– I was very pleased to have gotten the chance to talk to researchers from the clinical research departments, showing great interest in our services and what we can offer them, says Pia Keyser, one of UBI’s experienced business coaches.
The crowd was very diverse; PhD and post docs, professors, entrepreneurs, investors, startup staff, CEO’s and incubator alumni. The original founder of UBI, professor Tor Ny joined for lunch and County Governor of Västerbotten, Magdalena Andersson, arrived in the afternoon together with the current Director of the Board of UBI, Åsa Ögren.
Several researchers and students inquired about possible job opportunities in growing startups while representatives from investors Norrlandsfonden, Parnerinvest and Nordic Light Capital attended to keep track of the upcoming stars in need of funding.
Around 80 guests from all areas and academic levels
In total the event attracted somewhere around 80 guests spread out over the day. Everything from VIP-guests to freshmen students from the medical faculty mingled together in the refurbished facilities.
The incubator’s CEO Jennie Ekbeck welcomed everyone present around noon and highlighted how Umeå Biotech Incubator has grown and matured since the start – but still has it’s core focus on hands-on support for academics and health professionals that want to verify a potential business idea.
– We are one part of a great innovation support system around Umeå university, and the results we’ve seen over the years clearly show that Umeå, Västerbotten and all of northern Sweden has boundless potential when it comes to excellent research and innovative companies, she says.
Live demo testing and challenging science quiz
The red carpet was rolled out to greet the arriving guests, and on the first floor Emil Byström, CEO of Spinchem demonstrated the company’s innovative Rotating Bed Reactor live. Upstairs in one of the two corridors the tech-filled lab of Brain Stimulation offered three demo stations where visitor’s could try their hand at virtual reality training programmes for rehabilitation of stroke patients suffering from spatial neglect – a condition where half of the perceived world “disappears” for the affected individual.
Another popular attraction was the science quiz walk. With a digital answer sheet and questions spaced out in the hallways, labs and utility rooms – the challenge attracted 35 teams which resulted in an impressive high score list where two thirds of the competitors succeeded in nailing 8 or more correct answers.
All quiz participants were lucky enough to win prizes, and the final high score list can be found here: http://quiz.bybella.se/admin/correctQuiz.php?QuizNr=14
If you’re curious to see how your knowledge compares – check out the quiz with correct answers right here: http://quiz.bybella.se/viewQuestions.php?quiz=14&showAnswers
Text by: Carolina Hawranek
Photos by: Malin Grönborg
