Three-day GapSummit at Magdalene College is cheerleader for biotech enthusiasm
Magdalene College was the venue for the three-day GapSummit 2022 conference last week, hosted by student-led body Global Biotech Revolution (GBR) at the University of Cambridge college.
GapSummit is an annual conference aiming to connect early-career professionals with a passion for life sciences to peers from around the globe, plus leaders in the fields of biotech and pharmaceuticals.
Ioannis Prattis, president of GBR, says it is “the world’s only inter-generational leadership summit in biotechnology and healthcare sectors that aims to connect current leaders with carefully selected leaders of the next generation”.
The three-day event, which first took place in Cambridge in 2014, began on the Monday with a focus on sustainability as an overarching topic, and three key themes in particular:
- Biosphere: the imbalance gap of the over-exploited planet
- Sociosphere: the coordination and communication gap of the globalised society, and
- Econosphere: the accessibility gap of the digital age.
The three days of the event featured 100 early career leaders from more than 35 countries attending panels on topics including ‘Rethinking the food of today and tomorrow’, the possibilities of a circular economy and ‘The resources of the future’. Participants vary from start-ups to NGOs, big biotech companies to niche consultants, and many PhD students attending universities including Yale, Imperial College and the University of Tokyo.
Keynote speakers included Alan Hirzel, CEO of Abcam, Chris Wigley, CEO of Genomics England, Bill Anderson, CEO of Roche Pharmaceuticals, and Lord David Willetts, president of the Resolution Foundation.
Global Biotech Revolution (GBR) is a youth-led non-profit organisation focused on connecting and developing the next generation of leaders in biotech. GBR was founded in 2012 by two PhD students at the University of Cambridge.
Ioannis Prattis added: “Global Biotech Revolution is working towards a central mission: to inspire and develop future leaders in biotech and healthcare ecosystems to accelerate growth in the fields. The GapSummit fulfils the first part of our mission aiming to inspire the future leaders by connecting them with current leaders.”
Victoria Au Yeung, executive director of GapSummit 2022, added: “Organising GapSummit 2022 has been a tremendous experience and we are thrilled to bring together biotech leaders from around the world to discuss important issues on regional and global levels.
“We hope that GapSummit 2022 will not only broaden the horizons of our leaders of tomorrow but also inspire them to act and make a positive change using leadership and innovation.”
As this year’s iteration of GapSummit concluded, praise and respect for the organisational achievement involved started coming in.
“Few events manage to captivate, educate and integrate its audience – GapSummit achieved all of this and more,” said Donnacha Fitzgerald, a PhD student at EMBL Heidelberg and participant at this year’s conference. “Not only was it a gateway to the global biotech community, but I had a ball of a time and made connections and true friendships to last. A must for young biotech enthusiasts!”
In addition to the 100 invited future leaders in biotech, a large number of current leaders in pharmaceuticals and biotech attended – a total of 189 if organisers and volunteer workers from GBR are included.
Adelina Ivanova, executive director of GapSummit 2022, highlighted the importance and hard work of the team prior to and during the event: “The organisation of GapSummit is entirely volunteer-driven, embodying the passion that the next generation of leaders in biotech and healthcare has for making a real positive impact.
“The immense effort of more than 30 team members enabled such a successful event and ensured that there will be maximal global impact of the thought-provoking conversations hosted during the summit.”
On the third day, participants had the chance to pitch their own idea for a start-up biotech aimed at solving the gaps that the summit was trying to address. The winning team focused on new ways to make medical products such as vaccines more thermo-stable and now has the chance to translate their idea into an actual business model. The event was rounded off by some social activities on Thursday, including punting and a city walking tour.
Ioannis concluded: “GapSummit was a great success because over the three days of the summit, the next generation of leaders in biotech had the opportunity to share challenging opinions, debate and network with the currently leading generation.
“We hope that all the enlightenment ideas and solutions discussed during the event will be taken back to the communities and societies for real-world impact outcomes.”
