Is there a dichotomy between academia and scientific entrepreneurship? Could the two sectors be complementary and how? These are the questions that a panel of experts with interdisciplinary backgrounds grappled with on Friday at a "Commercialising Innovation: Academia versus Entrepreneurship?" event.
The panel featured a diverse and international line-up, each with a unique perspective, based on extensive careers in different sectors: entrepreneurship, academia, venture capital and the corporate world, all aiming to inspire young scientists in Lithuania and support their future career decisions.
Among the key recommendations to improve the Lithuanian life sciences ecosystem, panellists called for the standardization of the tech transfer system to enable more university spin-offs; interdisciplinary training and more active match-making for science and business students; better synchronization between philanthropic, grant and investor funding to help translate more research to entrepreneurship; and more intersectoral collaboration to incentivise researchers to solve applied practical problems and encourage more international acquisitions of Lithuanian-made deep tech startups.
The participants also debated which international best practices would most benefit Lithuania: including, but not limited to, American corporate venture capital and talent scouting mechanisms; Israel’s dedication to intensive national R&D funding; and the UK’s newest government agency, ARIA, providing more flexible grant funding for higher-risk and higher-reward research.
Interdisciplinarity, fast learning and the power of the ecosystem
Dr Daumantas Matulis, the Director of the VU Life Sciences Center (LSC), welcomed the attendees to the event and lauded the panellists’ interdisciplinarity, noting that this highlights the Center’s convening power as a high-impact R&D hub. "I hope that this discussion will provide valuable insights for our students and the wider LSC community on the intersection of academia and other sectors."
Dominykas Milašius, the co-founder of Delta Biosciences and venture partner at Baltic Sandbox Ventures, encouraged students to demystify the idea of failure: “As an entrepreneur, you fail a lot. The key, building on the entrepreneurial concept of reiteration, is to fail faster and to fail better, without losing confidence in yourself! This ability to learn fast is one piece of advice that might help you navigate uncertainty in whatever field you choose to excel in.”
Romualda Stragienė, the Director of the Innovation Agency, highlighted the importance of constantly reinventing oneself to deal with new challenges and shared tips on how to best navigate uncertainty and transition between different fields. “This is just the beginning of your professional lives. You can be anything and make any choices on the way. Also, the life sciences sector is a top priority for us and for Lithuania – so you’re lucky to be in the field! There are plenty of possibilities, you just have to grab them. New accelerators are launching in Lithuania, as well as other programmes incentivising R&D activities, and we’re investing time and resources in international networking.”
The road to high-tech export
Angel investor, co-founder of the Lithuanian Business Angel Network (LitBAN) and a Board Member of the European one (EBAN), Rita Sakus, provided insights into the international supply chain of innovation, drawing on her experience with high-tech and corporate venture capital (CVC) at Texas Instruments, Bay Networks and Nortel Networks, also offering lessons for the Lithuanian ecosystem.
“The reason major international companies - including life sciences ones - have a CVC arm to invest in, and potentially acquire talent-driven startups in order to bring them in-house or partner with them, because of their speed, efficiency and economics,” explained Rita Sakus. “Knowing this, there is no reason for doubt why the next life sciences unicorn or the next Nobel Prize can’t come from Lithuania. In fact, I moved to Lithuania twenty years ago with the intent to help create the venture capital ecosystem, and I am thrilled to be a part of our thriving future.”
From academia to entrepreneurship and back again
Dr Liudmyla Prozorovska, the founder of Scale Materials Inc., shared her personal experience of transitioning from academia to DeepTech entrepreneurship after her PhD at Vanderbilt University in the United States: "When founding our company, we decided to go the private route. It might be more challenging, as you don’t have the university infrastructure immediately available, however, you also keep more freedom of choice over the direction of the company as a founder.”
Dr Prozorovska also encouraged more researchers to consider entrepreneurship: “Other options for innovators who are just starting out can be joining acceleration programmes or science parks.”
Dr Jonathan Arias, the PI of the VU-EMBL Partnership Institute, compared the nature of his research experience on three continents, and told students about his entrepreneurial journey: contributing to a tech startup as well as mentoring other ventures.
Dr Arias admitted the stint with entrepreneurship also improved his approach to science: “Working at the industry-startup interface, you learn to focus on what’s truly important. In an academic setting, we often focus on solutions stemming from our research; but the world actually cares about the problems they face. It was a paradigm shift for me: to start looking for practical problems and asking myself if my solution can solve the problem?”
Next steps?
Following a lively, townhall-style engagement from the students, faculty, entrepreneurs, tech scouts and investors present in the audience, the panellists agreed to continue consultations on tech transfer and to double-down on efforts on supporting commercialising innovation: through universities, accelerators, private investments, public funding and support, or a hybrid strategy.
The event was hosted by the Vilnius University Life Sciences Center, a premier regional life sciences research hub, and Baltic Sandbox Ventures, a specialised DeepTech VC fund, alongside the University’s annual career week.
