Article 1 – Purpose and setting

The purpose of the call for candidates SHAKER is to encourage, support and valorize innovative biotechnology business creation projects in the field of Bioeconomy, Innovative Therapy, and Computational Genomics.

GENOPOLE defines “innovation” as a new and inventive technology, process or service with market-validated industrial potential; and "biotechnology" as the use of the knowledge of the natural, biological function of living organisms to produce goods and services.

The SHAKER program, organized by GENOPOLE, is unique in France. For holders of innovative biotech business creation projects who do not have a hosting laboratory, it provides the means to:

• validate a technology in a laboratory,
• rapidly confirm the industrial application of a proof of concept and in turn a product, market access and valorization,
• build an entrepreneurial strategy and acquire a global vision of the development of their future business.

Particularly, the SHAKER is intended for all holders of projects who are natural persons

The SHAKER is a program offering a new concept in business creation accompaniment. Located in the Ile-de-France Administrative Region of France (Greater Paris), it offers the human and material means to test the feasibility of a biotech business project and to transform it into a start-up.

To participate in the call for candidates, the project holder must have at least a scientifically-demonstrated proof of concept. Research groups presenting a collective work must designate an individual authorized to represent all group members.

Article 2 – Candidate eligibility

Any natural person corresponding to the descriptions laid out in Article 1 and having an innovative project for the creation of a biotech startup in  Bioeconomy, Innovative Therapy, and Computational Genomics can participate in the call for candidates.

Article 3 – The SHAKER offer

The candidates chosen to join the SHAKER will benefit from six months (renewable once under certain conditions) of access to:

- shared offices, BSL-1 and BSL-2 laboratories,

- a budget of 4000€ for the purchase of supplies (3000€ for its project and 1000€ for the common purchases)

- the biocluster's state of the art technological equipment and financial support to use them,

- accompaniment provided by a team of GENOPOLE project managers,

- GENOPOLE's ecosystem of researchers, start-ups, experts, mentors, etc.

- a training program to acquire competencies in entrepreneurship.

Article 4 – Constitution of the candidate dossier

The SHAKER candidate dossier is available on GENOPOLE’s dedicated and must be completed online.

Candidates must furnish to the call for candidates team all complementary elements that may be needed to fully understand the dossier.

Dossiers will be refused if any of the required elements are missing.

The SHAKER candidate dossier published on and available from the GENOPOLE dedicated website must be used for inscription in the call; no other methods of inscription will be accepted.

Regardless of the type of project, candidates must describe the situation of the project completely and sincerely.

Article 5 – Submission of the candidate dossier

The candidate dossier and supporting documentation are to be submitted on the dedicated Genopole website

 All submissions will receive a reception confirmation.

 
Article 6 – Candidate selection

The technical secretarial service of GENOPOLE will organize the reception, registration and examination of the submitted dossiers, and inform the candidates of the results of the different selection steps.

• The GENOPOLE team will verify that the candidate dossiers meet eligibility requirements.
• Eligible dossiers will be evaluated by GENOPOLE's committee of scientific, entrepreneurial, financial and business creation experts (the expert committee).

The eligible candidates will be invited to present their projects in person to the expert committee.

• Thereafter, the opinion of the expert committee will be submitted to the chief executive of GENOPOLE for final validation.

The project evaluation criteria are:

• the qualifications and competencies of the project holder or the team,
• the innovative nature of the technology,
• the solidity of the experimental plan,
• the fit of the project within the GENOPOLE ecosystem.

 
Article 7 – Schedule

The call for candidates SHAKER is open as of December 2, 2024.

Candidate dossiers must be submitted, for the first step before February 3, 2025 at midnight, and for the second step before March 3, 2025 as evidenced by the timestamp of the reception confirmation.

The expert committee will confer on March, 10^th & 11^th, 2025.

The selected candidates must join the SHAKER starting on April, 1^st 2025.

Article 8 – Candidate obligations

All call candidates are under the obligation to:

• supply any complementary information that GENOPOLE may request,
• accept the SHAKER offer as attributed,
• read and accept without reservation the present Terms and Conditions,
• attend all the courses described in the Shaker Book handed at the begining of the program,
• waive all rights to legal action concerning the organization of, the results of, and the jury's decisions for the call for candidates, 
• waive all rights to any claims or indemnities in case of modification, rescheduling or cancellation of events related to the cll for candidates.

 
Article 9 – Obligations for the selected project holders

All project holders selected for the SHAKER are under the obligation to:

• respect all current laws and regulations and conform to all applicable rules within the SHAKER laboratory,
• carry out the experimental plan presented in the SHAKER candidacy,
• participate in the training program and SHAKER-related events and activities,
• mention in all communications or declarations their integration in the GENOPOLE SHAKER,
• sign a SHAKER program contract with GENOPOLE,
• establish a business structure at GENOPOLE and maintain it/them there for a minimum of 24 months in accordance with the SHAKER contract, should the project prove successful and lead to the creation of a business (an establishment is equivalent to a lease by the company on Genopole site of at least one office or laboratory),
• pay to GENOPOLE a sum corresponding to the cost of SHAKER program accompaniment (value = €16 000) in case they complete a breach of its obligation to set up an establishment on Genopole site.
• provide all information requested by GENOPOLE on the evolution of the project for the three years following their integration within the SHAKER.

Article 10 – Publicity and communication

The winners of the call for applications will have to provide to GENOPOLE, in addition to their general description, a short presentation of their project (300 to 600 characters, including spaces), clearly identified under the title "non-confidential information", likely to be used on various media by Genopole (website, newsletter ...) and communicated to the media. The project holder will be responsible of the content of this short non-confidential presentation.

Article 11 – Right of publicity

By accepting the present Terms and Conditions, the candidate authorizes, without remuneration, the recording of his/her person by GENOPOLE for the needs of the call for candidates.

The candidate's person may be used for and diffused by websites, the press, films, image libraries and other communication means with no access restrictions or remuneration for the concerned candidate. This right extends to all countries and carries a period of validity of ten years.

In conformity with French law on personal data protection, candidates have the right to access, modify, correct and delete collected personal data. This right can be exercised by simply addressing a written request to GENOPOLE.

Article 12 – Confidentiality

Documents transmitted for the call for candidates are considered strictly confidential (except the paragraph "non-confidential information" – as seen in article 10) and available only to the people responsible for assessing the dossier. The individuals with access to dossiers are required to respect their strict confidentiality.

Article 13 – Intellectual property

The candidate declares that he/she legitimately holds any intellectual property rights associated with the project presented in the call for candidates and thus guarantees that no legal actions can be taken against the organizer.

Article 14 – Organizer rights

The organizers of the call for candidates reserve the right to cancel or partially or totally modify it, should such changes become necessary, with no need to justify the decision. The organizers cannot be held liable in this regard.

Also, the organizers and partners (including consultants and the members of the expert committee) cannot be held liable in case of litigation relative to the organizational conditions of the call for candidates, the reception process or the candidate selection.

Article 15 – Acceptation of the Terms and Conditions

Submitting a dossier for the call for candidates implies the candidate's full and unreserved acceptance of the present Terms and Conditions without possibility of appeal as to the results of the call, as the expert committee is sovereign and free of any obligation to justify its decisions.