The visit started by a short introduction on Aéropole’s project, managed by IGRETEC. Situated next to the Brussels South Charleroi Airport, the Parc Scientifique et Technologique de l’Aéropole constitutes an instrumental entity for the economic development of the Charleroi Métropole region of Belgium. Expanding over 100 hectares, it hosts 163 companies and employs more than 4000 highly qualified workers in sectors such as aeronautics, ICT, industrial engineering, or biotech. After a round of introductions and a Q&A session on the managerial affairs of the park, the visit continued with a tour of the premises.

The group visited various buildings in the park, such as Biotech 4, a lab and offices space for rent to be opened in April 2023 and the location of the future Biotech 5, to open in 2025.  Additionally, Igretec showed the Romanian delegates the site of a now-empty Carterpillar factory, to be repurposed in the upcoming years.

The tour concluded in a presentation by Brussels South Charleroi Biopark. A spin-off of the Université Libre de Bruxelles, it is a fast-growing business incubator with focus on biomedicine. It provides financial and R&D services to start-ups in scientific and clinical sector. This intervention gave floor to a discussion on seed acceleration programs for Start-ups, where the services provided by Biopark were highlighted.

A member of the EURADA secretariat was present at the visit, and witnessed an engaged meeting, where both IGRETEC and Nord East RDA found inspiration for their own projects and saw an opportunity for fruitful collaboration.