SUCCESS STORY #3: BICT

To learn more about INCITE’s partner BiCT, the French bioeconomy cluster B4C conducted an interview with Roberto Verga, Research Director at BiCT.

Roberto Verga is one of the four founders of BiCT. He told us that the idea of founding BiCT came up about 14 years ago. At this time, he worked still as a researcher for a pharmaceutical company. BiCT was founded as a start-up company active in various sectors of the bio-industry starting from scratch. At the beginning the activities were limited to laboratory work (Contract Research Organization). BiCT then started internal research to develop own products, so Roberto Verga. Approximately 1.5 years ago, BiCT’s facility has been moved to a more spacious site. It has now a 1,500 square meter production facility in the Lombardy region including a production area and an area dedicated to research and development activities. The permanent staff consists of 14 employees. This number is constantly growing. BiCT’s customers come from various sectors like the pharmaceutical, cosmetic, nutraceutical and veterinary sector.

On the question “Why does BiCT participate in the INCITE project?”, Roberto Verga responded that INCITE is a special project as it focuses on a process. The target of BiCT is to aid innovation, meaning to find an alternative solution without the typical approach, as it is the case in the INCITE project.

Innovation is important to BiCT. “Innovation can be an alternative way with the same results but with a better economic and environmental impact”, said Roberto Verga. This fits well with the INCITE project. Furthermore, it is important to exchange experiences with people. “Innovation is not only about technology, but also about approaches”, so Roberto Verga. He is convinced that every process can be changed and improved.

Before joining the consortium of the INCITE project, BiCT already cooperated with Endura within a research project. INCITE has been perceived not only as an opportunity to scale up the production, but also as a good way for interacting with different partners and to share experiences. According to Roberto Verga, the best investment is investing in good relationships with other people as working alone is much more difficult. Thanks to the interaction with the project partners, best practises can be found and elaborated.