What is the approximate stakeholder breakdown of your ecosystem?
The Basel Area ecosystem is a vibrant hub for healthtech and life sciences, with a unique mix of stakeholders:
- Corporate Leaders: Global pharma and medtech giants like Roche, Novartis, Straumann, Medartis, and others.
- Startups and Scaleups: Over 128 innovative healthtech ventures supported by DayOne, representing digital health, medtech, and techbio solutions. These startups are part of our ecosystem, even if not all are geographically located in the region.
- Academia and Research: The region is home to more than 1,000 research groups driving innovation. Key institutions include the University of Basel, the Biozentrum, and ETH Zurich, which maintains offices in Basel.
- Healthcare Providers: University Hospital Basel, UKBB (University Children’s Hospital Basel), and Personalized Health Basel collaborate on cutting-edge translational research and clinical trials.
- Medtech Manufacturers: The Canton of Jura plays a key role, housing leading medtech manufacturers specializing in devices and materials essential to the healthtech sector.
Who are the top 3 champions from your Ecosystem?
With a very high concentration of companies and research institutions is hard to choose the top 3 champions, especially when looking at companies like Novartis and Roche headquartered in the area. Some to highlight are:
- CSEM (Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology): A key driver of innovation in healthtech, CSEM bridges the gap between academia and industry with expertise in digital health, precision medtech, and advanced materials. Their support for startups and collaborations with established companies fuels groundbreaking solutions.
- University Hospital Basel: Now operating on the OpenEHR platform, the hospital exemplifies a progressive approach to healthcare data interoperability. This infrastructure enables seamless collaboration with innovators and startups to accelerate the development and validation of cutting-edge digital health solutions.
- Quantum Basel & IonQ: Switzerland’s first physical and commercially usable quantum computer at the Uptown Basel competence centre in Arlesheim. It will be available to companies, academic institutions and start-ups in areas such as simulation, optimisation and machine learning.
What EU funding/collaboration are you involved with, or you would like to be part of?
We are currently not part of any EU funding but very happy on the new agreement between Switzerland and the EU that makes Swiss organizations eligible again for European Innovation Council (EIC) funding.
What are the key priorities and themes for your ecosystem?
The key priorities for our ecosystem are around collaboration for faster, safer and more affordable drug development. Additionally, we have leading global initiatives in the field of antibiotic resistance, tropical public health and immune engineering, powered by insituttions like the Botnar Foundation and Swiss Tropical Public Health Center.
As DayOne, we are organised with two main focuses:
- An international accelerator for startups at the intersection with pharma clinical development.
- High impact local innovation programs to further develop Healthtech in the BaselArea, including collaborations with medtech manufacturers, university hospitals and other key local players.
Could you highlight some services, solutions or champions from your ecosystem that target the following areas either: 1) Women’s Health 2) Healthy Ageing 3) Mental Health or 4) Cancer?
Our ecosystem is part of the largest life science cluster in Europe with strong pharma led initiatives and drug development in women’s health and oncology. Besides the large life science clusters, we also have smaller but leading institutions like the Felix Platter University Hospital for Aging or the strong programs in oncology by companies like Roche and Novartis.
What is your primary strength as an ecosystem?
Our primary strength lies with the heavy density of life science companies and a broad ecosystem including CROs, hospitals. Academia and advanced computing infrastructure
