i-Lab was created by the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation to strengthen support for the creation of innovative companies, better support the development of start-ups, and encourage entrepreneurship, particularly among researchers and young people in higher education.
Launched in 1999 by the Ministry of Research as part of the Innovation and Research Act, the national competition to support the creation of innovative technology companies has since been repeated every year with a twofold objective: • to identify and promote business creation projects based on innovative technologies; • to promote the transfer of research results to the socio-economic world.
Since its creation, the competition has fulfilled its objectives: > it has enabled the creation of 2,081 companies. In 2019, the survival rate observed for the winning companies, with an average age of 9 years, was 63%. A few companies have disappeared because they were bought out by large industrialists. > More than 50% of these companies originated from public research, with a clear increase in recent years. Between 2000 and 2006, only 40% of companies originated from public research.
Results of the 22 editions: 1999-2020
The i-Lab competition is enjoying growing success. Year after year, it confirms its decisive role in supporting the creation of innovative technology companies and, more broadly, confirms its major contribution to the French innovation system.
Since 1989:
€470 million raised
3,560 winners23,008 applications
An overall selective success rate:
15%
2,081 innovative technology companies created
Results of the 2020 competition
73 winners
The national jury selected 73 winners from among the 424 finalists in the national competition. Approximately 33% of the winners had applied in a previous edition of the competition.
The company thus created receives a grant of up to €600,000.
Among the 73 winners, two startups supported by SATT Nord:
Apmonia Therapeutic whose president is Albin Jeanne, former maturation engineer at SATT Nord on the TAX2 project. This startup is developing a first-in-class cancer immunotherapy strategy. The patented and licensed drug candidate, the TAX2 peptide, has a unique mechanism of action that sets it apart from the competition and is perfectly characterized. In addition, the technology developed by the company has potential applications in the treatment of ovarian cancer and glioblastoma, two rare cancers with significant unmet medical needs.
The startup Hemerion whose president is Maximilien Vermandel, a researcher on the Dosyndigo project. This startup has developed a technology to treat patients with brain cancer.