Researchers, innovators, and their teams operating in the field of life sciences are invited to participate in the unique 7-week entrepreneurship program StartBIO, during which selected participants will have the opportunity to assess the commercial potential of their research or idea and acquire knowledge and skills important for business development, which will help grow a successful life science start-up. Registration of participants is already underway on the initiative's website www.startbio.eu, and the program's activities, which include training, individualised consultations, mentoring and business modelling activities, will start on the 6th of March at the StartBIO launch event held at the Vilnius University Life Sciences Center.
Recognising that life sciences is a very specific field, where expert support and mentorship in creating a business is sorely lacking in Lithuania, the StartBIO initiative was taken up by three partners with different experience in the field of life sciences and business development: 2AM Health, Vilnius University Life Sciences Center and Northtown Vilnius operating a specialised innovation industrial park in Vilnius dedicated specifically to life sciences companies.
According to Vilnius University Life Sciences Center Director Prof. Daumantas Matulis, cooperation between science and business and the transfer of scientific discoveries into practice is one of the most important goals of science, but it is also a very difficult task, because usually a scientist is not a businessman. "They can ome up with inventions, but for commercialisation they usually lack entrepreneurial knowledge," says Prof. Daumantas Matulis and emphasises that the StartBIO program is unique in that it aims to provide researchers with business knowledge, specifically in the field of life sciences, because the results of scientific research are most valuable when they reach end users, especially if they are health-related innovations and the real help is felt by the patients.
Seven teams of participants will be selected to participate in the program, and they will grow their ideas in cooperation with international experts for 7 weeks, to identify the commercialisation potential of their ideas, research results or developed technology, and model the possible path of their idea into real business.
The StartBIO program is intended for life sciences master's and doctoral students, as well as researchers and innovators in the fields of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, bioinformatics, health/medical engineering. Registration is open until February 18.
More information and application form: www.startbio.eu
