Building on the success of its first seasonExpanscience, an independent French pharmaceutical and dermo-cosmetics laboratory specializing in the treatment of osteoarthritis and skin health, renews its start-up gas pedal focusing on "health, well-being and prevention".
Laboratoires Expanscience gas pedal
The Expanscience gas pedal, launched in 2016, is the concrete reflection of the implementation of the Open Innovation approach initiated in 2015 within the laboratory. It opens up its innovation process to a wider ecosystem of stakeholders. The special feature of this hybrid gas pedal is that it speeds up external projects developed by start-ups, and intrapreneurship projects led by Laboratoires Expanscience employees. The latter are subject to the same selection process as external projects. For the second season of the "health, well-being and prevention" gas pedal, Laboratoires Expanscience is launching a call for applications from start-ups looking to boost their new offerings in these fields. Registrations are open until October 10, 2017, directly on dedicated website: accelerateur.expanscience.com
Karen Lemasson, Director of CSR and Open Innovation at Laboratoires Expanscience, emphasizes "Today, open and collaborative working is decisive for responding better and faster to the expectations of customers, patients and our societal challenges. Creating value cannot be done alone: openness and sharing are key. We now know how enriching it is for start-ups and for our laboratory to conduct experiments on a win/win partnership basis. The opening of the second edition of the Expanscience gas pedal will enable us to create even stronger synergies between our company and start-ups."
Boosting new offerings in the fields of health, well-being and prevention
To be eligible, start-ups must demonstrate synergies with Expanscience's expertise in skin health and the treatment of osteoarticular diseases. Accelerated projects must fit into one of the following themes:
- Helping patients with osteoarticular diseases maintain their mobility
- Placing skin and touch at the heart of children's sensory and cognitive development
- Promoting proximity to patients, consumers and healthcare professionals
- Develop industrial product design tools (time-to-market optimization, traceability, eco-design, etc.).
Details of themes on https://accelerateur.expanscience.com
Experimentation and accelerated go to market
The 3 start-ups selected to join the Expanscience gas pedal will benefit from 6 months' access to Laboratoires Expanscience's teams, infrastructure and sales network, as well as tailored support. The resources made available to the start-ups (sales forces, innovation, R&D, marketing and medical teams, etc.) will enable them to accelerate their go-to-market or expand their potential markets. The objectives of the experimentation to be carried out with Expanscience and the resources to be deployed will be defined at the start of the acceleration.
At the end of these 6 months, a Demo Day will mark the end of the program and unveil the results of the selected start-ups' work.
Prerequisites for joining the Expanscience Season 2 gas pedal
Start-ups will need to have an established team and at least one working prototype to their credit, which can be brought to market during 2018. Initial commercial traction is a plus.
Registration and calendar
- Applications: from July 3 to October 10, 2017 on https://accelerateur.expanscience.com/
- Pitch of selected start-ups: 14 november 2017
- Start of acceleration program : January 2, 2018
- Demo Day and end of program : June 28, 2018
