For the managers of the Parc Eurasanté, it is already “totemic”. Construction started on the Hub on April 4. According to Perrine Lespagnol, deputy director of Eurasanté, it will be “a key location where all those involved in healthcare (and also food, healthy aging and sports/health) will be able to meet and interact”.

The 3,700 m² building is equidistant between the Lille University Hospital (located within Europe’s largest university hospital campus) and the Bayer and Genfit facilities. It will house two complementary units.

On the one hand, the Hub will bring together in the same building the sector’s development functions, startup incubator, cutting-edge research laboratories and event spaces. On the other hand, a 1,000 m² teaching factory (the fourth of its kind in France) will serve as a training center for the health and well-being industries.

“The Eurasanté Hub will be a place to learn from one another and where the most innovative healthcare projects in Northern France are created. It will be an eye-catching building designed to attract local, national and international businesses. The fourth teaching factory in France will be located here and will offer a range of highly innovative projects in an area with a history of industry,”  Perrine Lespagnol, deputy director of Eurasanté.

The aim of the Hub is to promote the creation of innovative startups and offer them support. Some thirty or so new companies will be housed there and supported by the Eurasanté teams. Its meeting rooms and event spaces are also designed to generate closer ties between operators in the sector, and thus lead to the formation of new partnerships. The purpose of the teaching factory, for its part, is to fulfill the sector’s training and recruitment needs. A showroom will also feature a number of prototypes, innovative projects and research results. Last but not least, it should also put an end to the parking problems experienced by Park visitors and residents. Work is scheduled for completion in July 2024.

The region’s pharmaceutical production sites provide direct employment for 12,000 people, out of a total of 32,000 jobs in the healthcare industry (excluding healthcare establishments).