This refers to any activity aimed at producing knowledge or technologies and acquiring expertise through collaboration between academic entities and private, associative, or non-governmental organizations (source: French Ministry of Higher Education and Research).
We collaborate with all the socio-economic players involved in the field of leukemia and related diseases, and in particular with companies: start-ups, SMEs, mid-caps, major French and international groups in the biopharmaceutical, in vitro diagnostics, medical technology and digital sectors.
Our mission is to strengthen the technology and knowledge transfer from public research to accelerate industrial innovation that benefits patients.
In line with the Carnot Charter, our culture of partnership research is illustrated by a perfect understanding of industrial industrial challenges and a commitment to the quality of our relationships with partners:
- Respect for respective constraints and objectives
- Confidentiality and respect of intellectual property
- Transparency of the contractual relationship
For each research partnership, the contractual negotiation is carried out by the partner with the governing body(ies) of the corresponding OPALE entity, with the support of the OPALE central team (legal, business development, etc.) if necessary. Corporate partnerships with OPALE can take a variety of forms, spanning several months or years, and cover a wide range of financial amounts (in thousand or million euros). They may involve:
- Bilateral R&D projects, the most frequent case
- Consultancy or expertise: state of the art, needs analysis with our experts, support in setting up projects
- Use of platforms, models or networks: search for novel therapeutic targets, screening of various compounds (small molecules, biologic products, cell therapy), identification of biomarkers, preclinical or clinical validation, bioproduction (CAR-T clinical batches)
- Collaborative R&D projects: partnerships in response to national or international calls for projects or applications
- Financing of joint laboratories, CIFRE theses (Industrial PhD theses), industrial chairs: pooling of material and human resources
- Licensing of patents, database extracts or biological samples (the latter conditional on a scientific project)
- Other more specific modalities to be devised together
The entities of our Carnot institute contribute to the research and development of solutions for precision medicine that place the patient suffering from leukemia at the center of the research and care ecosystem.
The challenge for OPALE is to develop, over the next 10 years, new curative treatments that are less toxic, can be administered on an outpatient basis and are financially viable for all patients suffering from leukemia and related diseases, with major social, economic and industrial spin-offs.
Our clinicians diagnose, treat and study patients on a daily basis. Our cooperative groups have unique recruitment capabilities for clinical research, they also develop observational cohorts for real-life follow-up, and they have a long history of working closely with patient representatives.
Through the partnership between the Ligue Contre le Cancer and the Groupes Coopérateurs en Oncologie (GCO), our cooperative groups members of the GCO (the adult leukemia CIGAL intergroup, plus the SFCE) benefit from the review of clinical protocol information notes by patient committees.
Agile project management
Dealing with OPALE, ensures tailored project support from your first interaction with our central entity, the OPALE Association. We swiftly connect you with the appropriate scientific and legal contacts within our consortium, allowing for efficient discussions at the right expertise and confidentiality level. This enables a fast formulation of your project and/or budget.
Setting up partnerships
OPALE, like other Carnot institutes, manages intellectual property in accordance with the Carnot Institutes’ Code of Best Practices for Intellectual Property and Knowledge & Technology Transfers. This charter aims to promote innovation and create societal value while respecting the interests of research partners.
In accordance with these principles, the management of intellectual property for each research partnership is contractually defined by the partner and the overseeing authority(ies) of the relevant OPALE entity.
OPALE ensures, in conjunction with its member organizations, that balanced contractual relations are established for the mutual benefit of all contracting parties.
Confidentiality - OPALE ensures, in liaison with OPALE member organizations, that relations with partners are, whenever necessary, governed by a confidentiality agreement.
Partnership - OPALE ensures, in liaison with OPALE member organizations, that partnership agreements are drawn up to define the role of each partner in a partnership project, the roadmap and results of the project, financing, confidentiality, intellectual property management and the conditions of its exploitation.
Licenses to access patient data - These licenses are offered in compliance with applicable laws and regulations on personal data, and in accordance with the licensing policies of OPALE members, owners of the databases.
Patent licenses - These licenses are offered in application of the licensing policies of OPALE members, owners of the patents.
Clinical and laboratory good practices are applied during our clinical and preclinical partnerships. OPALE's cooperative groups operate under a common framework of standard operating procedures.
For continuous improvement, OPALE has established tools to monitor the quality of partnership relations and its compliance to companies' expectations.
OPALE's Cooperative Groups are part of the Cooperative Groups in Oncology (GCO) and adhere to their principles of ethics and transparency in clinical research.
They thus respect the principles of publication (Charter governing publication rules for projects carried out in collaboration with the GCO) and transparency (Ethics Charter of the GCO network)
For the establishment of a research partnership with a healthcare industry, these cooperative groups within OPALE apply collaboration principles outlined in the Charter of collaboration between cancer cooperative groups and industry.