The Research Center Metapontum Agrobios carries out activities to develop and transfer innovations of agriculture and agro-industrial system through agronomic and analytical research and services with its approaches of plant biotechnology.

The center, founded in 1985 as a consortium between the Basilicata Region and ENI (National Hydrocarbons Authority), then, in 2013, the company has become the part of ALSIA (Development and Innovation Agency of Agriculture in Lucania).

The projects, concentrated in biotechnology, are addressed to develop and apply innovative technologies of crop protection (from insects, viruses, and other pathogens), to improve the quality of agricultural and industrial plants (tomato, wheat, oilseeds, rice, and barley) and to obtain substances of high added value from plant species to use them in industrial sectors (e.g. green chemistry, pharmacy, cosmetics, and nutraceutics).

It also has lines of research to identify varieties and of genomic selection of species of agricultural interest using molecular marker–assisted technologies and TILLING.

In the fields of analytical and organoleptic biochemistry, it performs activities for the improvement and quality certification of agricultural products (fruits and vegetables, olive oil, honey) and services for phytosanitary and genetic certification of propagation material.

ALSIA carries out research and agronomic services for the definition of sustainable agricultural production methods and for the verification of effectiveness of new formulations at the Center of Analyses.

The Center has a robotic platform (unique in Italy and among the few in the world) what uses digital imaging technologies for a highly effective plant phenotype analysis (called plant phenomics), with which new research projects have been developed and agro-industrial companies have been supported.

It takes care of the creation of new companies in the biotech industry, hosting them at its facilities and supporting the incubator ‛Metapontum’, a project in collaboration with the society ‛Sviluppo Basilicata’.

The Balearic Islands Biotechnological and Biomedical Cluster (BIOIB) was born in 2010 from the cooperation of 10 companies, as an initiative of the Government of the Balearic Islands. Nowadays, the cluster contains 26 enterprises, which belong to three different branches of biotechnology: health, environment and agro-food. BIOIB has a relationship with the University of the Balearic Islands, a third of its bio-business are spin-offs of different research groups. The third player of the triple helix is the government of the Balearic Islands. At European level, BIOIB is integrated into the BioCluster of southern Europe; it maintains contacts with other Bio Clusters in Spain, South-France and other regions in Europe. The cluster is in the drive to maturity stage. Its primary objective is to consolidate the biotechnology sector as the focal point of the competitive development in the islands’ economy, through technology, cooperation and innovation.

BIOIB cluster was awarded with the Cluster Management Excellence Label “BRONZE – Striving for Cluster Excellence” by the European Secretariat for Cluster Analysis (ESCA) in august, 2014.

PTP is a Science and Technology Park that has been working for the last 10 years in the agri-food, bioeconomy and Life-sciences sectors: its activities are focused on innovation and an increase of productive competitiveness.

PTP has won more than 90 national and international research projects, has participated in 11 genome projects and has created a network of more than 500 institutions and 650 companies in over 40 countries.

In addition to its research activity, PTP offers services to more than 100 companies and sustains new startups with the Alimenta accelerator and incubator, which supports 40 new businesses.