For the past decade or so, European VCs have been cheerfully ignoring the academic and scientific communities...But, to quote Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin’...

For the past decade or so, European VCs have been cheerfully ignoring the academic and scientific communities. That’s because they have been making great returns from internet and mobile platforms, and have developed superb domain experience and expertise in these areas. Besides, making money out of science is very hard, and there are significant barriers to entry. But, to quote Bob Dylan, the times they are a changin’... First, the “easy” money from Web 2.0 is less obvious as this platform has reached maturity. Second, the many great challenges facing the world will require deep tech (or rather deep science) solutions. Third, the convergence of tech, AI, Genomics, etc. creating new “internet” type opportunities will create the next Googles and Amazons. Fourth, the desire for impact. A new generation of scientists, VCs, philanthropists, and entrepreneurs want to make the world a better place, not just get rich. They aren’t interested in the next app for drone delivered pizzas. Fifth, universities are under pressure to engage with VCs and to enable the channelling of their research into the outside world. And finally, VCs can bring money, but more importantly their talent, to combine with deep tech/science so this channel becomes REAL.

Europe has some of the world's leading research centres, and the talent coming out of these centres has increasing entrepreneurial ambitions. The trend is clearly upward.

Europe is in the early days of tapping its R&D talent pool. There are still barriers here with regards to tech transfer and IP, access to funding to scale capital-intensive, research-based businesses, and to some degree, a perception barrier around the feasibility of 'commercially-driven,' non-academic careers. However, this is changing. The good news is that Europe has some of the world's leading research centers, and the talent coming out of these centers has increasing entrepreneurial ambitions. The trend is clearly upward.

The openness and the sharing of information is something, I presume, tech companies will have to do more of in the future and hopefully they can learn from CERN in that regard.

CERN’s natural environment is about collaboration and openness. By pooling together resources, brainpower and complementary expertise, CERN creates unique value that opens new doors for all. The result is more than the sum of what its Member States could create nationally, and so the benefit is more than a financial one. For this to work, CERN collaborates with a large number of partners and I believe this is something start-ups can learn from. CERN has developed a collaborative model of working which is very special and its governance has proven it is capable of extraordinary advances in science and technology since its creation in 1954. The Large Hadron Collider and the discovery of the Higgs boson are concrete examples that highlight the success of this international collaboration. The openness and the sharing of information is something, I presume, tech companies will have to do more of in the future and hopefully they can learn from CERN in that regard.