“We go to the moment when we treat cancer as on the influenza,” says an artificial intelligence specialist

The way research is done and innovation is achieved goes through radical changes. More and more scientists want to leave the academic environment and set up their own companies to sell the results of their research activity, said Riam Kans, a British entrepreneur, for sifted.eu.

Not too many seem to disturb Riam Kans. The scientist and entrepreneur says that little is worried, apart from threatening a nuclear war.

Kans moved to the UK in 2008 from Lebanon where he grew up. The student days were spent at the University of Oxford, where he received a scholarship to study a doctorate in cognitive neurosciences before completing a postdoctorate.

The fashion of the “entrepreneurial scientist”

However, Oxford was the second reason he moved to the UK. First? Her love for rock music and the chance to see “legendary rock bands” like Black Sabbath Live.

After graduation, Kans was a project manager at University College London and played roles of mediation between the academic environment, industry and technology companies. He then launched conception X, a program that teaches doctoral students who need to turn their research into a company.

In the last seven years, 450 teams have been trained in the program, 150 startups in the field of top technology and a portfolio of 500,000,000 pounds was created, the combined value of companies that have passed through the program and were helped to obtain funding. Conception X did not receive actions in the companies with which he worked, being a non-profit organization that receives funding from the government, universities, various philanthropists or investors, as well as from corporations.

The “entrepreneurial scholar”, as Kans is called, is fashionable. Eight years ago, between the room with 50 university only four would have said that they want to build their own company. “Now there are about 50%,” she says.

“Universities are evaluated to a greater extent in the broader impact they have, not only after the result of scientific research. Innovation is now a key factor (…) At the same time, the university staff leading large groups of researchers see mutations both in education and in economics. Many offer more opportunities to students, which are to be involved in the research They, ”observes Riam Kans.

Technological sovereignty, a goal of Europe

Also, financing programs, such as Horizon Europe of the EU, worth 95.5 billion euros, put more emphasis on the commercialization of research, adding a generation of university university students than their predecessors.

In addition, European decision makers are very concerned about the technological sovereignty, wishing to ensure that the great developments in AI or semiconductors will take place in their “court”, without resorting to imports. This means that money has come to follow scientists, not the other way around.

However, the “entrepreneurs” are facing challenges that those who have developed the classic software products. “You can no longer just resign and build in your parents' garage. You have to be part of a research institution,” says Kanso.

The companies that Conception X has helped have as activity from the production of energy to the creation of new drugs, things that you cannot improvise in a chopron, but the results can be spectacular, even if some say they are insanely ambitious. “I think we will treat cancer like a flu and that we can extract energy from anything,” Kans estimates.

Research from European universities has American rivals, such as Stanford giants and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The old continent produces first -class research in places for University of Cambridge, Imperial College London, University College London, Eth Zurich and Munich Technical University.

They have a huge opportunity to see a generation of world -level companies, focused on scientific research, but only if they become better in taking the research results on the shelf and putting them on the market. “The amount of research sleeps in the laboratories is diligent,” says Kanso.

Financing issues

British universities have been accused of being too greedy regarding the actions received in companies and too slow in negotiations with affiliated companies, which delays the launch of companies created by scientists. Last year, the top universities of the United Kingdom adopted a guide adopted by the Government on reporting to the affiliated companies, so that the level of actions owned by universities has reached a record minimum level, although there are still disappearances between regions.

The participation in the companies created by the Conception X program is at the discretion of the universities from which those who obtain the title of doctor (PHD) come, but the latter receive consultancy in the conclusion of the agreements.

Another problem that must be solved in this ecosystem is the financing of the concept, that is, the money that covers the period between the completion of the research grant and the point where money is obtained from the marketing of the intellectual property right, a period known as the “Valea Death”.

Last week, Conceptio X announced the creation of a fund of 600,000 pounds to ensure the passage through this period, the money coming from scientists and engineers who now work at Google and Deepmind. This group will invest 40,000 pounds in various companies, money that will be converted into shares by evaluating the company over six months.

The success of companies created in the unversary and research environment depends on the ability of Europe to attract the brightest minds in its universities, in a competition with the US and China. The United Kingdom has facilitated the obtaining of visas for those with skills and graduates in the field of science and promised 50,000,000 pounds for American researchers willing to come to Europe. And the EU went on the offensive with the “Choose Europe for Science” program. Separately, France and the Netherlands have developed similar programs.

Kans, however, signals an still unresolved problem: very little investors are willing to finance projects in the preliminary stage, preferring the projects already reached a maturity stage. “No one wants to touch projects in the first phases,” commented founder of Conception X.