CUIP joins new academic fund to support science startups
23rd September 2021, Prague. Investment fund i&i Biotech Fund (i&i Bio) launched its activity. The new academic fund will focus on investing in academic spin-off companies in the areas of drug development, diagnostics and medical devices and other biotechnologies.
The creation of the fund is the result of a collaboration between the European Investment Fund (EIF) and i&i Prague at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Charles University Innovations Prague (CUIP) is preparing to join the fund.
The Fund has more than one billion CZK at its disposal, which it plans to provide to more than 20 innovative projects over the next 5 years. This money is mainly intended to support discoveries that have already been validated in the laboratory but have not yet begun the imaginary long journey of development for commercial use. This means that the most promising technologies will be funded much more efficiently.
“Charles University is the first university in the Czech Republic to enter into a similar cooperation with a European investment fund. The university is represented by its subsidiary CUIP, which is in charge of the technology transfer portfolio, establishing and investing in spin-off companies. The synergy of this merger gives the University’s scientists a unique opportunity to obtain funding for the development of innovative technologies and to build on the cooperation with CAS, which is an important partner for universities,” said Tomáš Zima, Rector of Charles University.
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