Financing alliance on Top of Europe on its way

The primary aim is to overcome the lack of risk willing financing in the early SME development phases. The lack of financing dramatically lowers the number of spin-outs from universities and research institutions that pass the initial phase, where they are financed by public pre-seed financing. This leads to the loss of business opportunities.

Therefore a “Top of Europe” financing network is intended to be created which should assist in closing the financial gap being a barrier for the exploitation of academic research in SME´s.

Program Director Tuula Palmén, Bioforum Oulu, says “We have taken an important first step towards the establishment of the Top of Europe financing network which shall assist to promote commercialization of academic research on Top of Europe. Within the next year we hope to have identified the key partners and prepared a business plan for the network, which will lay the ground for future investments”.

The workshop in Göteborg was part of an EU co-funded project (FP 7) “Bridge-BSR” with 7 partners in addition to Bioforum Oulu: BioCon Valley, Estonian Biotech Association, IPPT-PAN, Latvian Association of Biotechnology, Medicon Valley Alliance, Steinbeis Team North East and ScanBalt. Bridge-BSR aims to bridge academic research and SME´s within life sciences and biotechnology in ScanBalt BioRegion. Read more at http://www.scanbalt.org/bridge-bsr

For further information please contact Tuula Palmén at tuula.palmen@bioforumoulu.org, Tel: +358 50 4617290, http://www.businessoulu.com

About Bioforum Oulu: Bioforum Oulu gathers together biotech companies, universities and R&D organisations in the Oulu region, Finland, and stimulates their co-operation. Bioforum Oulu works closely with other players in the region and also carries out spearhead projects named in the Oulu Growth Agreement. The intent is to develop new products and services that enhance people's health and well-being and to create new business in the field.