The m4 Award 2019 offers future medical startups in the pre-seed phase the opportunity to receive funding. Applications can receive up to €500,000 in funding. The application deadline is March 12, 2019.
The successful Bavarian pre-seed funding program "m4 Award – Pre-Seed Competition for the Medicine of the Future" enters its fifth round in 2019. With this competition, the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs supports academic start-up teams in translating application-oriented research into innovative products and technologies. At the same time, the funding helps validate the projects and prepare them for spin-off development. This pre-seed funding is also intended to prepare the start-up for follow-up financing. The winning teams can apply for project funding of up to €500,000 over a period of two years. In addition, all supported teams receive intensive project support on their path to startup.
Previous Munich winning teams are Preomics, Trianta Immunotherapies, which focuses on personalized immunotherapies and was acquired by Medigene shortly after its founding, and MetaHeps. Nils Kulak, Managing Director of Preomics, says:
“For us, the m4 Award was the ideal springboard for the successful establishment of our company.”
Preomics recently had a Financing in the millions receive.
Which subject areas are sought for the m4 Award 2019?
Possible subject areas are the following:
- innovative drug developments (e.g. immunotherapies, vaccines, gene and cell therapies, anti-infectives, therapeutics for the treatment of age-related diseases and for extending a healthy lifespan), ideally with novel mechanisms of action
- Next-generation diagnostic, prognostic and prevention platforms
innovative platform technologies for drug discovery and development - Microbiome-based products and technologies
- competitive, biomedical approaches in the field of digital health / big data / artificial intelligence
Multi-stage application process
A multi-stage application process has proven successful for the m4 Award.
- To apply, founding teams submit a 5-page short description of their project.
- After careful review, selected projects will receive a recommendation to apply for the second stage with a 15-page outline.
- The m4 Award jury, made up of industry experts and investors, will review these sketches and invite selected projects to present their ideas in September 2019.
The m4 Award 2019 will be presented on the first evening of the BioEntrepreneurship Summit 2019 on October 7, 2019.
Here is an overview of the data:
| Submission of short descriptions: | March 12, 2019 |
| Submission of project outlines: | May 21, 2019 |
| Jury meeting and presentations: | September 2019 |
| Awarding of the m4 Awards: | October 7, 2019 |
For further information, please contact here and at the information events for the m4 Award, for example on 30 January 2019 at BioM in Martinsried. In addition to the information event, BioM also general free advice on all stages of the application process.
