Merck Serono Innovation Cup 2011
Winning team (l to r): Senior coach Siegfried Neumann (retired), Warren Hochfeld (Cambridge University), Jonas Schaefer (UZH Zurich), Anna Idelevich (Jerusalem University), Christian Kuttruff (LMU Munich), Deni Subasic (UZH Zurich). The team won the first Merck Serono Innovation Cup with their idea for an innovative technology platform that could make it possible to design superior biobinders.
Nurturing innovation and scientific excellence
Twenty-five international students from five continents participated in the first edition of the week-long Merck Serono Innovation Cup 2011, held in August in Seeheim-Jugenheim, Germany. Five teams of young academics were coached by Merck Serono retired professionals in transforming promising ideas into practical business plans.
The winning project was selected based on the innovation of the original concept and strong potential for application across all of Merck Serono’s strategic focus areas. The team worked out a convincing business plan in protein engineering to enable the design of superior biobinders. Internal R&D experts will now evaluate opportunities to take the idea forward.
The five award-winners received the Innovation Cup along with a prize of 10,000 EUR.
The Merck Serono Innovation Cup was launched in 2011. The initiative is designed to support the professional development of post-graduate students interested in a career in the pharmaceutical industry and to foster innovation from a promising new generation of academic talent from the life sciences and business administration.
