HEIDELBERG: MONTPELLIER'S SISTER CITY SINCE 1961

Is your company interested in the German market ?
Are you looking for high-tech partners for your business ?
Montpellier Agglomération and the Franco-German Business Network in the Languedoc-Roussillon region, RAFAL (Réseau d'Affaires Franco-Allemand du Languedoc-Roussillon) www.rafal-france-allemagne.com have joined forces to help spur economic and technological interchange between the Languedoc-Roussillon region in France and the Rhein Neckar district in Germany (capital: Heidelberg) in the area of biotech/healthcare: subcontracting, commercial development (sales, distribution), technological and scientific partnerships, etc.

BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES IN HEIDELBERG, ONE OF EUROPE'S LEADING LIFE SCIENCES KNOWLEDGE CENTRES.

Heidelberg, European Bioregion.
Heidelberg is one of Europe's leading centres of excellence in the area of biopharmaceutical and biotech research and development. In recent years, the outstanding scientific bases in the Rhein-Neckar triangle (the universities of Heidelberg, Mannheim and Kaiserslautern, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, the German Cancer Research Centre, the Max Planck Institute for medical research and cellular biology and the Green genetic engineering centre) have attracted a great many businesses which have set up operations in the region and are helping to increase and, more significantly, to accelerate the results of high-level research into new marketable products.
Heidelberg technology park: specialised hosting and mentoring.
Heidelberg's technology park (70 companies, 50,000 m²) offers young companies and start-ups from the life sciences sector locales with access to laboratories and office space, infrastructure for organising conferences and an array of services. The firm Technologiepark Heidelberg GmbH, run by Dr. Marion Kronabel, maintains close ties with national and international research institutes, with other life sciences technology parks and with pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations.

ACTIONS FOR INITIATING ECONOMIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL COOPERATION

In December 2007, Montpellier Agglomération and RAFAL travelled to Heidelberg to talk to German companies about the biotech sector in the Languedoc Roussillon region.On 14 February 2008, Dr Marion Kronabel, the Scientific Director of Heidelberg's technology park spoke of business opportunities in the Rhein-Neckar Bioregion at the Hôtel d'Agglomération of Montpellier. On 28 and 29 April, webconferences will be held to allow you to make your first travel-free trip to Germany, and to help you establish technological and/or commercial partnerships. Meetings with companies from the Heidelberg technology park will be organised for French companies at Cap Omega (Eureka science park) in Montpellier.