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Key dates

11th September 2023. Applications open
7th January 2024. Applications close.
April 2024. Longlisted and shortlisted companies will be informed under embargo.
June 2024. Longlisted and shortlisted companies will be announced within an online special report in Nature.
July 2024. The slam will take place and the winner will be announced at the Curious2024 – Future Insight™ conference in Germany on 10th and 11th July.

The questions on the application are listed below for reference.

The application

Applicant and spinoff company details

This section will not be judged and is for applicant tracking only. Any information in this section may be used in publication of the longlist and/or shortlist.

[Tick box] The spinoff is founded on research in: life sciences; physical sciences

Applicant

Job title within the spinoff company
Phone number (including country code)
Nationality
Country of residence

Spinoff

Name
Web address
Postal address
Social media accounts
Spinoff registration number
Date of formation/registration of company as a separate legal entity. This must be on or after 11th September 2018 and in the case of companies that are registered in multiple countries, it must be the earliest registration date.
PDF copy of a registration document or a link to a statutory online record that verifies the date of formation/registration as a separate legal entity.
Company logo in high-resolution format
Secondary contact person name, job title, email address, and phone number

University or research institute representative’s contact details (to be completed by applicant)

This section will not be judged and is for verification purposes of application eligibility and origin of underpinning research.

University or research institute name
Individual name
Job title
Email address
Phone number (including country code)
Web address

[Tick box] I understand that Nature Awards may contact the person specified above to confirm the eligibility of the application. This person cannot be an employee of the spinoff company, nor an academic founder.

Application questions

This section forms the basis of the evaluation of each entry. The application questions are split into four key topics and an ‘elevator pitch’ summary. We want you to demonstrate the excellence of the science on which your company was founded, a deep knowledge of the opportunity, a well developed business plan, suitability of the team, and significance of the potential impact you are seeking to achieve.

Please do not include any confidential information in your application. Nature Awards expects that applicants will withhold any confidential or commercially sensitive information. Nature Awards will not put in place any confidentiality agreements with applicants or members of the judging panel.

In answering the questions please avoid qualitative statements such as ‘our diagnostic has a lower false positive rate' and instead provide quantitative information where available and appropriate i.e. ‘our diagnostic has a 4% false positive rate which is 28% better than the gold standard’.

You will not be able to exceed the word limits specified. If you can clearly answer the question in fewer words you are free to do so. Please ensure that you read the question again once you have answered, to ensure that you have addressed all elements of the question.

Background information on the company

Please provide a short, simple and clear overview of the company, including what solution you are developing, what unmet need it is addressing and the potential impact if successful. (350 words)
Please list up to two scientific papers that have been published based on the research and refer to them in your description below. (100 words)
You may include an image that illustrates aspects of the research or findings and refer to it in your description below. (High-resolution JPEG format.) By uploading you confirm that you hold the permissions for the image.
Funding raised post company creation. Only list the amount you can publicly disclose.
(Grant funding; equity financing; loans)

The science

Describe, in plain English as far as possible, the research that was conducted in the university/research institute that led to the formation of the spinoff. Include key experiments or findings. Highlight why you consider the research to be highly original and innovative. Please keep in mind that while all of the judges have a strong scientific background, they represent a wide variety of scientific and technological disciplines. In the final stages of the competition, all the judges will read and consider all of the applications remaining and your application must be comprehensible to someone who is not knowledgeable about your field, so please word your answer to be accessible to a broad audience. (1000 words)

The opportunity

What is the specific problem or unmet need that you are seeking to address? (Details of the significance and economic cost of the problem are to be put in ‘The impact’ section below.) (300 words)
What is your intended solution in order to address the problem/need outlined above. How will your solutions be delivered/deployed? (300 words)
How was the specific commercial application of the research identified? Summarise any engagement with stakeholders who will benefit from or use the solution, which has confirmed that there is a demand for your potential solution i.e., in the case of a medical solution, patients, healthcare professionals, and potential development partners. (300 words)
What is your intellectual property strategy? What types of IP do you have or are you developing and how do they relate to the commercial application? For patents, in which countries have you filed applications, or plan to do so. Include a filing date, number and title of up to three patents. (300 words)
What are the key competing solutions, what is their developmental status and who is developing them? For your key competitors, describe why your solution will be superior in terms of specific features or benefits and how it compares in terms of cost. (200 words)
What are the challenges that have resulted in failure of other companies to bring similar products to market and why are you more likely to succeed? (400 words)
What are the challenges that have resulted in failure of other companies to bring similar products to market and why are you more likely to succeed? (400 words)

The plan & team

Outline the key elements of your business model. Who are your potential customers? Do you plan to develop the solution to a specific stage and seek to sell the asset/spinoff, or sell products to an end customer/intermediary and build a sustainable business? (300 words)
Please highlight the key strengths of the team that you have assembled thus far, and why the team has the skills and experience needed at this stage. What expertise will you have to access in future? Please demonstrate both scientific expertise and commercial expertise. (300 words)
What industry-relevant development stage you have reached. What were the main challenges that the team has encountered and how have you overcome them? Identify where you aim to be in five years and the most important hurdles to overcome to achieve this beyond accessing funding e.g., technical, commercial or regulatory hurdles. When do you anticipate that a product/service will be launched? (500 words)

The impact

Quantify the problem/unmet need in terms of the global burden of the problem, its impact on society, the associated economic cost, and the monetary value of the market opportunity i.e., your total addressable market. For example, if you are developing a drug to treat an infectious disease, how many people are infected per annum, what is the associated morbidity and mortality, what is the economic cost to healthcare systems or the wider economy, what is the value of the market for a new drug, and what percentage of the global patient population could access your solution if successful? If you do not have access to global data, please include country/continent-specific information. (300 words)
If there are any other applications of the science/technology beyond your first product or service, please describe and quantify the other problems/unmet needs as per above. (400 words)

Terms and conditions for applicants

By applying, applicants agree to the Terms and Conditions of the award programme.

Contact

Please contact us at awards@nature.com if you require any further information.