EIC Transition Winners: Catalyze Clients Secure €15M
We are thrilled to share more about our six 2024 EIC Transition winners, who secured €15M to advance their breakthrough innovations. Working across medical imaging, oncology, diagnostics, and neurotechnology, these projects are pushing the frontiers of healthcare and deep tech. Learn more about the awarded projects from ReVision Implant (BE), Asgard Therapeutics (SE), University of Copenhagen (DK), Clarity Sensors (GB), and Wageningen University (NL).
ReVision Implant
ReVision Implant have the ambitious goal of restoring vision in blind patients. In their newly funded EIC Transition project, ‘First-in-human fLexible Array Implant to Restore Vision’ (FLAIRVision), ReVision Implant joins project partners KU Leuven (project coordinator), Miguel Hernandez University (Spain) and the HUN-REN TTK Research Centre for Natural Sciences (Hungary). Together, they are aiming for a world-first implantation and test of flexible, high resolution microelectrode arrays in the primary visual cortex of a blind volunteer. Through the project ReVision Implant can validate the expected performance of their visual prosthesis.
If successful, this will lead to a long-awaited medical, technological and commercial breakthrough: a visual prosthesis for blind people that performs well enough to be useful in daily life. To achieve this, ReVision Implant must prove that they can transfer as much visual information as contained in a 4000 pixel image. This is about 20x the state of the art of any visual prosthesis demonstrated so far. FLAIRVision will build on several significant breakthroughs achieved in their previous Horizon 2020 (https://www.neuraviper.eu/) and EIC Pathfinder (https://hyperstim.eu/) projects.
EIC Transition award: €2.5 million
Asgard Therapeutics
Asgard Therapeutics (Sweden) is pioneering direct cell reprogramming for cancer immunotherapy. In their EIC Transition project, Repro-TIL, Asgard will collaborate with Lund University and Herlev Hospital to improve neoantigen-specific Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocyte (TIL) therapies using their proprietary dendritic cell reprogramming technology originally developed at Lund University. The project’s multidisciplinary consortium brings together expertise in cell fate reprogramming, translational immunotherapy, adoptive cell therapy manufacturing, regulatory and clinical strategy, and business development.
Solid tumors present a significant challenge in oncology due to the limited efficacy of current therapies and resistance to immunotherapies like checkpoint blockade. Herlev Hospital has been at the forefront of adoptive cell transfer (ACT) using TILs, which has shown promise in immunogenic tumors such as melanoma. However, broader success has been hindered by inefficient TIL expansion, T-cell exhaustion, and low tumor reactivity. These limitations result in inconsistent outcomes and slow clinical adoption.
The Repro-TIL project aims to address these challenges by establishing a first-in-class platform designed to selectively expand neoantigen-specific, tumor-reactive TILs. Repro-TIL approach enhances the production of activated, tumor (neo)antigen-reactive TILs, offering a more effective immunotherapy for solid tumor patients. Repro-TIL will focus on completing preclinical validation and CTA-enabling studies to reach TRL6.
EIC Transition award: €2.5 million
University of Copenhagen
Led by the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), together with new spin-out CARE-DNA, the Circular Vision 2.0 project aims to improve the screening, early detection and hence the prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, PDAC, which currently has a very poor overall survival. Preceding research by Copenhagen University has identified a novel tumour biomarker – circular DNA from chromosomes.
Under their past FET project ‘CIRCULAR VISION’, Copenhagen University and partners have successfully developed a technology tailored for early-stage detection and prognosis of PDAC based on circular DNA profiles from plasma and tumours. In Circular Vision 2.0, they will advance this technology towards commercialisation.
By aligning cutting-edge scientific innovation with a clear commercial trajectory, this project is poised to make a profound impact on PDAC diagnosis and prognosis, which can ultimately transform patient outcomes across an array of cancers.
EIC Transition award: €2.5 million
Clarity Sensors
Clarity Sensors (UK), a spin-off company from the University of Cambridge, has developed a first-in-class enabling technology, PRISM-X, for the X-ray detection instrumentation market to deliver superior X-ray imaging at lower radiation doses than today’s technology. Current X-ray imaging technologies are fundamentally limited by the X-ray detectors they use and acquire images far below the quality that is technologically feasible at doses far higher than is technologically necessary.
Clarity Sensors are focussing on developing PRISM-X, a detector solution for Photon Counting Computed Tomography (PCCT) in medical applications. Their technology has the potential to be truly transformational for patients in this application as lower doses allow more and earlier scans, and higher quality imaging allows more accurate diagnoses.
Their EIC Transition project, PERFORM, aims to advance their technology from the proof-of-concept results generated in Clarity Sensors’ previous ERC PoC project, PEROVSCI, to validating the monolithically integrated photon counting detectors performance in relevant preclinical laboratories at CT X-ray energies against state-of-the-art detectors.
Wageningen University
Wageningen University (The Netherlands) led ‘VIVID’ was awarded €2.5 million from EIC Transition for Clinical Validation of In Vivo Imaging for Detecting Immune Dynamics. The ability to study cell migration in a quantitative and non-invasive manner in vivo, of endogenous cancer-fighting immune cells and administered therapeutic cells is essential for biomarker-driven and personalised clinical trials. Through the research of Professor Srinivas’ group (WUR), they have developed an imaging agent, ‘BEACONs’, to allow for multimodal, quantitative imaging of cell populations.
In their EIC Transition project, Wageningen University joins project partners, Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen (NL), Aspalion (ES), and MyBiotech (DE). Together they will demonstrate and validate the feasibility of cell tracking using multimodal imaging and increase the maturity of BEACONs (to TRL 5-6) through a first-in-man clinical trial in current cancer standard of care.
The potential societal impact of using BEACONs includes being able to assess and adapt complex therapies in major diseases, such as cancer, allowing a more targeted treatment and reducing patient burden such as negative side effects of ineffective treatment. The economic benefit of using BEACONs is large, while also reducing animal use, and enabling early assessment of cell therapies and cancer therapies.
EIC Transition award: €2.5 million
About EIC Transition
The EIC Transition is one of the instruments of the European Innovation Council Work Programme, part of Horizon Europe. Single applicants (SMEs, spin-offs, start-ups, research organizations, universities or consortia of max. 5 partners are eligible to apply to EIC Transition. The EIC Transition programme supports innovation activities that go beyond proof of principle, helping researchers and innovators mature their technologies and develop a viable business case. Targeted at results generated from EIC Pathfinder projects or European Research Council (ERC) Proof of Concept grants, it provides up to €2.5 million in funding.
EIC Transition continues to grow in prominence, with the 2024 call receiving a record-breaking 413 proposals from across 39 countries and 40 projects awarded funding. This reflects both increasing interest and rising competition for securing funding under this prestigious programme.
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