The SPARK-BIH program supports early stage academic inventions with education, mentorship and funding. It was founded in 2015 and is based on the highly successful SPARK program developed at Stanford University, which has achieved a translational success rate of more than 50%.
The program is designed to de-risk projects with high potential impact, addressing critical unmet medical needs for any medical indication. Our aim is to accelerate the translation of academic inventions into outstanding medical products including novel or repurposed drugs, advanced therapy medicinal products, such as cell and gene therapies, diagnostics as well as medical devices.
Therefore we provide:
> Mentoring
Each project team provides regular updates to the advisory panel and receives feedback. Expert advisors provide project-specific advice for each stage of the product development.
If you would like to share your expertise with our SPARK scholars (AKA 'SPARKees') and participate in our program as SPARK advisor, get in contact with us.
> Funding
SPARK-BIH provides milestone-based funding for a period of 1-2 years.
> Education
SPARKees attend regular seminars that teach the process of development and commercialization of drugs, medical devices, diagnostics as well as the principles of Entrepreneurship.