The Spinoff Prize 2024

Scientists wear a variety of hats. They are researchers, expanding the boundaries of human knowledge; administrators, mastering the bureaucracies of academia, industry and government to ensure that resources are efficiently and effectively applied; and teachers, conveying to new generations not only knowledge but also the nuances of the craft itself.

That provides a sufficient array of tasks and challenges for most scientists. But within the scientific community, there are also those who are driven by a desire to apply research advances to commercial purposes. The academic–entrepreneurship complex has been a fountain of innovation for decades, responsible for helping to fill the biomedical pipeline with marketable ideas.

This is the fourth edition of The Spinoff Prize. As in 2020, 2021 and 2023, Nature is profiling the finalists for the prize in depth, as well as offering a peek at the start-up firms that earned a place on the prize’s longlist. It’s an impressive array of companies. The finalists contending for the grand prize were: SalivaDirect, which is developing an alternative to the nasal swab for detecting diseases such as COVID-19; Tezcat, which is working on protein–drug conjugates for rapid delivery of cancer medication into tumours; Trince, which uses laser-heated nanoparticles to introduce molecules into cells with minimal damage; and Digistain, which deploys infrared spectroscopy to assess cancer progression and helps physicians to decide the most appropriate form of therapy.

The longlisted companies included many with fascinating technologies, and we will surely see more from them in the future. These include a method for producing methanol from captured carbon dioxide; an environmentally benign pesticide for protecting grape vines from a destructive fungus; an inexpensive, reliable lead-detection technology; a technique for testing cancer drugs on organoids derived from a person’s tumour; and the use of a fluorescent dye to identify which bacteria are causing urinary tract infections.

On 10 July, the judges awarded this year’s €30,000 (US$32,000) prize to Trince. The Ghent University spin-off was lauded for hitting all the important marks for a scientific venture. In the words of one judge, “they’ve built an amazing team, they’re open to mentorship, and they have the right strategy”.

We are pleased to acknowledge the financial support of Merck in producing this Outlook. As always, Nature retains sole responsibility for all editorial content.