Awards

Lifetime Achievement Award: Koenraad Debackere

22nd May 2019

Thierry Heles

Koenraad Debackere, managing director, KU Leuven Research and Development, and chairman, Gemma Frisius Fund has received the GUV Lifetime Achievement Award 2019

Personality of the Year: Mark Mann

22nd May 2019

Callum Cyrus

Put in the driving seat of Oxford University Innovation’s new social enterprise campaign, Mark Mann – this year’s Personality of the Year – surely has one of the most fascinating jobs in academic tech transfer.

Investment Unit of the Year: Cambridge Enterprise Seed Funds

22nd May 2019

Thierry Heles

With hundreds of university venture funds, internal commercialisation vehicles and third-party firms the reality in today’s innovation ecosystem, selecting the nominees and the winner for Investment Unit of the Year is increasingly challenging.

Exit of the Year: Ziylo

22nd May 2019

Thierry Heles

After a year of countless exits in the ecosystem, many among the most significant yet – so much so that five nominees were not enough to recognise them all – the Award for Exit of the Year was one of the most difficult to determine.

Technology of the Year: Apeel Sciences

22nd May 2019

Callum Cyrus

With the growing focus on food sustainability, University of California (UC) Santa Barbara-founded food preservative developer Apeel Science is a particularly apt selection for the Technology of the Year award.

CVC Investment in a Spinout of the Year: Ribon Therapeutics

22nd May 2019

Thierry Heles

Winner of the CVC Investment in a Spinout of the Year: Ribon Therapeutics - Novartis Venture Fund, Johnson & Johnson Innovation–JJDC, Takeda Ventures, Celgene

Fundraising of the Year: Imec.xpand

22nd May 2019

Callum Cyrus

One only has to look at the investors in the €117m ($135m) final close for Imec.xpand, the venture fund of nano-electronics research institute Imec, to see why it is worthy of GUV’s Fundraising of the Year award.

Deal of the Year: Galecto Biotech

22nd May 2019

Callum Cyrus

Of the strong candidates for GUV’s Deal of the Year, Lund and Edinburgh universities-founded drug developer Galecto Biotech sealed the award for a €79m ($90m) series C close that supplemented a promising set of clinical data for its lead candidate.

Other News

Tech Transfer Unit of the Year: ETH transfer

22nd May 2019

Thierry Heles

Mainland Europe is often said to be the problem child in the continent’s academic family when it comes to technology transfer, especially compared with the UK’s successes. And with dozens of spinouts being churned out by the golden triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge alone, it is easy to assign some truth to such a statement.