The development of the cluster in Siena dates back to 1904 when the “Sieroterapico and vaccinogeno Toscano Sclavo was founded. This institute gave rise to a class of skilled personnel in Life Sciences that grew up to 1440 units in 2006. The presence of a big research centre has led the local government and public institutions to create a technological district at the forefront of biomedical research, able to attract the best international people with salaries, benefits and a working environment being globally competitive.
Besides the local administration, the Foundation of one of the most important banks in Italy, the Monte dei Paschi Foundation (MPS), also shares the idea that leadership in the biomedical field may be a main driver of the local economic development. The Province of Siena and the Monte dei Paschi Foundation are working to foster innovation in services and technologies through specific programmes to create an organic system connecting public and private actors.
This strategic vision is not limited to the city of Siena but places Siena with its aggregation of assets and capacities in the context of the Regione Toscana economic strategy. The strength of

Siena’s cluster is based on the cohesion between all the entities that ensure long term planning and very rapid decision making processes.
The starting point of the project was the creation of Sienabiotech, a private centre for advanced pharmaceutical research supported by public institutions and financed by Monte dei Paschi di Siena. The aim of the company is to identify new targets, validate them and find small molecules as potential drug candidates. The company may be seen as a pharma company or as an instrumental company to enhance the value of the academic discoveries.
The company brought to Siena state-ofthe- art technologies including bioinformatics, proteomics gene expression profiling, animal models combinatorial chemistry, HTS in vivo and in silico ADMET, preclinical technologies including toxicology, PK/PD, formulation and clinical testing expertise. These platforms and expertises are pivotal for the success of Science Park Toscana Life Sciences (TLS) and for the companies that it will host. The presence of a big company like Novartis and Sienabiotech brought in Siena and will help to attract skilled people that are fundamental for the cluster development. The scientific knowledge and support is provided by

the five Universities established in Tuscany that are involved in the board of the Science Park. The Park has also a brand new incubator with 2000 sqm of laboratories and offices.
Another very important critical factor for success, the availability of finance, was achieved in 2006. A seed capital company, Biofound S.p.A. was created to finance the start-ups that will be hosted in the Science Park. This seed financing tool, that has 40% of its capital held by the Monte dei Paschi Foundation, will operate with less aggressive policies than venture capitalists and will help companies to overcome the pre-seed and seed capital stage.
A key issue for the cluster and its supporters is how to proactively address the evolving needs of the new companies, research centres, infrastructures services that operate in the area.
And as the President of both the Province of Siena and Toscana Life Sciences says: “The Province of Siena is interested in joining a strong Italian “super-cluster” and this new entity should become a strategic reference point for National Policies supporting biotech.”