BIOCHEM accelerates at Milan

BIOCHEM, the Europe-wide partnership co-funded by the European Commission to support companies entering the rapidly emerging market of bio-based products, will be staging an Accelerator Forum in Milan from 5 to 7 October 2011. The Forum will offer the chance to promote your organisation or company to an influential audience of biotechnology investors, entrepreneurs and other major players in the area.

The Accelerator Forum takes place at FieraMilanoCity as part of the LIFE-MED 2011 event. The BIOCHEM event is free but requires compulsory registration. Entry to the BIOCHEM Accelerator Forum will also allow participants access to LIFE-MED 2011.

Presentations at the BIOCHEM Accelerator Forum event will give a comprehensive briefing on BIOCHEM’s business support toolbox. This suite of business tools can help evaluate a company’s potential to enter and succeed in the bio-based market and boost innovation.

The meeting will also give an overview of the current status of the bio-based market in Europe and support for bio-based regional networks across the EU. Further presentations will describe examples of best practice in the sector and examine a number of EU-funded INNOVA projects (BIOCHEM is funded under this European Commission scheme).

Venture capital networking
As well as expert presentations the Forum offers the chance to present to a number of venture capitalists and other industry investors. A set of six formal company presentation sessions are envisaged. In addition One2One meetings can be arranged between potential collaborators or investors throughout the event.

The full programme for the Milan BIOCHEM Accelerator Forum can be found here together with registration here.

More information on the BIOCHEM Accelerator event can be obtained from Julie Gruchy at Europe Unlimited.

BIOCHEM background
Bio-based products are made from renewable, biological raw materials such as plants and trees. They are typically sold into market sectors such as bio-plastics, bio-lubricants, surfactants, enzymes and pharmaceuticals. BIOCHEM aims to improve the innovation capacity of bio-based chemistry start-ups and SMEs. It provides a business support toolbox for entrepreneurs to assess their potential to enter the bio-based products market and to assist in boosting innovation capacity.

The BIOCHEM toolbox provides bio-based market information, individual audits, coaching, and business planning elements. To support the toolbox a European online partnering and innovation resources system to find the right research and business partners, test facilities and experts everywhere in Europe is also available.

LIFE-MED 2011
LIFE-MED 2011 is recognised as a reference point for Life Sciences in the Mediterranean region and has three components:

• NUCE INTERNATIONAL - the international fair for the Nutraceutics, Cosmeceutics, Functional Foods & Drinks and Health Ingredients industry
• BIOTECH - the international event and conference on biotechnologies
• ALGAE EUROPE - the fair-conference on production technologies and industrial applications for algae culture.