London, September 2024: The Science Entrepreneur Club (SEC) and SPARK have joined forces to launch a Midlands chapter of the SEC’s BioEntrepreneur Club, a collaborative and supportive peer-to-peer community exclusively for founders and C-suite in the life sciences. If you’re a Midlands-based founder or C-suite in the life sciences, join the SEC’s BioEntrepreneur Club by filling out the quick application form here.
The Midlands is a leading region for life sciences with over 1,200 businesses supporting 33,000 high-skilled jobs, representing 14% of all UK life sciences employment. Despite this, most community-centric initiatives occur within the Golden Triangle of London, Oxford and Cambridge. By launching BioEntrepreneur Club Midlands, the SEC and SPARK aim to challenge this status quo.
The BioEntrepreneur Club Midlands chapter will be centred around creating a relaxed, safe and supportive environment for Midlands-based life science entrepreneurs to socialise, get to know each other, discuss common hardships, share advice and have a little fun. The BioEntrepreneur Club Midlands is exclusive to people building businesses in life sciences. There are no professional services or investors.
The first BioEntrepreneur Club Midlands Social will be taking place in October and Founders and C-suite are welcome to RSVP here. Please note, only members of the BioEntrepreneur Club will be accepted and receive full event details. You can apply for membership by filling out the quick application form here.
Matt McCann, Head of BioCapital Network and Partnerships Lead at the Science Entrepreneur Club said “Whilst our 300-strong community of entrepreneurs are spread across the UK, all of our convenings to date have taken place in London. So we’re delighted to be partnering with SPARK to expand the BioEntrepreneur Club’s physical footprint and start delivering initiatives in regional hubs for life science innovation such as the Midlands.”
Luke Southan, Director of SPARK UK said “There is a commonality of challenges faced by entrepreneurs in this space that are non-competitive and can be faced together. Meetings like these, and like we enable through SPARK, create critical clusters of excellence that rapidly increase the chances that each of us can be successful.”
The Science Entrepreneur Club (SEC) is a UK-based non-profit and volunteer-led organisation. Our dedicated team works tirelessly towards our mission of connecting the life science ecosystem through our initiatives, insights and events.
We give entrepreneurs, investors and academics meaningful communities to learn, collaborate, socialise, support each other and showcase innovation. We focus on the life sciences, broadly encompassing AgriTech, ClimateTech, Digital Health, Life Science Tools and Tech, Medical Devices, TechBio and Therapeutics.
Since launching in March 2023, the BioEntrepreneur Club has grown to a community of over 300 life science entrepreneurs spread across the UK, all building in bio.
SPARK provides the education and mentorship necessary to advance research discoveries from the bench to the bedside by giving access to specialised knowledge and technical expertise regarding diagnostic, therapeutic and medical device development and sources of funding to support translational efforts.
All SPARK members will have access to workshops organised by SPARK and led by industry experts; from medical device regulations to establishing good clinical trials and how to create an enticing target product profile to engage future funders, the SPARK programme will increase researchers’ knowledge and understanding of the product discovery and development pipeline.
SPARK The Midlands is part of Aston University’s active involvement in the delivery of the West Midlands Health Tech Innovation Accelerator (WMHTIA). The WMHTIA is funded by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, in partnership with Innovate UK and the West Midlands Combined Authority.
Matt McCann - Head of BioCapital Network and Partnerships Lead, SEC
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