i-Teams are multidisciplinary innovation teams that take high-potential research discoveries to define their best commercialization route and massively accelerate their translation into biomedical applications. In this process, they evaluate the impact of the technology in relevant markets and identify several segments where a fully developed product could make a high impact on public health.

i-Teams are small groups (3-5 people) from various research levels (from undergraduate to postdocs) with different scientific backgrounds (combination of medical, biology, chemistry and engineering) to solve the challenge of finding the best application for a medical technology. Each team is mentored by an expert from the local business community who will coach them throughout the project and will consult with many members of the Health Valley community. The i-Teams work for a semester on a defined technology and meet for weekly sessions that combine workshops to enhance their entrepreneurial skills and provide a forum for the project teamwork. The sessions will also be the opportunity to discuss progress with other i-Teams in order to foster interactions between participants. Participants are expected to be able to work for around 3-4 hour per week on top of the weekly sessions. They will need to get into contact with industry experts and potential customers and therefore it is expected that participants should be able to spend some time on the project during normal working hours.

The “Innovation” i-Teams is inspired by the i-Teams model first developed at MIT, later taken on by the University of Cambridge. The main goal of the project is to translate high-potential medical technologies through the collaboration between a research group and an i-Team. Using the expert knowledge of the inventors, each team will use creative and innovative approaches to find the best way to commercialise the technology beyond the laboratory application. Each team will aim to provide the inventors with alternative commercialisation routes that will help to guide future development of technologies to reach the market faster. An important goal of the project is contact industry experts and potential customers in order to get feedback about the technology and its potential applications.

This will build and extend the industrial network of the participants and allows them to gather valuable information from potential partners or customers. It will also build the entrepreneurial spirit of the participants to approach people from various backgrounds and seniority levels, and will also further expand the network of interactions between the Faculty of Medicine and industrial sectors. The combination of hands-on teamwork and workshops will provide participants with a unique opportunity to develop their entrepreneurial skills with a real-world problem to solve.

This approach will give future alumni the basic tools and enthusiastic mind-set to subsequently join a start-up company as a founder or employee, or use these skills in the academic or industrial world. Participants and inventors may also decide to create spin-off companies following their work during the i-Team projects.