While the economy stagnates, the Golinelli Foundation of Bologna travels at the speed of light and puts another million euros into play for new businesses. During the week, together with G-Factor, the second edition of the "Life Science Innovation 2020" call was launched, an international tender for researchers and students in the life sciences sector; cash resources amount to 720 thousand euros, those in services to 280 thousand. Anyone with good ideas should come forward, because the deadline is October 31st.
The first "call", launched a few months ago, was a real success and received 124 applications from innovative startups, from Italy and abroad, but the Golinelli Foundation seems tireless and has already decided to renew the proposal, with the intention, he writes in a note, of "providing a concrete response to the need of our country to promote the integration between research, industry and the market, putting young people, their business ideas and scientific and technological research at the centre, with a view to training that combines knowledge with know-how”.
The call is for innovation projects and new companies in the life sciences sector and is aimed at those who think they have a winning idea in the pharma and biotech, medtech, nutraceutical, bioinformatics and bioengineering sectors.
8 projects will be selected and will have the opportunity to undertake a course in the headquarters of G-Factor, an incubator-accelerator located in the Opificio area of Bologna. The objective of this "school" is to cultivate business sprouts so that they become robust plants with a highly innovative, scientific and technological content.
“The Opificio – says Andrea Zanotti, president of the Golinelli Foundation – proposes itself as one of the most important reference centers for innovation at European level and its new wing, which houses G-Factor, completes an integrated ecosystem, unique in Italy, with all the phases of a complex and interconnected supply chain: education, training, research, technology transfer, incubation, acceleration and private equity/venture capital, in a system open to converging development trajectories".
It is in this context that the 8 winning teams will start working from the early stages of development with experts and investors who will accompany them on their path of growth and market affirmation, also thanks to relationships, networks, contaminations with research centers , universities, companies and financial operators.
Newco, spin-offs and innovative startups and students, graduates, doctorates and researchers, individually or in teams, belonging to public and private bodies will be able to participate in the tender; there must be at least one under 40 member in the team.
Applications must arrive by 31 October 2019 and their evaluation will be entrusted to a high-profile commission, with prominent representatives in the innovation, research and business sectors. The announcement is there on the site and the list of selected projects will be made public on 31 January 2020.
"G-Factor - says Antonio Danieli, general manager of the Golinelli Foundation - less than a year ago appeared on the Italian scene in an unprecedented way with the aim of representing a truly functional model for the productive and financial reality of our country". This place "expresses the potential of university and corporate incubators by adding the financial leverage typical of accelerators and venture capital funds". It also carries out a great job of training and accompanying the selected teams, thanks to a network of mentors and tutors. On the occasion of the public launch of the second call, the Golinelli Foundation invited two expert investors of international level, to discuss with an external gaze, the English Bill Morrow, who spoke of "Good Angels & Bad Angels" and the American Steve Gedeon, on the theme “Networking with Business Angel investors”.
“We are aware – concludes Danieli – of possible differences of opinion on the Italian ecosystem of startups, but to always have new stimuli and to improve ourselves, it is necessary to keep alive the comparison and dialogue with the most advanced international realities. Innovation and venture capital have no territorial boundaries”.
