Interreg Baltic Sea Region - European Regional Development Fund
BIC-ToolsBIC-Tools

BIC Project (01.10.2017 - 30.09.2020)

The Biomarker Challenge

Biomarkers’ discovery is an area becoming increasingly important in research and industry, giving rise to new areas of diagnostic and treatment, and could form the foundation for new innovative drivers for both researchers, enterprises and SMEs.

According to “Biomarkers Market - Global Forecast to 2020” the global biomarkers market expects to reach a market share of $45.55 Billion by 2020 of which healthcare and R&D expenditure are the key growth drivers.

Nonetheless, the challenges for market uptake of these innovations are significant, as the development and commercialization of biomarkers is time consuming, difficult and expensive.

Another challenge is to involve industry (Pharmaceutical and diagnostic enterprises, SMEs, investors) much earlier in the development and commercialization process of biomarkers, while research institutions need guidance to select the most relevant biomarker discoveries and conduct a development plan that meets early requirements from relevant industry partner.

The Project

The main object of BiC is the development of a platform that provides new tools to support the different phases of a new commercialization process, assessing the maturity level and emphasizing the industry expectations. Through these tools, the downstream pathway from research, validation, development to the market, co-created with industry, are defined. Likewise, industry is provided with an incentive for engaging in biomarkers at a much earlier phase or pave the way for successful spinouts. The commercialization tools developed during BIC were tested, verified and adjusted.

By enabling better and more efficient commercialization of biomarkers, the overall output of BiC contributes in improving realization and competitiveness of biomarkers discoveries within Baltic Sea Region and long term, it will benefit the end users – the hospitals and the patients.

The Partnership

The consortium comprises 9 partners from the Baltic Sea Region (BSR). It consists of innovation units localized in research institutions, including hospitals, and relevant cluster organisations, representing and including SMEs within the health diagnostic, pharma and med tech field. All the partners are highly experienced in supporting the commercialization of biomarker projects.

The research related dimension will be represented by:

  • Ideklinikken (The University Hospital of Aalborg), Denmark) who is project leader for the consortium
  • The University of Turku (FI)
  • The University of Vilnius (LT)

Representing the cluster organizations

  • Biopeople (DK)
  • BioCon Valley® GmbH (DE)
  • Turku Science Park (FI)
  • Tartu Biotechnology Park (EE)
  • Wroclaw Technology Park (PL)

The Funding

The project’s budget is EUR 2.55 million and is co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund through the Interreg Baltic Sea Region Programme with EUR 1.96 million.