On January 29, 2014, Professor Jacques Marescaux, president of the IRCAD, and Mr. Cristiano Franzi, President of COVIDIEN Europe, signed a partnership contract at the HARAS BIOCLUSTER, in the presence of local elected officials. This contract aims to transfer part of COVIDIEN Europe’s training and R&D activities to the IRCAD.
This partnership was signed after several months of discussions, and confirms the relocation of COVIDIEN’s European training center, currently located in the Paris area. Strasbourg will become the home of one of Europe’s largest industrial centers for surgical training.
COVIDIEN has been a historical partner of the IRCAD ever since its creation in 1994. In early April 2014, the institute’s industrial partner will settle on the 3 levels of the former pharmacology building recently vacated by Roche and acquired by the IRCAD.
This project was made possible through the support of local authorities (City of Strasbourg, CUS, General Council of Bas-Rhin, Alsace Regional Council) which will partly finance the site’s renovation works.
This new agreement between the IRCAD and COVIDIEN reflects the leading role of the Institute within the University Hospital Compounds dedicated to the development of medical devices. It is a crucial step in the development not only of the IRCAD but also of the Institute of Image-guided Hybrid Surgery (IHU Strasbourg), as many research and development avenues have already been explored with COVIDIEN.
In addition, as far as education is concerned, more than 6,000 yearly training days will be added to the IRCAD’s training schedule, which already includes 7,500 training days per year.