InSphero finalist of the 2014 European academic enterprise awards

Academic entrepreneurs leading spin-outs from universities in Germany, the UK, Denmark, Ireland and Switzerland have reached to the final round of the sixth annual Academic Enterprise Awards, the only pan-European awards for enterprise in university and public research institutes. The Science|Business Innovation Board will pick three winners from the shortlist of nine finalists at the Innovation Connection conference at the Technische Universität Berlin, Germany, on 7 October 2014.

One of the shortlisted start-ups us Switzerland’s InSphero AG, a spin-out from ETH Zurich and the University of Zurich, where founder Jan Lichtenberg’s robotically-produced microtissues enable in vitro testing of drugs for efficacy and toxicity.

The shortlist of nine finalists was agreed by a selection committee with members from industry, academia and venture capital, meeting in Denmark on 23 June. The panel was chaired by Science|Business.

The Science|Business Innovation Board is a non-profit scientific association formed to improve the climate for innovation. Its members are some of Europe’s leading innovators, in industry, academia and policy. They meet regularly with key EU and national officials to discuss important aspects of innovation policy. They commission policy research from leading academics. They support Europe’s best university spin-outs with annual prizes. And they speak and write regularly on the results of their work – all with the intent to broaden and deepen the policy debate in Europe over innovation. The Board is a source of new ideas, backed by deep personal experience, to sharpen Europe’s innovation agenda.

The Board, which began meeting in 2007, was founded by international business school INSEAD, ESADE Business School, and Science Business Publishing Ltd., with the support of Microsoft Corp. and BP PLC. Its membership has broadened to include Imperial College London, SKF, Aalto University, Sanofi and some key individual innovators.