Call for all medical innovation entrepreneurs, scientists, clinicians and investors to attend the digital international Charité/BIH life science and health tech Entrepreneurship Summit on 11 May 2021. The Scotland in Germany team is delighted to offer Scotland’s healthcare and medtech start-ups, scale-ups, innovators and researchers the opportunity to take part in a Scottish delegation to the virtual Charité Foundation and Berlin Institute of Health 2021 CHARITÉ BIH ENTREPRENEURSHIP SUMMIT on 11 May.

The global healthcare sector is in the spotlight more than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic, and disruptive change is occurring at an unprecedented pace in every area of the market.  Governments are trying their best to manage the crisis and to provide adequate healthcare for their populations, and amazing advances have been witnessed in the medtech and life science innovation space.

This year, the Charité BIH Entrepreneurship Summit will focus on how to give promising technologies the push they need to pave the way for a new era of medical treatment. Normally a two-day programme hosted in Berlin with attendees from over 25 countries, this year the summit will be a packed one-day digital programme with up to 1000 attendees, focussed on the future of Translational Innovation for Patient-Centred Healthcare.

Scotland is this year’s official partner, giving our companies, researchers, healthcare leaders and experts from across the life sciences and medicine the opportunity to play a prominent role across the summit. We are delighted that Professor Jason Leitch, National Clinical Director at the Scottish Government, and Professor Dame Anna Dominiczak of the Institute of Cardiovascular & Medical Sciences at the University of Glasgow, have agreed to give the keynote addresses, and that Professor Nick Mills of the Usher Institute and Jackie Waring of Investing Women will be joining the panel discussions.

Join up to 1000 entrepreneurs, innovators, researchers, physicians, investors, and industry and government representatives from across the globe to participate in sessions covering:

• Emerging Technologies for Point-of-Care Solutions 
• Next-Generation Immune Engineering
• Tissue Engineering: A Loophole to Fight the Long-Term Effects of Covid-19?
• Investing for a Pandemic-Resilient Future: How Do You Raise or Make Money without Access to the Healthcare System?

There will additionally be a range of workshops to attend and, for health start-ups and scale-ups, the opportunity to present in a 3-minute pre-recorded pitch in the Life Science Venture Market. The event will be followed by the Bionnale 2021 on 12 May – one of the largest networking events for life sciences and health care industries in Germany.

When and where

11 May 2020 via the cbes.berlin digital conference platform from the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities.

To register

To find out more and register for the overall event, please visit the Charite BIH Entrepreneurship summit registration website, sending an email to germanyhub@gov.scot by 25 April so that we can include you in the Scottish delegation.

What’s on offer

Access to the full Entrepreneurship summit programme, the separate Bionnale networking conference for life sciences and healthcare industries, and an exclusive fringe programme for Scottish delegates. Registration costs this year have been waived.

Take part to:

• meet with entrepreneurs and innovators from across the world facing similar challenges;
• exchange views with the research and academic community;
• meet potential investors;
• engage with Berlin’s vibrant healthcare, medtech and entrepreneurship communities;
• take part in high-profile sessions on:
  • Emerging Technologies for Point-of-Care Solutions – POC technologies have gained a special role over the last year. The fields of application are diverse and will significantly change the way we deal with common diseases. This session will present the many possibilities and also address the specifics from development to application;
  • Next-Generation Immune Engineering – highlighting the potential of novel immunotherapy technologies as experts from academia and industry explain the challenges along the long path from discovery to breakthrough;
  • Tissue Engineering: A Loophole to Fight the Long-Term Effects of Covid-19? – Treatments based on tissue engineering offer promising perspectives in complex therapeutic courses related to the long-term effects of Covid-19. This session will present the diverse and complex applications and venture an outlook on the future of this field of research;
  • Investing for a Pandemic-Resilient Future – highlighting the challenges for investors and entrepreneurs that have been faced in the last year and providing an outlook for both sides to adapt to future conditions;
  • and various workshops – please let us know if you would be interested in offering a workshop!
• help showcase Scotland to an international audience;
• pitch in the Life Science Venture Market, with a view to securing international exposure and potential investment (see below; separate application required).
• attend the Bionnale on 12 May 13:30-19:00 hours –  the biggest networking event in life sciences and healthcare in Berlin-Brandenburg – in 2019 this was attended by over 900 biotech, pharma, medtech and digital health representatives from over 20 countries.
• benefit from a fringe programme* of virtual market briefings and entrepreneurship visits arranged by the Scottish Government and SDI Hub in Germany in response to demand.

* We anticipate an information- and networking event in advance of the summit, and briefing sessions on the morning of 12 May on how to engage and do business in Germany (between the summit and the Bionnale on Wednesday afternoon). These will be provided by the Scottish Government and SDI teams in Germany; the UK Department for International Trade and the Science and Innovation Network in Germany; the relevant sectoral teams from German inward investment and business organisations such as Germany Trade and Invest and Berlin Partner; and Berlin accelerators and incubators such as Silicon Allee. 

Depending on delegation size, we will also consider a virtual reception / event to showcase Scotland’s entrepreneurship, innovation and healthcare / medtech strengths, for example on the eve of the Summit proper.  We are currently exploring whether virtual visits to Berlin incubators or start-ups are feasible, and will be happy to facilitate contacts for individual companies and research interests where we can.  We will be developing our own Showcase Scotland webpages within the summit website, providing an additional opportunity to highlight the Scottish medtech landscape and selected success stories.

Who should attend

The event is aimed at the broad spectrum of  science and health tech start-ups and scale ups, researchers, clinicians, policy makers and investors.  It offers variously the potential for meeting within and across disciplines, for research exchange, for meeting practitioners from other countries facing the same challenges  and for finding investors and companies to invest in.

Extra opportunities for start-ups – the Life Science Venture Market!

There is the additional opportunity for a range of start-ups and scaling companies from across Scotland’s MedTech, Pharma or DigitalHealth space to showcase their ideas and business concepts in the Life Science Venture Market track of the Entrepreneurship Summit (LSVM).

This will provide the opportunity to gain access to major players in the Berlin and German health innovation systems and to connect / become connected with business representatives from a global expert audience.  Each team will have an individual pitching page so, starting a few days before and during the event, registered attendees will have access to your startup space to find: 

•    your written mission statement and teaser;
•    your 3-minute-video-pitch (YouTube or Vimeo) and
•    a comprehensive pitch deck

This means that you your company and your pitch will be visible on demand on a separate page as part of the Summit and its LSVM.

There will be three monetary prizes, and the best six start-ups will be invited to pitch as Entrepreneurs in Global Health at the World Health Summit  on 24-26 October.  The audience will decision-makers and representatives from the entire spectrum of health-related fields and industries from over 100 countries.

All companies should have one common denominator: AMBITION FOR GROWTH.  We hope to help attendees make the most of the opportunities on offer and to establish international business partnerships, whilst simultaneously showcasing Scotland and sharing experiences with companies in their field from Germany and other countries.

To take part, please apply directly via the Life Science Venture Market application webpage by 18 April, at the same time letting germanyhub@gov.scot know that you have done so.