Genetic Medicine Incubation and Acceleration Program

Advanced therapies are transforming the life sciences and healthcare landscape. Progress in gene therapy, genome editing, cell therapies, therapeutic RNA, and delivery technologies is creating unprecedented opportunities to develop treatments for a broad range of diseases.

France has internationally recognised strengths in academic research, technological infrastructures, clinical centres, and industrial expertise.

However, translating scientific innovation into therapeutic products requires coordinated multidisciplinary expertise in translational research, preclinical development, regulatory strategy, intellectual property, biomanufacturing, industrialisation, and financing.

As part of the France 2030 initiative, GenoTher is implementing a program dedicated to accelerating/incubate the development of innovative companies in the field of advanced therapies and genetic medicine.

This Call for Expressions of Interest aims to:

• Identify innovative projects with strong scientific, medical, and economic potential

• Support the development of deeptech startups and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) in advanced therapies

• Facilitate access to scientific, regulatory, industrial, and entrepreneurial expertise

• Prepare companies for their next clinical, industrial, and financing development milestones

• Strengthen the competitiveness of the French and European advanced therapies ecosystem

Applicants must propose projects addressing one or more of the following priority areas: 

A. Gene Therapies

• In vivo gene therapies

• Ex vivo gene therapies

• AAV-based approaches

• Lentiviral vector-based approaches

• Innovative viral and non-viral vector technologies

• Other

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B. Genome Editing

• CRISPR-based technologies

• Base editing

• Prime editing

• Emerging gene editing tools

• Targeting and delivery technologies for genome editing

• Other

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C. Cell Therapies

• Engineered cell therapies

• Organoid stem cell

• Cellular immunotherapies

• Other

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D. Therapeutic RNA

• mRNA-based therapies

• siRNA-based therapies

• Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs)

• Other

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E. Delivery technologies

• Nanotechnologies for therapeutic delivery

• Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs)

• Non-viral delivery systems

• Other

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F. Biomanufacturing and CMC

• Process development

• Scale-up

• GMP manufacturing

• Quality control

• Analytical technologies

• Other

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G. Digital Technologies

• Artificial Intelligence

• Bioinformatics

• Digital Biotechnology

• Digital Twins

H. Approaches to improve efficacy and safety of genetic medicine approaches, including immunomodulation strategies ​

Selected companies will join the GenoTher acceleration and incubation program and will benefit from:

• Access to the GenoTher ecosystem and its scientific, clinical, industrial and investment networks 

• A personalised strategic and development assessment

• Scientific and entrepreneurial mentoring

• Support in defining and implementing an acceleration roadmap

• Guidance on fundraising and national and European funding opportunities

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Support in Specialised Services

Selected companies may benefit from up to €300,000 in specialised services delivered by GenoTher platforms and/or a network of qualified partners.

Based on the company's stage of development and the needs identified during the initial assessment, eligible services may include:

• Scientific and technical expertise

• Preclinical development

• Regulatory strategy

• CMC, process development, manufacturing and scale-up

• Bioprocess optimization

• Analytical development and quality control

• Intellectual Property strategy

• Market assessment and commercialization strategy

• Business development

• Access to industrial, clinical and investment partners

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The nature, scope and value of the services will be defined in the approved acceleration roadmap and will be subject to prioritisation and approval by the GenoTher Program Management Team.

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Support is provided exclusively in the form of services and does not constitute a direct cash grant. Its amount will depend on the project's needs, available program resources, GenoTher's governance and validation process, and compliance with applicable de minimis rule.

Eligible applicants include:
• Startups
• Innovative SMEs

Targeted maturity levels:
Technology Readiness Level (TRL) 3 to TRL 7
(This corresponds to projects ranging from early proof of concept to pre-industrial or early clinical development stages)

Applications from international companies are welcome, provided that part of their development strategy is linked to France, through R&D, industrial, clinical or business activities.

• Scientific excellence

• Technological innovation

• Unmet medical need addressed

• Quality, expertise, and complementarity of the team

• Regulatory feasibility

• Industrial feasibility and CMC readiness

• Market potential

• Relevance and added value of GenoTher support for the project

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GenoTher will prioritize novel and differentiated technologies with the potential to enable patient access in the midterm.

1. Submission of the application dossier

2. Review by GenoTher experts

3. Pitch presentation to GenoTher of pre-selected candidates

4. Due diligence process, conducted under a non-disclosure agreement where required.

5. Pitch presentation at the selection committee, composed of permanent GenoTher members and independent international experts.

6. Final approval by GenoTher’s board and integration into the programme

All information submitted as part of this Call for Expressions of Interest will be treated as strictly confidential and used solely for the purpose of evaluating applications.