The socioeconomic context today poses new challenges to the knoweledge-based economy and new responsibilities to researchers.
The expectations of the Lisbon strategy, which advocated in 2000 that investing 3% of the GDP into research would have burst the EU economy to become in ten years the most dynamic and powerful in the world, have been compromised by the economic contingencies occurred during the past decade. First, the objective of the 3% of the GDP invested into research could not be achieved. Second, even countries which invested this 3% already in the 2004-05, as the Ireland for instance, did not escape from the economic storm few years later. However, this does not question the EU economy model and, on the contrary, the model of an economy based on the exploitation of the knowledge in the respect of ethics, the environment and human rights is more and more considered the necessity at the world-wide level today.

New responsibilities emerge today to researchers, who have to be fully trained to perform a research integrated in the socioeconomic context, transforming thus scientific innovations into new products and services which generate economic growth. However, a training program combining the scientific skills with the capability of the researchers to manage the various aspects of translational research programs, has not been developed by the universities, which still have to update their educational concepts. Furthermore, the difficulties to develop innovative educational programs are associated to the absence or poorness of dialogue between the industry and the universities. Finally, the current decisions of EU countries to reduce expenses to reduce their public debts, oblige foreseing new ways to spend the budget dedicated to the education.

In this context EASCO has been created in 2007, in order to promote the emergence of a new educational concept. As organizers of numerous scientific events during the last 10 years, the members of the EASCO developed a strong expertise in the managing of conferences and trainings and formalized an educational team with international expert scientists and business managers. Beyond the involvement of the EASCO in spreading the latest information on the biotechnology with the organization of theoretical and practical curses on gene therapy vectors, the EASCO will take advantage of its expertise to develop a school that will train students to fully develop skills of management of research projects and for developing their career.

According to the art. n° 2 of the statutes (see the full statutes, EASCO aims at promoting research and innovation by divulging Science & Technology (S&T) information and training on Life Science as well as assisting individual students and researchers of public and private institutions in their career. EASCO is a centre of information and orientation for careers of researchers as well as a service for the organization of scientific meetings, course and workshops on S&T, management of research, scientific communication to citizens, assistance for promotion and development of biotechnology SMEs and for production and dissemination of pedagogic materials.

Since November 2009 EASCO has the official status of a training institution (i.e. in French Prestataire de Formation Professionnelle Continue) by the Direction Régionale du Travail et de la Formation Professionnelle (n° 11 9106450 91)

SIRET: 494 991 433 00017 - APE CODE: 9022Z - VAT n° FR50494991433


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