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Submit your expression of interest by May 4, 2026.

The BioInnovation Institute and Lundbeck Foundation have a shared interest in supporting scientific discoveries with the aim of accelerating world-class life science innovation within brain health and neurological diseases.

PROBLEM TO SOLVE

Despite significant scientific and technological progress, patients suffering from nervous system disorders still rarely see durable improvements in function or quality of life, underscoring a persistent innovation and translational challenge.

The Brain Health Challenge Call aims to tackle this by focusing on three interlinked problems:

Insufficient understanding of disease biology for therapeutic design: The limited understanding of disease pathology, mechanisms, and patient heterogeneity of nervous system disorders results in poor translation into clinical treatment.

Weak translational engines for drug discovery: Existing preclinical models fail to capture the complexity of human brain and peripheral nervous system biology, thus failing to serve as reliable drug discovery engines.

Brain and cell precision delivery as a bottleneck: There is a lack of broadly applicable, clinically robust delivery strategies to safely move therapies across the blood-brain barrier, and to specific brain regions and cell types.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING FOR

We seek entrepreneurial Principal Investigators developing technologies with platform potential and a clear therapeutic application, within one of the following areas:

New therapeutic solutions stemming from clear causal biology, which are clinically translatable into real-world, commercially viable treatments. A special focus on, but not restricted to, neuro-rare indications (often with clearer causal biology), for example: repeat expansion disorders, neuroendocrine diseases, or neurodevelopmental disorders.

Drug discovery platforms, either new or superior to current models in recapitulating human disease (e.g., calibrated on validated drug targets). Platforms may include in silico solutions (e.g., cell atlas, pathway analysis, gene variants, GWAS, multi-omics) and new approach methodologies (e.g., organoids, organon-chip, assembloids).

Robust, modular, and scalable solutions for CNS/PNS regions and cell-specific delivery that enable small molecules, biologics, and/or oligonucleotides to target the nervous system. Technology with a clear framework aligning payload, cell specificity, and route of administration to the relevant indication(s).

PARTNERSHIP ROLES

The Brain Health Challenge Call is co-funded by BII and Lundbeck Foundation, and also benefits from the drug discovery and development expertise of BII’s Innovation Partner Lundbeck A/S. As such, Lundbeck A/S will participate in due diligence under a confidentiality agreement, without any further rights to the funded projects or their IP. Any conflicts of interest will be declared upfront.

More information about the Brain Health Challenge can be found here.

ABOUT BII BIO STUDIO PROGRAM

BII’s company creation program, Bio Studio, supports entrepreneurial academic group leaders (minimum of 3 years seniority) in translating their science into innovative products and solutions.

Program overview:

3-year bespoke acceleration program to mature projects to spin-out.

Project grant of up to DKK 5.35m per year (EUR ~0.72m). Issued as an in-kind grant in Year 1 and 2 and as a convertible loan note in Year 3.

Each project is led by an Entrepreneur in Residence (EiR) with the Principal Investigator (PI) acting as a scientific consultant.

Projects are incubated at BIIs facilities in Copenhagen and are supported by BIIs infrastructure, including state-of-the art laboratory, office space, and a standard IT package and IT support.

Scientific, IP, and business development support and training opportunities at BII.

Access to BII’s knowledge and network of industrial, investment, business, and infrastructure partners.

Projects are strategically selected based on challenge-based open calls and scouting within one of BII’s focus areas.

Have any questions?

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