On April 8, 2025, the European Technology Platform on Nanomedicine (ETPN) and the European Innovation Council (EIC) jointly hosted their first-ever collaborative event as part of the EU Future Tech Week 2025: ‘Nanomedicine for Today and Tomorrow’. Bringing together nearly 300 researchers, clinicians, industry experts, SMEs, and policy-makers from across 34 countries, the event aimed to accelerate Europe’s nanomedicine innovations by bridging laboratory research, clinical application, and patient care. In this article, we highlight the event’s key insights and provide full access to the replay.
Revisit the Event Online: Watch the Full Replay!
▶ ACCESS THE FULL REPLAY HERE ◀
Setting the Strategic Context
Europe has long been at the forefront of nanomedicine, a field promising unprecedented advances in healthcare through precision medicine, novel diagnostics, and transformative therapies. However, many innovative European projects face critical hurdles transitioning from early-stage research to market readiness. Recognizing the need for strategic support, ETPN and EIC joined forces to leverage complementary expertise and foster active portfolio management. This event was designed precisely to identify and address these translational gaps, establishing a strong foundation for ongoing collaboration.
Remarkable Community Engagement
When initially announced, the event rapidly exceeded expectations, highlighting a vibrant European nanomedicine community eager for engagement and strategic insights. Within a single week, we reached 258 registrations, achieving an extraordinary 84% attendance rate—testimony to the compelling relevance of the topics discussed. Moreover, participants demonstrated impressive dedication, with more than a third of our participants remaining engaged for the event’s full two-hour and a half duration.
Encouraged by this outstanding community response, the event proceeded to offer detailed insights into both the strategic visions of EIC and ETPN.
Exploring the Richness of the ETPN vision and EIC’s Nanomedicine Portfolio
Federica Zanca, Programme Manager at EIC for Medical Imaging and AI in Healthcare, presented a comprehensive overview of the EIC nanomedicine portfolio, emphasizing a strategy focused on active management and tailored support. She highlighted 158 active Nanomedicine projects in the EIC Health portfolio, showcasing diverse technologies ranging from lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) and DNA origami to micro-robotics and advanced diagnostics. Yet, with 73% of these innovations still at early technology readiness levels (TRL 1–4), the presentation underscored both the extraordinary potential and critical challenges facing European nanomedicine.
Following Federica’s overview, Alexandre Ceccaldi, General Secretary of ETPN, highlighted the platform’s pivotal role as a strategic enabler within Europe’s nanomedicine ecosystem. He emphasized ETPN’s unique approach to active portfolio management, designed to streamline interactions among academia, SMEs, clinicians, and industry. Presenting the ETPN Tech Radar 2025, Alexandre pinpointed key innovation trends—particularly the rise of nano-delivery systems such as lipid nanoparticle (LNP)-based therapies—and critical gaps in industrial manufacturing and standardized characterization. He reaffirmed ETPN’s dedication to overcoming these challenges through targeted mentoring initiatives like the HealthTech Translation Advisory Board (TAB), community-building activities, and specialized matchmaking to foster robust, multidisciplinary collaborations.
Showcasing Great EIC Innovative Projects in Nanomedicine
To concretely illustrate this innovation potential, the event featured four exemplary Pathfinder projects. These projects vividly demonstrated how fundamental scientific research could translate into promising real-world applications:
- Blood2Power (University of Porto): An innovative approach generating electricity from blood flow to power medical implants.
- CROSSBRAIN (University of Modena & Reggio Emilia): Advanced micro-robotic swarms designed for precise and targeted neurostimulation.
- TraffikGene-Tx (University of Santiago de Compostela): Novel peptide-lipid carriers capable of targeted RNA delivery, offering revolutionary therapeutic potential.
- VIROFIGHT (CPTx GmbH): DNA-origami nanocages specifically engineered to neutralize viruses effectively.
Addressing Critical Translational Challenges
Throughout the event, by answering live questionnaires, attendees highlighted persistent translational barriers that impede nanomedicine progress:
- Manufacturing scale-up and standardized characterization emerged as primary concerns.
- Regulatory complexities were frequently cited as delaying project timelines.
- Early-stage funding gaps, especially challenging Series-A funding environments, discouraged investor engagement despite compelling scientific evidence.
Such insights underscored the necessity of targeted interventions, including structured matchmaking initiatives, robust proposal-writing support, and mentorship through mechanisms such as the HealthTech Translation Advisory Board (TAB). Additionally, clearer navigation and accessibility of EIC resources were identified as critical needs.
Expert Recommendations & Strategic Alignment
A distinguished expert panel—featuring Laurent Lévy (CEO at Nanobiotix), Lorena Diéguez (CEO at RubyNanomed, Group leader at INL), Raymond Schiffelers (ETPN Chair, Professor of nanomedicine at UMC Utrecht), and Orsolya Symmons (EIC Programme Manager for healthtech)—provided strategic insights and actionable recommendations:
- Encouraging bottom-up networking and collaboration among funded projects.
- Advocating for early-stage regulatory dialogues to streamline pathways to clinical approval.
- Promoting structured mentoring and specialized proposal-writing ETPN clinics to enhance project maturity.
- Supporting more flexible funding conditions and realistic project timelines in EIC calls, tailored specifically to medical innovation requirements.
Inspirational Voices from the Community
The event resonated deeply with participants, who shared profound insights and lessons learned from their experiences:
Orsolya Symmons (EIC): “By bringing projects together—whether in nanomedicine or other frontier technologies—we help identify collective barriers and collaborate on solutions that strengthen the entire field.”
Federica Zanca (EIC): “We’re more than a funding body. We guide beneficiaries through coaching, tailored services, and networking support.”
Laurent Lévy (Nanobiotix): “If I knew at the start what I know now, we could have saved years bringing solutions to patients. Mentoring from the HealthTech TAB can really accelerate the most promising nanomedicine projects.”
Lorena Diéguez (INL / RubyNanomed): “The EIC supports different stages, from exploratory to market-ready. Yet in healthcare, everything is more expensive and time-consuming, making industrialization steps crucial.”
Raymond Schiffelers (ETPN): “Networking and complementarity are key. Nanomedicine offers countless possible combinations, but strong partnerships and solid regulatory understanding are vital.”
Javier Montenegro (TraffikGene-Tx): “EIC review meetings provide valuable business and tech insights. You learn to adapt your project’s roadmap in real-time—a must for making ‘transition’ work.”
Inês Gonçalves (Blood2Power): “Even at low TRLs, EIC funding pushes us to think beyond fundamental science and truly plan for real-world applications.”
Alba Monferrer (Virofight): “We’ve shown our DNA-origami ‘chassis’ can neutralize multiple viruses—but without adequate follow-up funding, we had to pause despite compelling proof of concept.”
Michele Giugliano (CROSSBRAIN): “Advisors stressed the importance of regulatory planning right now—knowing which materials are approved can save big headaches down the line.”
Starting the Action Right Away!
At the very end of our “Nanomedicine for Today and Tomorrow” event, we wanted to swiftly translate momentum into concrete actions. In line with ETPN’s long-standing commitment to facilitating matchmaking and effective collaboration, we promptly launched a dedicated Miro Matchmaking Board specifically targeting the upcoming EIC Pathfinder Open 2025 call (deadline: May 21, 2025). This interactive space provided participants an immediate, practical tool to share project ideas, quickly identify complementary partners, and rapidly build robust consortia—helping to maximize the quality and impact of ambitious proposals despite the short timeline.Exceptional Feedback & Continued Momentum
Participants awarded the event a high satisfaction rating (8.6/10 overall), particularly highlighting its exceptional organization (9.1/10) and relevant, practical content. The strategic alignment between EIC and ETPN became increasingly clear, especially around advanced manufacturing, regulatory readiness, and entrepreneurial mentorship.
Next Steps: See You at NME25!
The success of this first collaboration sets the stage for further dialogue and action. We warmly invite you to continue these important discussions at Nanomed Europe 2025 (NME25) in Barcelona from May 27–29. EIC Programme Manager Orsolya Symmons will join us, furthering our strategic collaboration efforts.
Register now and join us at NME25!
Together, we will advance groundbreaking nanomedicine research towards meaningful clinical impacts for patients.
Join ETPN and EIC as we continue to build on the success of “Nanomedicine for Today and Tomorrow”, accelerating Europe’s groundbreaking nanomedicine innovations and transforming advanced scientific research into real-world solutions for patients.