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New EFORT Head Office - official inauguration in Rolle, 25 January 2013
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On 1 November 2012, the EFORT Head Office officially moved from its former base at the Technopark in Zurich to its new offices in the A-One Business Center in Rolle. Situated on the shores of Lake Geneva Rolle is a beautiful small city located in the vineyards of the Jura mountain foothills overlooking the lake. It is situated midway between Geneva, seat of the European United Nations and Lausanne, The Olympic Capital. Because of its unique location Rolle can easily be reached by car, train or airplane and even by steamboat.
During the Executive Committee meeting which was held on 25 and 26 January 2013, the opportunity was taken to inaugurate the new premises. “With the open plan concept new synergies and energy can be set free and put into new projects,” said Professor Pierre Hoffmeyer, EFORT President. Together with the Mayor of Rolle, Mr Jean-Noël Goël, the ribbon cutting ceremony took place and the EFORT past presidents were given a symbolic piece of the green EFORT ribbon as a sign of good luck.
During his address Jean-Noël Goël welcomed EFORT in its new home and emphasized the dialogue needed between economic and local authorities. He emphasized that the Rolle city authorities, along with the Economic Development Department of the State of Vaud, strongly encourage interactions between both local and international residents. In fact, in May 2012 more than 150 persons attended an official invitation to meet and mingle in the Town Hall with the representatives of international companies and associations headquartered at the A-One Business Center.
Progress highlights, involving the healthcare and biotechnologies sectors and occurring in this most dynamic region of Switzerland, were mentioned. One was “The Human Brain Project” championed by the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne. This major research venture into simulating the functioning of the human brain was recently announced by the European Commission as being one of its two FET (Future and Emerging Technologies) flagship projects to the height of half a billion Euros. The other, also in the works, is the all new Geneva Biotech Center Project to promote regenerative medicine based on techniques using stem cells which may in fact represent the future therapies of our musculoskeletal specialty.