Where does Swiss innovation stand?
Today was an important day for all the actors of the innovation sector in Switzerland. Avenir Suisse, the industry-sponsored think tank, released its study on the status of innovation in Switzerland. As often, we learn that Switzerland is still lagging behind other developed countries (the study makes comparison with Finland and Sweden). In addition to useful stats and an overview of the current situation, the group gives a few recommandations:
- CTI (the main source of R&D or applied research grants) should be spun off from the government in the form of a private foundation. (Would this really help to have stronger links to the industrial world?)
- There should be more tech transfer specialists in Switzerland and the offices should be separated from the universities. Now, this looks like a strange idea because the source of the technology (the lab and the school) goes a long way in deciding the potential commercial partners to license out from the universities.

For additional comments on this study, Swissinfo had a good article with quotes from entrepreneurial figures. You can download the study in German (executive summary in French) on the site of Avenir Suisse.

Overview of"world-changing" Swiss technologies

Based on the annual list of new technologies that “could transform industries that are fundamental to daily life” that the MIT Technology Review puts together, Valerie Thompson lists those "world-changing" Swiss technologies. And guess what! She found several researchers and startups working on near-commercialization technologies that we also know here:
- id Quantique works on a quantum cryptography solution. One of the founder, Gregoire Ribordy, was a NETS prize winner in 2001.
- Glycomics: MIT Prof Peter Seeberger was recently at SHARE to present his research and commercial activities. He will join ETHZ this summer.

Bio IT world Expo in Boston

Brief visit to this expo at the Hynes Convention Center. Only a handful of exhibitors (including Swissbiotech that has the mission of spreading the message of Switzerland as one of the top biotech locations in the world) but the quality of the attendees was excellent. Experts expressed doubts about the chances of success of small companies that develop "all in one" bioinformatics solutions.

By the way, I found this primer on bioinformatics really useful.

Novartis in the news again

While SHARE was hosting a panel discussion on bioinformatics (incl. Manuel Peitsch, head of Informatics at Novartis), Novartis announced that they were planning to buy a majority stake in Idenix, a local biotech company. The deal is a clear signal that Novartis is interested in what innovative firms are developing in the Boston area.