Since 2013, the EU-Japan Centre has organised Cluster/SME Missions in the field of Pharma, Biotechnologies and Life Sciences.

• Take part in a physical biotech & pharma partnering event in Osaka – Japan’s historical pharmaceutical powerhouse.
• Exhibit at BioJapan Expo, take advantage of Asia’s largest biotech partnering event to meet potential business partners from across Japan and beyond.
• Benefit from face-to-face meetings and establish new contacts that could help your business development in Japan.

ABOUT THE MISSION

The Biotech Cluster/SME mission will be organised on the fringe of “BioJapan” Expo in Yokohama from 11 to 13 October 2023. During this 3-day fair, you will attend B2B meetings and meet with Japanese visitors. In order to maximize your partnering opportuni­ties, you will be able to exhibit in the EU-Japan Centre booth. Based on materials you provide, the EU-Japan Centre will arrange Japanese-language posters to promote your product at the EU Delegation booth at the trade fair. Additionally, a partnering event will be organised in Osaka on Tuesday, October 10 with the cooperation of local administrations and biotech clusters.

Successful applicants should ensure that they are vaccinated against covid and meet all Japanese immigration and covid requirements.

CALENDAR

OBJECTIVES

• Maximize partnering opportunities with Japanese Biotech, Pharma and Healthtech companies
  • meet potential business partners,
  • create new business opportunities
  • develop partnerships and business cooperation with Japanese companies
• increase your knowledge about the Japanese market and become more competitive on a global scale (as an SME)
• prepare the ground for practical cluster cooperation with Japanese counterparts (as a cluster)

PARTICIPANT PROFILE

The programme targets participants from SMEs(*) (small and medium enterprises, start-ups) and clusters(**) from the EU or SMP associated countries (***), active in the following sectors:

• Drug discovery and drug discovery support
• Regenerative medicine
• Therapeutic agents, diagnostic agents
• AI and IoT technologies related to 1.-3
• Digital Medicine (AI-assisted Drug Development, Drug-Device combinations etc.)
• Digital Therapeutics (Non-pharmacological therapy systems, App-device combinations)

ELIGIBILITY

The candidate must:

- work for an organization that is a juridical person based in

• the European Union, or
• a country associated to the Single Market Programme, SME Pillar (***)

- be supported by his/her employer through a signed letter
- be able to participate in the entire programme
- have a good command of English (recommended level B2 or higher)
- have proven experience in the industry

SELECTION

The main criteria for selection are:

• strategy of the participant's company regarding Japan ;
• innovative aspects of the product/technology/service offered by the company.
• the professional & educational background of the candidate

In order to ensure a high degree of personal attention, the number of participants in this mission is limited.

WHAT DO WE OFFER

The EU-Japan Centre covers costs directly related to the mission: exhibition booth at the fair, printing service to give participants more visibility and interpretation at the fair.   The selected participants' companies must cover travel costs to/from Japan, accommodation and any other living costs.

SME participants will benefit from a €600 grant to partially support local travel, accommodation and living expenses in Japan. The  grant will be paid within 2 weeks after the mission. However, absences during the mission may lead to deductions amounting to €120/day. 

NB: Selected participants will be requested to pay a 100% refundable deposit of €1000 to guarantee a place on the mission. Failure to transfer the deposit by the deadline set by the Centre may result in the offer of the place being withdrawn. The deposit will be refunded within 8 weeks after the end of the mission. Participants must complete a short mission report before the deposit can be released. After confirming participation, cancellations for any reason will result in the loss of the deposit.

(*) SMEs are companies meeting the standard European Commission criteria for an SME

(**) Clusters are those who are registered in the European Cluster Cooperation Platform (http://www.clustercollaboration.eu. Registration on that platform is free of charge.

(***) Please check the status of your country at https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/smp/guidance/list-3rd-country-participation_smp_en.pdf, for EFTA countries, please only refer to the sub-paragraph: "COSME strand (SMP COSME)". For EU Acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates, please only refer to the countries for which the agreement is in force.

SMP-COSME: Stands for “Countries Participating in the COSME strand of the Single Market Programme". The Single Market Programme is the Commission programme that funds the EU-Japan Centre.

THE BIOTECH SECTOR IN JAPAN

Looking for information about the biotech sector in Japan? Visit the dedicated pages in our EU Business in Japan dedicated content.

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