecules and cells to natural and synthetic surfaces and functional structures.
The second sub-area (3.3.2) covers the following fields of research: Improving the expression of genes for stable and reliable use. Developing more efficient fermentation, bio-transformation, and downstream processing. Using genomic data and reproductive mechanisms. Engineering of the pathways of primary and secondary metabolites of economic importance including the cellular and organ optimisation of compounds. Identifying and developing mechanisms towards resistance against physical and biological stress factors.
The third sub-area (3.3.3) deals with the development of highly efficient biomolecules of utmost specificity as well as wide variety and programmable properties, through mobilising structural biology, structural genomics and directed molecular evolution.
Lastly the fourth sub-area (3.3.4) addresses new or improved methods for screening of marine and terrestrial organisms. Molecular characterisation of wild and domesticated populations, including unculturable micro-organisms, to identify useful products and genes for recombinant production systems. Genetic improvement of wild or under-utilised organisms to introduce them for cultivation or adaptation to new environments.
After the four successive deadlines for submission of proposals in the years 1999 and 2000, forty one projects have been selected for funding in those areas and have started their work. The total budget contribution from the EC for those projects amounts to 75 million Euros. The great diversity in the scientific areas concerned is reflected in the resulting projects. They include in vitro production of mammalian oocytes for toxicology and other studies, modification of plant products such as pectin and fatty acids and engineering of proteins containing cellulose-binding domains. Likewise the uses envisaged for the outcome of the research are of broad nature, they include many of the priority areas of the other two bullet points of the key action, i.e. medical and health-care uses and environmental uses but also address agro-industrial and other industrial products.
The emerging research field of nanobiotechnology is the centrepiece of the first area. There has been increased attention to this field in recent years and the Commission runs a special website for nanotechnologies (http://www.cordis.lu/nanotechnology/) where information on running projects is updated. The Cell Factory has funded eight nanobiotechnology projects following the first two calls for proposals. They include work at the single cell level, e.g. the development of a strategy for detailed molecular mapping of signalling pathways in cells affected by disease; the investigation of nanofabrication methods and the biological reactions of cells and tissues to such materials; the exploitation of a chaperone machine for novel therapeutic strategies and engineering of hybrid proteins for the pulp, paper and textile industry.
Extremophiles, organisms living in extreme environments, high or low temperature or pH, high salinity etc. have been the subject of study of several EC funded projects in the past. Products from extremophiles have a great potential for industrial processes that require robust biomaterials that can replace chemical synthesis or other conventional methods. Projects working on extremophiles have been funded under the areas 3.3.2 and 3.3.4, e.g. the identification of starch modifying enzymes from thermophiles and the production of mannosylglycerate, a compatible solute from a hyperthermophile.
Bioprospecting, the screening of natural diversity for identification of useful traits, receives due attention in the area. Living organisms possess an enormous potential of bioproducts and processes that have not been discovered, in particular the part of the microbes living in nature but not suitable for cultivation under standard laboratory conditions. Several projects address this issue, including studies on soil microorganisms, extremophiles, fungi and insect parasites or endosymbionts.
Plant molecular biology and genetics is addressed in several projects of this area. On the one hand the projects are dealing with enhancing crops for production of agro-industrial products, e.g. modified fatty acids, starch, pectins, vitamins and amino acids. On the other hand there are projects dealing with the optimisation of the crop itself for better quality and yield. Three projects that are dealing with maize build a cluster called Euromaize. The objective of those projects is to study the development of the plant in order to design better adapted quality crop.
The cluster "Bacell" deals with Bacillus species, which are already important commercially as producers of antibiotics and other drugs, insectidicides, fine biochemicals and enzymes. However, their potential for exploitation as Cell Factories for the large scale production of an immense variety of industrially important molecules is of yet largely untapped. Bacillus subtilis, regarded as GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status, is one of the moste widely used bacteria for the production of speciality chemicals and industrial enzymes. Bacillus species are important cell factories and research into the mechanism and control of their secretory pathways will directly enhance and diversify their industrial productivity.
In the area of animal biotechnology one project is looking at establishing a new culture method to increase the competence of in vitro matured bovine oocytes. In doing so, the project will directly address the problem of oocyte quality which is a limiting factor in the larger commercial use of technologies involving oocytes. Applications will be allowed in a variety of areas, such as the preservation of genetic diversity (including the rescue of endangered cattle breeds), toxicological tests, the generation of high value-added products through transgenesis and in vitro techniques in cattle breeding schemes.
Gene regulation is an important basic feature relevant to all living beings. A number of projects are studying specifically this phenomenon in plants and other organisms. The silencing of genes is an important way in which the organisms manage both their own genetic material and deal with infections. This is being studied in one of the projects. Another project is dealing with the precision genetic engineering of plants, investigating the process of homologous recombination.
Innovation exploitation is very much at the heart of this area of the Cell Factory. Start-up companies are an important vehicle to enter research results in the commercial use. The area gives special attention to this and several start-up companies participate in our projects. Other projects are concerned with building an IPR portfolio suitable for creating a company at a later stage.
After the two successive deadlines for submission of proposals in 2001, 60 projects have been selected for funding in those areas and have started their work. The total budget contribution from the EC for those projects amounts to 35 million Euros. Table 1 gives an overview of the proposals received and projects funded over the entire period of the Cell Factory in the fifth Framework Programme (as represented in Volume 1 and 2 of this publication). Five of these projects were extended to include NAS (Newly Associated States) following a specific call for proposals issued in May 2001.
As far as SME specific measures are concerned 42 Exploratory Awards and 12 CRAFT applications were approved. The Cell Factory also supported 53 Accompanying Measures with a budget contribution by the EC amounting to over 3.5 million Euro.
Table 1 Siummary of proposals and funding in area 3.3
| Areas | Number of Proposals | Number of Contracts | EU
Contribution Million EUR |
| 3.3.1 | 64 | 12 | 18.74 |
| 3.3.2 | 201 | 19 | 40.29 |
| 3.3.3 | 68 | 7 | 12.02 |
| 3.3.4 | 85 | 22 | 17.08 |
| TOTAL | 418 | 60 | 108.13 |
© Copyright 2006 Policy Statements
Updated
by CPL Press:
03/07/2007
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