Inauguration of TWB: a winning model

TWB inaugurated its new premises and equipment on 7 June. The exponential growth of TWB since its creation in 2012 has led to its move to new premises for the hosting of numerous projects (57 between 2012 and 2015) and recently acquired advanced equipment. Thanks to its original business model of open innovation applied to the field of industrial biotechnology in order to speed time to market of renewable carbon solutions as a substitute for petrol, TWB was awarded the call for project for the “Investments for the Future Program”. With 18 million Euros of contracts signed from 2012 to 2015, it is now very close to the target set for 2019 of 21.8 million Euros.

A “tailored”, simple and effective win-win partnership model
TWB was designed to facilitate exchanges between public and private sectors in the field of research and industrialisation of bioprocesses aimed at providing the means to by-pass fossil carbon. For this, TWB has implemented an innovative model to give rise to collaboration between public and industrial researchers, to accelerate the transition from basic research to industrialization, while providing the expertise and equipment not available to its partners to carry out ambitious and value creating projects. The collaborations are supervised by customised contracts establishing clear and simple work rules between the diverse parties.

Doubling the reception area to cope with business growth
TWB has moved into new premises, dimensioned to meet its needs in terms of reception capacity (human resources, hosting of R&D projects) and approving the extension of its technical platforms. The acquisition of new equipment now allows TWB to offer a comprehensive continuum, notably for the production of strains and automated microbial culture. Double the surface of the previous premises, 1700 m² of surface area is now available to accommodate new facilities and laboratories and host the numerous projects.

Building on this exponential growth, TWB is already looking to 2020, when a move to an even more spacious premises (3500 m2) is scheduled, establishing closer geographical links with the INSA Toulouse teams in the framework of a State Region Contract Plan (CPER) 2015-2020.

More information: Press release