Institut Curie creates "Tech Transfer Advisory Committee" to review and guide its technology translation strategy

In recent years, Institut Curie, supported by its Carnot label[1], has focused its technology transfer strategy on originality and risk-taking in order to speed up time-to-market and patient access to new cutting-edge technologies, thus improving cancer treatment.

Institut Curie has opened a new chapter in its commitment to innovation by creating the "Tech Transfer Advisory Committee", made up of worldwide specialists in technology transfer and innovation financing. “The Tech Transfer Advisory Committee’s goal is to challenge our strategy and obtain recommendations on the directions envisaged with our Tech Transfer Committee to build our roadmap and give life to projects with high socio-economic impact," says Dr Cécile Campagne, Director of Institut Curie’s Technology Transfer Office and Deputy Director of Carnot Curie Cancer.

This initiative represents a new turning point for Institut Curie, which will be able to draw on the analysis of seven outstanding international experts:

• Eric Carreel, Co-founder of Withings, Sculpteo, Invoxia and Zoov, and Member of the Académie des Technologies
• Benoit Labarthe, Head of Research Acceleration and Technology Transfer at Agence Innovation Santé
• Rosalie Maurisse, Head of the Health Sector in Bpifrance’s Innovation Division
• Anji Miller, PhD, RTTP, CLP, Translational Fellowships Programme Director and Skills Lead "Innovation Hubs for Gene Therapies" at LifeArc[2], and ASTP[3] Board Vice President in charge of Communities
• Mary Tolikas, MBA, PhD, Senior Vice President and Chief Innovation Officer at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
• Jérôme Van Biervliet, Managing Director VIB[4], Innovation & Business, Board member of several biotech companies
• Koen Verhoef, Head of Knowledge Transfer & Contracting at Netherlands Cancer Institute

At Institut Curie, we aim to become a reference for Tech Transfer in biotechnology, both in France and abroad. By benefiting from the expertise of seven world-renowned personalities in their fields, the Tech Transfer Advisory Committee will enable us to fulfill this ambition by achieving the best international standards.

explains Dr. Cécile Campagne.

The Tech Transfer Advisory Committee will meet once a year and share its analyses with Institut Curie's Executive Board and International Scientific Advisory Board.

This initiative consolidates Institut Curie's long-standing commitment to encouraging innovation. It was in this context that the Tech Transfer Committee was created in 2017, a body that brings together researchers, doctors and carers to co-construct the strategy; and the internal Tech Transfer Ambassadors Network in 2021, bringing together volunteer employees to detect laboratory inventions more quickly and support the processes. More recently, Institut Curie announced the launch of the “StartInnov by Institut Curie” fund, the first philanthropy-based pre-creation incubation fund. This fund aims to be more agile and complementary to other sources of financing, enabling more start-ups to emerge from the institute.

[1] The Carnot label is a mark of excellence awarded to academic research institutes that have demonstrated quality and commitment to partnership research. Institut Curie has held the label since 2011.

[2] UK medical life sciences research charity.

[3] Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals, of which Institut Curie is a member.

[4] The VIB is an independent Belgian institute dedicated to fundamental research and the transfer of this knowledge into innovations with an impact on patients and society.