+++ Two-day partnering event for the life sciences celebrates its premiere +++ 200 participants from science and business are guests in Dresden +++ Panel sessions addressing current focal points of research and 1-on-1 partnering provide an ideal platform for initiating co-operations

Dresden, 10 October 2014 Initiating co-operations, technology transfer and commercialization of research results – these were the main themes of the partnering event bionection that took place for the very first time. For two days, the DFG Research Center and Cluster of Excellence at the TU Dresden was crowded with experts from the sciences and business debating current focal points of research in the life sciences and talking about future partnering.

The organizers from biosaxony have every reason to be satisfied: “The pilot exercise to establish an international life science conference focusing on technology transfer was definitely a success”, said André Hofmann, CEO of biosaxony after the event. “200 participants and more than 70 pitch presentations of scientific ideas show the enormous demand for such a platform that helps transferring ideas from the sciences into business”, he summed up. Indeed, the demand obviously exists on both sides as participants from the sciences and business were about equal in number.

Welcoming guests from nine different countries, “bionection” also proved to be able to provide a platform structure for technology transfer that goes beyond the national perspective. This was also confirmed by the presentation of Hungary, this year’s priority country: It organized its own panel on “Green Biotechnology / Food” and emphasized the need for more co-operation and partnering efforts directed towards Eastern Europe.

The six central theme panels covered the topics bioengineering/ biomaterials, bioinformatics, medical technology, new technologies/diagnostics and therapeutics/vaccines/drugs. The accompanying workshops addressing issues like strategies for initiating co-operations of the handling of promising research ideas also enjoyed great popularity. Overall, the bionection experience showed the enormous demand for the creation of structures supporting technology and know-how transfer within the life science industry.

In particular, the 1-on-1 partnering was very well received. It gave participants the opportunity to directly contact and arrange meetings with potential co-operation partners already before the start of the conference. Adding up to 140 partnering meetings, more than 50 percent of the participants used this opportunity which is a remarkable result for a newly established partnering tool.

Additionally, the accompanying industry exhibition and the exhibitor’s evening on October 9 were heavily used for networking and sharing ideas.

With the expert talk “Dealmaking with Industry – Dos and DONTs” and after two intense conference days, this year’s bionection has closed its doors this afternoon. The second bionection will take place in Leipzig on October 1 and 2, 2015.

Photos: ©biosaxony, Michael Sperl - the representative of the Hungarian Embassy, Imre Juhász, at his opening speech and the get-together in the evening

Contact and further information:

biosaxony e.V., Ulrike Gerecke, Tatzberg 47, 01307 Dresden

Tel.: + 49 351 796 5106, Fax: +49 351 796 5610, E-Mail: info@bionection.de, www.bionection.de