The i-PhD competition, launched in 2019 by the French government in partnership with Bpifrance, was born out of the Ministry of Higher Education, Research, and Innovation's desire to encourage the spirit of doctoral students and young doctors. This competition, which precedes the i-Lab competition, is reserved for young doctors or doctoral students who wish to create or co-create a Deeptech start-up through technology transfer that leverages research results.
The aim of the i-PhD competitionis to support young PhD graduates, backed by a public research laboratory and accompanied by a technology transfer organization, with the goal of promoting a project that could lead to the creation of a Deeptech start-up.
This year, 43 projects have won the i-PhD innovation competition, including 10 Grand Prizes. In addition to increased visibility, each winner will benefit from a support program designed to accelerate their project (mentoring, privileged access to the French Tech grant with an increased intervention threshold, immersive highlights in the Deeptech ecosystem, promotional tools for Grand Prize winners).Among them, 27 winners are supported by SATT, including 4 Grand Prize winners.
List of winners and SATT Network Grand Prize:HERE
SpiderMass is a new smart instrument for characterizing biological tissues. in vivo to supplement the standard analyses performed by the pathologist.
This future medical device has been developed by the Inserm PRISM laboratory at the University of Lille and has been supported from the outset by SATT-Nord. The technology uses a laser, an analytical chemistry method called mass spectrometry, and machine learning. It takes just a few seconds between firing the laser and obtaining a digital twin of the analyzed tissue. This allows it to be used in time-critical situations, such as during oncological surgery. The device will enable better characterization of tumors during surgery and detection of any cancer cells that may remain in the body. This will guide the surgeon's actions and provide new information for the pathologist. The aim is to reduce the number of postponed procedures or second operations due to relapses, while improving the patient's prognosis and quality of life.
The project is being incubated by the Eurasanté bio-incubator, and a start-up will be created in September 2021 toindustrialize and commercialize this technology with the aim of becoming the leader in soft tissue cancer diagnosis in a global cancer diagnosis market that was valued at US$146.2 billion in 2018 and is expected to grow by 8.8% per year from 2019 to 2027.
Verbatim:
After receiving support from SATT-Nord, particularly as part of a maturation project, SpiderMass has reached a level of maturity that allows it to be transferred and commercialized through the creation of a company, currently incubated by Eurasanté. I therefore applied to the i-PhD competition in this context to obtain support and assistance in my transition from PhD student to company director. Preparing the application was an excellent opportunity to work with the laboratory, SATT, and Eurasanté on various aspects of the project. Now that I have the good fortune to be an i-PhD winner, I have an additional asset on my resume for launching my entrepreneurial activities, and I will be able to enter the BPI ecosystem more easily, particularly through the French Tech seed grant. The one-year program offered is very comprehensive, and the presentation video will certainly be a plus in raising funds in the first few months of the start-up's life.
The SieMPer project aims to provide surgeons (gynecologists and urologists) with a digital solution for processing medical images (MRI) in order to improve the surgical management of prolapse. The objective is to develop and market diagnostic and surgical decision-making tools based on modeling the biomechanical properties of pelvic tissues undergoing surgical treatment for prolapse.