Memorandum of Understanding for IBISBA

International audienceThe Founding Parties previously agreed to combine forces in order to create a pan-European entity that will be invested with the mission of bringing industrial bioprocesses to maturity more quickly, linking best-in-class R&D facilities to provide seamless multi-technology services. They are currently present in eight (8) European member states and the United Kingdom. IBISBA will be a European distributed multi-site research infrastructure (RI). The Founding Parties cooperated to prepare and support a candidature that was presented to the European Science Forum for Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) by French government authorities. Having been successful, in September 2018 IBISBA was added to the ESFRI roadmap, which constitutes the European Union’s strategy document for RI. It is expected that IBISBA will become a fully-fledged operational infrastructure within the next 10 years and before September 2028. Operation of IBISBA requires the creation of a legal entity, EU-IBISBA, that will serve as the vector to deliver the IBISBA vision, providing a range of services to support R&I in industrial biotechnology The Founding Parties of the IBISBA Vision have already built and launched, under the coordination of INRAE, two Horizon 2020 projects: IBISBA 1.0 (2017-2021, Grant Agreement n° 730976), and/or PREP-IBISBA (2020-2024, Grant Agreement n° 871118): Within the framework of IBISBA 1.0, the Founding Parties have provided a first demonstration of how the future pan-European entity can achieve its goals. Focusing on the different R&D phases in bioprocess development and working in the framework of IBISBA 1.0, consortium partners are offering transnational access to their RI, developing some basic procedures for harmonization of business practices, defining certain business processes and developing web-based informatics tools to support IBISBA and the management of its knowledge assets. Since 1st January 2020 and for 48 months, the Founding Parties are now engaged in an IBISBA Preparatory Phase (PREP-IBISBA) that is funded by the European Commission and governed by a Consortium Agreement signed by its beneficiaries. The aim of this project is to support activities that will bring the IBISBA vision to fruition and lead to the creation of a legal entity, consistent with the expectations of the ESFRI committee and the declared willingness of the Founding Parties, but also to begin implementation of IBISBA business processes, this phase being programmed to begin during PREP-IBISBA and to extend beyond it. PREP-IBISBA is executed by the Founding Parties, but it involves a wide range of stakeholders (RI owners, RI users and founders) who will play a variety of roles in the preparation and implementation of EU-IBISBA. Although PREP-IBISBA provides a framework and partial funding to prepare and implement IBISBA, the resources supplied by PREP-IBISBA are insufficient to meet all the needs of a fully-fledged pan-European research infrastructure. Therefore, the Founding Parties must engage in work aimed at identifying financial and material resources to ensure EU-IBISBA sustainability and ultimately secure its success at the end of the 10-year period. IBISBA intends to federate a global community of IB practitioners and stakeholders. Therefore, during the preparation and growth phases, it is anticipated that New Parties, pursuing technical, scientific, business or political goals and representing public or private sector interests, will join the Founding Parties to support the IBISBA Vision, in the field of Industrial Biotechnology (see definition in Attachment 1). This Agreement provides non-binding guidelines to all IBISBA partners