CLIB is an international open-innovation cluster of large companies, small- to medium-size enterprises (SMEs), start- ups, academic institutes, and universities, as well as other stakeholders active in biotechnology and the circular– and bioeconomy as a whole. As a non-profit association our members shape the cluster’s interests and activities, and we work to promote industrial biotechnology in sustainable processes. We are active since 2008 and have built a strong and trustworthy network since then. Together with our members we are putting our mission into practice – networking biotechnology, creating sustainability.
This claim summarises CLIB’s mission.
Networking is our most appreciated core business and strength. At a time when traditional boundaries between sectors are becoming blurred, it is more important than ever to identify innovative partners – CLIB helps its members to network within and beyond the cluster to create additional value beyond the sum of its members.
Sustainability is the most important driver for CLIB. This is what we measure novel trends, technologies, projects, and ideas by. Industrial biotechnology can be the key to foster sustainability in all its dimensions: people, planet, and profit. We bring together the strong partners which are necessary to help achieve sustainability.
The CLIB team works to bring benefits to the cluster’s members. Like all networks, we depend on our members, and can only act as an amplificatorof your own commitment.
We invite you to become involved and contact us regarding your requests or wishes. We are always ready to arrange a telephone call, a short visit, or a presentation with you and your colleagues.
Like many other things, CLIB is in constant evolution. What has not changed over the past years and will not change in the future is our diligence, our trustworthiness, and our enthusiasm to shape the future of the circular bioeconomy together with our members.
Our structured networking process is designed to connect our members along and across value chains, sectors, and disciplines. We provide a fruitful, constructive setting in which to exchange ideas and to initiate new research and business projects. All this following our claim networking biotechnology – creating sustainability.
We have developed a series of event formats that span the range from conferences to bilateral talks. Through this process, we help individual members to find the right partners, build trust, and share information that can lead to new ideas, opportunities, and projects.
Our CLIB International Conference CIC showcases emerging trends and connects them to markets. Especially relevant topics are taken up and presented in greater detail during forum events, which usually are attended by 40 to 60 people and are also seen as scouting opportunities for larger companies. They also involve non-members as input-givers. Roundtable meetings are held with a smaller group of about 10 to 15 invited experts; these meetings cover specific topics and build consortia, proceed to bilateral talks or result in new and promising project ideas. These can be supported in many ways by the CLIB team, finally leading to promising project proposals.
Since 2020, the CLIB team has been facing a challenge to its usual networking due to the global Corona pandemic response. We needed to develop networking formats which would work online: we quickly switched to online videoconferencing tools to offer web-seminars, scouted for online collaborative tools to facilitate creativity in the virtual space, and adapted our event formats to the digital space. Although we miss being able to network in person, we managed to make the best out of this difficult situation and deliver value for our members. One positive effect is the closer interaction with partners wide and far. This also meant having our international members and partners connect more easily to the CLIB network.
Two big events form the framework for the CLIB year. At the beginning of each year, CLIB organises the large CLIB International Conference (CIC), which provides our cluster members, but also all friends and partners of the CLIB network, the opportunity to gain information about new topics and trends, and to exchange ideas about innovative technologies and methods. The conference also offers the possibility to meet face-to-face with the international CLIB family. Before each CIC, the CLIB team identifies the demands of their members and chooses innovative topics to focus on. Through the CIC, a platform for cross-sectoral communication and exchange between different industries and disciplines is created. Afterwards, CLIB analyses the most important topics discussed during the conference and uses this information when planning the subsequent forum events.
Each autumn, CLIB invites all members to the exclusive CLIB Networking Day (CND): get to know the other members of the network, meet old as well as new partners, and create new connections and collaborations. Initiated in 2019, this member’s only event is now a permanent fixture in the CLIB event calendar.
This type of event has a strong focus on specific topics and offers a discussion platform that enables all participants to exchange new ideas and innovations on the subjects. Forum events bring together members but also include external stakeholders, which provide an interesting addition and added value to the CLIB network. Topics cover broad fields such as food, feed, cosmetics, home care, or coatings and are discussed on the basis of new technologies, feedstocks, or processes. More structural topics, like the support of start-up companies or education, can also be the subject of a forum. Presentations come from large companies, SMEs, or academia from the CLIB network and beyond. This ensures that at each forum the industry view, new technologies or business ideas, and also cutting-edge science are represented. Forums thus aim to cover the entire value chain, from feedstock suppliers via technology providers to chemical process industry and brand owners. Introducing cross-cutting topics makes these value-chains branch into value-networks.
Round table meetings usually build on forum events and aim to develop concrete actions to initiate cooperation or collaborations, draft proposals, and projects. Available technologies, industry-relevant applications and cooperation partners are identified by the CLIB team. Subsequently, discussions are organised in smaller rounds to support the early stage of a direct cooperation. CLIB can act as a mediator of such meetings, highlighting topics, and directing discussion partners in a target-oriented way. Due to the large basis of trust between our members and us, this often happens without an NDA.
Actors interested in a concrete project idea can be supported by the CLIB team in consortium formation, the more precise specification of a topic, or in the identification of suitable funding opportunities for new project ideas. Finally, we can support the newly formed consortium in writing the proposal to apply for public funding.
… help you make the most of your project!
