Sofinnova Biovelocita Call for Ideas for innovative bio-tech startups

Sofinnova Biovelocita is the first Pan-European investment strategy dedicated to the creation and acceleration of biotech startups in Europe.
In addition to financial backing, Sofinnova Biovelocita’s team provides a hands-on, robust framework for startups, combining direct management and access to Sofinnova Partners’ extensive infrastructure and network.

Sofinnova Biovelocita is pleased to announce the launch of a Call for Ideas reserved to Armenise Harvard Scientists (as specified below) for funding opportunities for early-stage research and development of innovative ventures in healthcare.

A comprehensive presentation of the call, the evaluation process and funding can be viewed here.

ELIGIBILITY

Candidates must:

• Be Armenise Harvard Career Development Awardees, Armenise Harvard Airalzh Mid-Career Awardees, AH-INF MCA Awardees.
• Have innovative ideas with potential to be developed into next generation therapeutic products.
• Be passionate about biotech and translation of fundamental discoveries into clinical solutions for patients.

Applicants may apply with one or more proposals.

Projects:

The scope of the projects should be the development of therapeutics (medical devices, diagnostics, methods will not be suitable).

• There is no preferred field of interest, technology or methodology, all therapeutic areas will be considered.
• Sofinnova Biovelocita will consider projects at an early stage of development, from validation of target/mechanism of action to proof-of-concept and clinical candidate identification.

EVALUATION PROCESS

Triage
As a first step (triage), based on the submitted application, the Sofinnova Biovelocita Team will assess the projects (scientific rationale and novelty, current status, IP) and the overall potential opportunity (program deliverables, next steps and investment required, market).
Candidates will be informed of the outcome by September 1, 2024.

Project Selection
As a second step, selected projects, if any, will be assessed in more detail: Scientists will be invited to make a presentation to the Sofinnova Biovelocita Team. The presentation will include a discussion of the Scientist’s work and candidate proposal of about 60-90 minutes including Q&A, which can be held in person (in Milan) or in video call. Timing of this step will be coordinated with each Scientist individually.

Investment Decision and Acceleration
As a third step, for each short-listed project, the Scientist and her/his team will collaborate with the Sofinnova Biovelocita Team to elaborate a business plan. Timing of this step will be coordinated with each Scientist individually. For fundable project, that will be selected to enter the Acceleration Phase, it is expected that the funds could be made available by the first quarter of 2025.

The complete overview of the process for submission, triage, presentation to the team and further steps for shortlisted projects up to investment decision is presented here.

For shortlisted projects, throughout the selection and evaluation process, the Scientist and the Sofinnova Biovelocita Team will work together and will exchange information in order to build the final project plan (the business plan).

BENEFITS

If selected for investment, projects can be financed for up to 500 thousand Euro. Please note that there is no guarantee that any project will be selected for investment.

CONFIDENTIALITY

By receiving the applications and any related material, SofinnovaBiovelocita itself and on behalf of its affiliates, any respective members, employees or agents (together the “Recipient”), accepts that any and each application document is strictly confidential and may not be reproduced, summarized or disclosed, in whole or in part, without the prior written authorization of the Scientist presenting her/his abstract and her/his Institution. In particular the Recipient acknowledge that the Abstracts presented by each Scientist might include unpublished data and idea that must be kept private and confidential and cannot be utilized by the Recipient for any other purposes than discussing the application with the Scientist presenting it. By accepting any submitted proposal and its related documents, the Recipient hereby agrees to be bound by the restrictions contained herein.

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

The application deadline is 30 June (11:59pm EDT) 2024.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR APPLICATION

The Proposal

The Proposal template form consists of several sections, please complete all parts to the best of your possibility, based on the development stage of the project you are considering. This should be done in English and contain sufficient information to enable the Sofinnova Biovelocita Team to assess the opportunity (i.e. the first step of evaluation (Triage), see below). As a general indication, the level of detail typical of a scientific article is appropriate.

The text should not exceed 8 pages (between 4-8 pages, double-spaced with one-inch margin on each side, excluding bibliography and images), with the following sections:

1. 1. Summary table: key information and contact details.
   2. Introduction: relevant background to support the rationale behind the work, introduce the topic of your work and set it into a broad context and recent advancements in the field.
   3. Brief description of the project and a summary of the innovative idea, target, modality, technology, preliminary work or other background material.
   4. Applicability: overarching objectives for the project. the development plan, the expected deliverables (therapeutic product, enabling technology etc.) and impact.
   5. Advantages: potential advance your proposal would provide beyond current therapies and interventions, in the context of potential market and major players and/or competitors.
   6. Project Plan: status of the project, desired Proof-of-Concept, summary of research activities.
   7. Intellectual Property: IP protection status.
   8. Team, roles and competencies.
   9. Financials and timeline: investment needed to conduct the activities; timeline.
   10. References: publications list separate to the 4-8 page narrative.

Application Form

The application consists of several elements, some of which need to be uploaded, click on “Application Form” below to begin the application process. Please have everything ready before you start.

Please put your name in the title of each pdf document (e.g. MillerL CV.pdf, MillerL Publications.pdf, etc.) and the document title, date, and page number in the header or footer of each separate document.

1. Application Form: Complete all information requested. At the end of the form you will be prompted to upload the following documents from 2 to 4 in pdf format.
2. Curriculum Vitae. Your CV must include the list of all your publications.
3. Proposal: complete the Proposal template form as per instructions above, save as a pdf and upload.
4. Selected Papers: upload a PDF of the three most important papers referenced in your Proposal
   • Publication 1
   • Publication 2
   • Publication 3

Only applications that are complete and compliant with the instructions will be considered, however, Sofinnova Biovelocita reserves the right to ask for any missing component of the application or additional/supplementary materials after the application deadline.

You should receive an email confirming that your application has been delivered successfully. If you do not receive a confirmation, please send an email to Elisabetta Vitali (email address below).

If you have any questions concerning this application or the program, please contact: