EU-LIFE members on the road to market

Transfer of new technologies and ideas from academia to market is essential for research to have a real impact on society.  EU-LIFE is committed to ensure excellence in this field and established a Technology Transfer Working Group to facilitate sharing good practices and supporting tech transfer offices in EU-LIFE institutes. Furthermore, we also provide our scientists with knowledge and resources to help them bridge the gap between research and market.

EU-LIFE Tech Transfer Pitching Events

The EU-LIFE Tech Transfer Pitching Events are organised regularly by the Technology Transfer Working Group. They are addressed to selected translational projects from EU-LIFE research institutions with the potential for maturing into spin-offs. The scientists leading these projects are offered the opportunity to talk to venture capitalists to receive feedback on their ideas and gain insight about how to establish a new venture.

The latest pitching event was attended by seven teams of scientists and twelve venture capitalists from five different countries. According to the participants’ feedback, a valuable lesson learned by most of them was the importance of focusing the presentation of their work on the translational side and avoiding giving too much scientific data which is not that relevant for their business roadmap.

CRG BioBusiness School

The BioBusiness School is hosted yearly by CRG in conjunction with EU-LIFE with the purpose to provide practical entrepreneurial experience for scientists, help them understand the new venture development process and give them the tools and confidence to become business creators.

This year’s edition, held over four days, was attended by 21 PhD students and postdocs from 8 different EU-LIFE research institutions. They recorded a significant improvement in their knowledge of entrepreneurship, shifting their view of entrepreneurs from risk takers to risk managers, and doubled their level of confidence in starting a business.