First of all, What is a pitch? A pitch is a brief presentation of an idea, from the challenge to the way that idea will solve the problem at hand and how it will be implemented..

The goal is to, in a short time frame, convince the investor/immediate superior, or in this case, the panel that the proposal is worth investing in.

The EIT Health (European Institute of Innovation for the Health Sector) has several funds for various project phases and holds regular contests to award the most innovative ideas in the health sector.

The Regional Pitch Competition was held on July 11th in Naples, for two programmes EIT Health - Innostarts, Katapult, more advanced and HeadStart for projects in the early stages.

Therefore, as part of this, the University of Lisbon was invited to be part of the panel responsible for this selection. Sónia Teixeira, from the Innovation & Entrepreneurship Office at the University of Lisbon - Faculty of Medicine, was selected to evaluate the HeadStart programme pitches.


Of the twelve pitches presented, only eight projects would have access to a 35-million-euro financing as well as a mentoring programme. A group made up of Italian, Hungarian, Polish and Lithuanian projects included five that were Portuguese.

Each pitch had a duration of eight minutes followed by a round of questioning by the panel.

Once evaluated by the panel, the following projects were awarded:

Koatum (Latvia) – Innovative Product for Health Coating.

HeartWatch (Italy) - Innovative Product for the prevention of Heart and Respiratory Disorders.

Nu-Rise (Portugal) - Real-time in vivo dosimetry for interstitial brachytherapy of the breast and prostate.

CMPI (Portugal) – Innovative product for non-invasive urine collection in infants

BiomimX (Italy) - Pioneer brand in Predictive Models that will revolutionise the way new drugs are tested.

Stethotelphone (Italy) - Innovative Device to facilitate Medical Auscultation

NeuroPsyai (Portugal) - Services that use scans and state-of-the-art artificial intelligence algorithms to assist diagnosing Alzheimer and Parkinson.

Ineye Pharma (Portugal) – Technology developed for ocular management of several drugs

To see the official news report on the EIT Health website, click here

The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Office (GIE - Gabinete de Inovação e Empreendedorismo) is always at the disposal of researchers and other FMUL employees that may need help with their pitches or strategic help in projects being developed.

Contacts:

GIE -  Ext: 44040 | Email: inovacao@medicina.ulisboa.pt