News from the BioRegions: Innovation Prize

The Council of German BioRegions has announced its next Innovation Prize of the Bioregions in Germany.

The prize is awarded to application-oriented ideas from life-science research with a strong innovative element and recognisable potential for use. The aim is to bring the high standards of ideas from the life sciences to the attention of the public and to help these ideas to be successfully implemented in application. The idea of the Innovation Prize is also to recognise and underline the sustainability of ideas and a greater focus of the life sciences on technology transfer. The competition provides a forum for presenting the willingness and ability to innovate, as well as transfer orientation, to the public and for inspiring other scientists to undertake similar endeavours.

The competition is aimed at patent holders or applicants from university and non-university research institutes. The patents must be in the field of modern biotechnology.

The award ceremony will take place in Frankfurt/Main during the German Biotechnology Days from 9 – 10 May 2012. Entries must be submitted by 15 February 2012. There are three prizes of equal value, each worth 2,000 euro.

Biosaxony e.V. will run the 2012 competition. The sponsors of this year’s prize are the specialist journal BioSpekturm, KPMG and the High-Tech-Gründerfonds. The trophies are sponsored by Deutsche Messe and Weitnauer law office. The other sponsors are the law and patent law firms, Lippert, Stachow & Partner; Kailuweit & Uhlemann; Petersen Hardrath and Eureos.

Please send your entry to the council’s central e-mail address: (info@ak-bioregio.org) or BioRegio STERN Management GmbH (Tel: +49-(0)711 8703540 / e-mail: eising@bioregio-stern.de). You will find the necessary entry forms and further information at http://www.biodeutschland.org/innovationspreis.html.