Infectious Diseases Cluster and Lyonbiopôle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes are strengthening their partnership to accelerate innovation in the fight against infectious diseases

Lyon, July 21, 2026 – IDCluster, a national biocluster supported by France 2030, and Lyonbiopôle, a healthcare competitiveness cluster in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, announce the signing of a partnership agreement for the next three years.

Based on the complementary nature of their expertise and missions, this partnership aims to strengthen support for innovation projects at every stage of their development: from identification through access to funding to commercialization.

“By combining our respective areas of expertise, we want to accelerate the development of new countermeasures against emerging infectious diseases and antibiotic resistance,” explains Bruno Lina, President of the Infectious Diseases Cluster.

“By strengthening our operational collaboration, we are creating greater continuity between the inception of a project, its financing, its structuring, and its development. This synergy is essential to helping innovative companies grow in one of our region’s areas of excellence,” adds Erick Lelouche, President of Lyonbiopôle Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.

A strengthened support system for France 2030 projects

Through this partnership, Lyonbiopôle will leverage its recognized expertise in developing and certifying RD&I projects to support projects backed by IDCluster, with the aim of strengthening their preparation for France 2030 funding applications.

The cluster’s teams will conduct a maturity assessment of the projects selected by IDCluster and provide recommendations in line with the expectations of Bpifrance and the national France 2030 authorities.

For project leaders, this will result in more comprehensive support, drawing on the complementary expertise of both organizations prior to funding decisions.

Supporting companies as they scale up

Because securing funding is just one step in the development of an innovation, the partnership also provides innovative startups—whose projects have been selected by IDCluster—with access to Lyonbiopôle’s Healthcare Acceleration Program.

This 24-month program will provide them with personalized strategic and managerial guidance, specialized training, support from highly experienced entrepreneurs, and access to a network of specialized partners to help them structure their business plans and secure access to funding and the market as effectively as possible.

Identifying promising innovations earlier

The partnership also calls for strengthening joint efforts in market monitoring, prospecting, and sourcing to identify companies and projects with strong scientific, technological, and economic potential at an earlier stage.

Depending on their level of maturity, these innovations may be directed toward IDCluster’s pre-acceleration and acceleration programs and toward Lyonbiopôle’s support program, thereby ensuring a path tailored to each company’s needs. Finally, Lyonbiopôle will join the partners of the ID360 scientific and economic intelligence platform, led by IDCluster and the ANRS Emerging Infectious Diseases unit.