Biohackathon – sTARTUp Day 2024 on January 24

Biohackathon – sTARTUp Day 2024  will be welcoming all business-minded students and innovative entrepreneurs passionate about innovating the fields of medicine, food and life sciences. Hackathon will focus on business development, execution of ideas and improving the idea pitches.

  • Event timing: 24th of January 2024 at 09:30-18:00 EET
  • Location: Tartu Loodusmaja; Lille 10, Tartu
  • Language of the event: English
  • Contact: Tartu Biotechnology Park,  
  • Registration link: https://forms.gle/snVTH567oHBHAgQaA 

All participants will take part in a pitching competition and sessions with mentors as well as learn from topical seminars, held by experienced professionals.

All innovators in the field of life sciences are welcome – students and startups, individuals and teams, both with or without an idea!

Prizes for the best ideas will be given out! 
Prizes include: prize fund in the amount of 1000 EUR, tickets to the sTARTUp Day, 3h of business consultations from Tartu Biotechnology Park.

If you want to innovate any of the following areas, join us!

  • Medicine & Healthcare
  • Food technology & -sustainability
  • Biotechnology (all the colors of the rainbow)
  • Veterinary medicine
  • Life Sciences (more general ideas)

BioHackathon agenda      

9:30-10:00    Registration + morning coffee
10:00-10:05  Welcome and introduction
10:05-11:00   Idea pitches + scouting for additional team members
11:00- 11:50   Working on business cases
11:50-12:10    Keynote – Katrina Laks (Migrevention) – “Migrevention’s Marathon: Revolutionizing Healthcare, One Disease Pathway at a Time”

Join us in discovering how Estonian software based medical device company Migrevention is not thinking about how to cross the finish line but how to redefine the entire race. Through a lens of innovation, we delve into the heart of health and care transformation, from conventional to digital, where each step taken is a stride towards a future where health is not just managed but revolutionized—one disease, one primary headache pathway, at a time.

12:10-12:30   Short mentor introduction round + sign up
12:30-13:10   Lunch (with teamwork)
13:10-13:40   Pitching training – Triin Kask (Soulie)

Guidelines for pitching – we will go through the basics of structuring your pitch, highlighting your key strenghts and conveying the story of why you’re building what you’re building.

13:40-15:30   Working on business cases with mentors
15:30-16:00   Coffee break
16:00-18:00   Pitching competition + jury + prizes

Facilitators

Katrina Laks (SPEAKER) is the CEO and co-founder of Migrevention, the world’s first digital headache clinic. Katrina founded Migrevention with the goal of helping over 1 billion individuals affected by migraines to improve their well-being and life quality. She aims to achieve this through the creation of cutting-edge digital tools that will be accessed by headache sufferers and specialists worldwide.

Katrina is also an active headache patient advocate and a founding board member and spokesperson of the Estonian Migraine and Headache Patients Association.

 

Triin Kask (PITCHING TRAINING COACH) is a third time startup founder having one failed and one successful startup under her belt. She’s currently building Soulie whose mission is to recreate social media that would be good for our brains. Triin has mentored hundreds of startups througout her 15+ years in the industry. She’s also a board member at Estonian Founders Society and a public speaker on topics such as founder’s mental health and handling the ups and downs when building a startup.”

 

Pille Koorberg (JURY MEMBER) is a Director of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge (METK)

 

 

 

Riina Hallik (MENTOR/JURY MEMBER) is a lecturer, master thesis supervisor, methodological advisor and thesis committee member at TalTech Digital Health curriculum. She is a registered nurse and after BA in Economics with a specialization to Management gained two master’s degrees- a MMS in Health economics, policy and management from Karolinska Institutet, and MSc cum laude in Health Care Technology from TalTech. She has over 12 years of diverse experience in national and international research projects within telemedicine field, developing multiple digital health startups, and serving on advisory boards. Her passion lies in bridging scientific methods and innovation in digital health, particularly in impact assessment.

 

Sven Parkel (MENTOR/JURY MEMBER) is the General Secretary of the ScanBalt network, which builds and supports the health tech ecosystem in the Baltic Sea Region. He also is the General Manager of the Tartu Biotechnology Park (TBP). His work in TBP supports local businesses and startups in health tech, biotechnology and other areas offering opportunities through project funding through EU and business development in an incubation program.

 

 

Andre Veskioja (MENTOR) has been involved in food research and development for 20 years. Andre spent the first 15 years as a product innovator in developing health-promoting products and the previous five years as Director of the Centre of Estonian Rural Research and Knowledge. Andre has practical knowledge of market demands, product development, market introduction, and legislative and regulatory background.

 

Elena Shkut (MENTOR) finished the Estonian University of Life Sciences 15 years ago and has since worked at BioCC OÜ as a microbiologist. She is in love with the field of microbiology, considering herself a bacterial gardener, cook and photographer, being a specialist in both traditional microbiology and in novel microbiological research methods.

 

 

Kadi Rammul (MENTOR) works in BioCC OÜ as a researcher in the field of microbiology and quality manager. Has acquired a masters degree in ecosystems technology from University of Tartu.

 

 

Kady Hinn (MENTOR) is a business consultant and an entrepreneur.

She has 12 years of experience working as a business consultant in the county development center SA Tartu Business Advisory. She helps potential and starting entrepreneurs to develop their ideas into business ideas, including establishment procedures, business plan and financial projections, as well as finding grant opportunities according to the client’s needs. In addition, she helps to organize an entrepreneurship day in Tartu County. For 5 years, she has been providing accounting service as well.

 

Kristiina Sepp (MENTOR) recently joined the Estonian Business and Innovation Agency as the head of the health technologies and services focus area. Health technology and services are one of Estonia’s focus areas in the next 12 years. Kristiina has 20 years of experience in the healthcare sector and, mainly in the community pharmacy field, developing community pharmacy services, e.g., remote care, Internet pharmacy, and new care models. This year, she defended her doctoral thesis, which dealt with healthcare challenges and possible development trends using the example of community pharmacies.

 

Merlyn Dunderdale (MODERATOR) is a student of Community Development in the University of Tartu. Her areas of interest are sustainability and community. She believes that living in communities is one of the most important ways to contribute towards sustainability. Ecological sustainability and social justice, relationships and a sense of community all go hand in hand because they constitute a life worth living. Because of her love for plants and people, I’she’s pursuing the direction of community gardening and sustainable agricultural methods, such as permaculture, as a way of connecting people, building communities and forming a self- sufficient local economy.

Tartu Biotechnology Park’s mission is to contribute to the development of innovation and to the promotion of entrepreneurship in the fields of biotechnology and health technology in Tartu and throughout Estonia.

Biohackathon is a side event of sTARTUp Day 2024 – the most startup-minded business festival, taking place on 24-26 January 2024 in Tartu.

BioHackathon is supported by EIT Health and EIT Food.