Introduction to Biotech Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Business

Primarily intended for biotechnology graduates, this handbook provides an overview of the requirements, opportunities and drawbacks of Biotech Entrepreneurship, while also presenting valuable training materials tailored to the industrial and market reality in the European Biotech Business. Potential investors and business consultants will find essential information on the benefits and potential risks involved in supporting biotech businesses. Further, the book addresses a broad range of Biotechnology fields, e.g. food biotech, industrial biotech, bioinformatics, animal and human health. Readers will learn the essentials of creating innovations, founding a biotech start-up, business management strategies, and European funding sources. In addition, the book discusses topics such as intellectual property management and innovation transfer.

The book offers a comparative analysis of different countries’ perspectives and reviews the status quo in Western and Eastern Europeanregions, also in comparison with other leading biotech countries such as the USA and Canada. A long list of potentially profitable biotech start-up ideas and a collection of success stories involving European companies are also included.

The book is based on the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership project “Supporting biotechnology students oriented towards an entrepreneurial path” (www.supbioent.usamv.ro), which involved the collaboration of Life Sciences and Economics departments at higher education institutions throughout Western and Eastern Europe.

 

“This is a very comprehensive book which presents in 13 chapters very interesting aspects of how to make business in the complex field of Biotechnology. … the book Introduction to Biotech Entrepreneurship: From Idea to Business is a very useful reading not only for biotechnology graduated but also for young- or mature- professionals acting in related domains, such as biology.” (Ioan I. Ardelean, Romanian Journal of Biology, Vol. 64 (1-2), 2019)

Florentina Matei received her PhD in Biological Sciences from Osaka Prefecture University (2001), Japan, and another doctoral title in Oenology from UASMV Bucharest, Romania (2003). As researcher she has over 20 years’ experience the field of Life Sciences, respectively in applied microbiology, molecular biology oriented to food production and food safety, as well as in biomass production for biofuels. She has published over 80 research articles and study cases in high rated journals, indexed in International Databases and issued 5 patents. Dr. Matei authored or co-authored 12 books, including “Science and Technology of Fruit Wine Production” published by Elsevier-Academic Press. As teacher, she has over 20 years’ experience in the topics of general and applied microbiology (industrial, food, pharmaceutical, environmental). She coordinates the faculty network with stakeholders, including biotech business, and is the project manager of a strategic partnership project for higher education called “Supporting Biotechnology Students oriented towards an Entrepreneurial Path. She coordinated other multiple research and educational, national and international projects in FP7, Horizon 2020, Era-Net, ERA-IB, Erasmus+ or AUF programs. Furthermore, Dr. Matei is editorial member of different journals such as Romanian Biotechnological Letters and Scientific Bulletin Series F. Biotechnologies. She was/is also expert-evaluator and monitor in present or former research and educational programs since 2007 (Tempus, SEE-ERA-NET, Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, AUF). She is acting as consultant for the professional association “CBM Biotehgen” providing support in training, research and start-up in the field of biotechnology as well as consultancy to bio-based industry.

Daniela Zirra has yearlong experience in teaching Microeconomics for Business and Finance, Investment Efficiency and Project Management in PhD and postdoctoral studies in Economics, at the Romanian Academy, National Institute of Economic Research. Research directions have been addressed in various areas, such as the labour market, human resource development, and investment. Professor Zirra is project manager or member of project teams in many national and international research projects or grants, including projects dedicated to increase the quality of human resources in entrepreneurship. She has been Director of the Economic Research Centre at the Romanian-American University for more than six years and maintained collaborations with American Professors from De Sales University, Philadelphia in teaching Economics, for many years. Prof. Zirra was visiting professor in European Universities from Denmark, Finland, Portugal, Poland, teaching Economics and Project Management. She authored or co-authored many books and peer-reviewed articles, in the areas of Economics, Investments or Project Management, published in journals or presented at international conferences. She served as Plenary Lecturer at many international and national conferences. Furthermore, Prof. Zirra is editorial board member and reviewer for different international and national journals and conferences. She also worked as consultant or trainer in collaboration with the business environment.