CF Technology Transfer (SPARK-FLI)

About Us

The translation of novel discoveries in research and medicine has always been an extremely challenging and risky endeavor, resulting in an unsatisfactorily low percentage (less than 5%) of academic inventions leading to clinically relevant drugs or diagnostics. 

The SPARK-FLI program supports early-stage academic inventions with education, mentorship and funding. It was founded in 2016 and is based on the highly successful SPARK program developed at Stanford University, which has achieved a translational success rate of more than 50%.

The SPARK-FLI program helps de-risk projects with high potential impact, addressing critical unmet medical needs for any medical indication with the goal to identify and utilize potential new targets for novel therapeutic biomedical interventions, ultimately aiming at the development of novel therapeutic concepts for age-related diseases. 

We provide

• Funding: to asses, to de-risk and run your project (milestone-dependent)
• Education*: monthly lectures teaching the process of technology transfer and drug development
• Mentorship*: teams receive feedback from independent mentor-panel
• Networking*: access to SPARK international network (mentors, institutes, teams
• Technical support: two senior technicians support teams with various technologies
• Help: establish defensible Intellectual Property
• Support*: grant-writing/fund-raising

Since the beginning of the SPARK-FLI Program, we coached and mentored over 30 teams, raised over 3.7m€ in third party funding, filed 6 patent application and co-organized over 90 educational seminars/webinars. Approximately 40% of our supported teams were able to acquire third party funding of technology related funds for their SPARK-projects (Return of investment: 1:5).

Besides funding and education, mentorship and feedback from experienced professionals in the field of drug- and device development is crucial to the success of our technology transfer projects. Connecting industry partners with our academic group leaders has been the source for promising projects that may be developed into novel therapeutics or diagnostics. 

Our advisory panel has currently over 20 tenacious experienced and highly talented industry executives, tech-transfer experts, medical doctors, investors and mentors, who regularly attend our meetings. They provide advice and share their wisdom with our teams. We are grateful to them for helping us fulfil the potential of our inventions and help advance them. All our external advisors are under confidentiality agreements.

The SPARK-FLI program is actively cooperating with other SPARK-Programs around Europe: 

• BIH (Berlin), Masaryk University (Czech Republic), Denmark, Finland, Bordeaux (France), IIT (Italy), Zurich (CH), Basel (CH), Tel Aviv, Norway, Nencki Institute (Poland), The Midlands (UK) and growing.

Overview CF Technology Transfer (SPARK): PDF

Networking

Since the SPARK-FLI is a small Tech Transfer Program, we are always looking out to join forces in teaching, mentoring and networking with teams outside the FLI, pursuing our common goal: 

• Supporting scientists in the translation of basic science observations into benefits for patient and society.