“BiotechSTARS” is a project to stimulate bioentrepreneurship that will be applied in the Central Region, with the aim of awakening and sensitizing researchers and other interested parties in the area of biotechnology to entrepreneurship, promoting the creation of new companies.
The project, which is the result of a consortium between the Center for Neurosciences and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra (CNC-UC), the Institute for the Environment, Technology and Life (IATV) and Biocant - Technology Transfer Association, won more than 400 thousand euros from the Operational Program for the Centro Region - Centro 2020.
This initiative to support innovation in the area of biotechnology “aims above all to boost the bioentrepreneurial culture in the Center region through ideation, training and mentoring activities for bioentrepreneurs”, explains the coordinator of the consortium, Catarina Cunha Santos. To this end, “several initiatives will be promoted to raise awareness and stimulate biotechnology-based entrepreneurship, in order to encourage the creation of new companies in the area, with a special focus on the areas of health, agri-food, industrial and the sea”, says the also coordinator of the Technology Transfer Office at CNC-UC.
The “BiotechSTARS” will run until June 2023 and will include several activities for different audiences. The “IGNITE” initiative, for all those interested in the area of biotechnology, aims to promote the discovery of innovative ideas with entrepreneurial potential, throughout the duration of the project. The “BIOSTART” program, which will run between November 2022 and January 2023, aims to train aspiring entrepreneurs in the field of biotechnology in an integrated and concerted way. The “BIOBOOST” program, which will take place between February and April 2023, is an initiative to bring together participants and mentors in the area of bioentrepreneurship, with a view to developing new business initiatives. The activity “BiotechSTARS Academy” aims to stimulate bioentrepreneurship among the school public, between July 2022 and May 2023.
Finally, activities within the scope of the BIOaCOMM task aim to raise society's awareness of the importance of bio-entrepreneurship as a vehicle for responding to many of the contemporary economic and social challenges. It is intended to bring bio-entrepreneurship to the arena of discussion involving various social actors and to increase scientific literacy, thus promoting the area and its actors. In the different activities, initiatives to stimulate female entrepreneurship will also be incorporated.
More information about “BiotechSTARS” here.
Carolina Caetano & Catarina Ribeiro
