Consortium

In society, founded in 2008, manages innovation for private and public organisations. As a not-for-profit research firm, it studies and analyses innovation’s impact on society and defines strategies to maximise it. The company empowers research teams and individuals to transform technology-disruptive concepts into innovative products or services.

In society is currently involved in several collaborations with small and medium-sized enterprises, universities, and research centres. The company focuses on nurturing an idea from its beginning to market exploitation.

Founded in 1451, the University of Glasgow in Scotland, United Kingdom, is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world and one of the top 100 universities worldwide: Times Higher World University Rankings 2023. It welcomes around 35,000 students from more than 140 countries, with a global community of over 219,000 alumni. 

The research team comprises two closely working units: The Centre for the Cellular Microenvironment and the Bacteriology Laboratory.

Equipment and services

Both units are within walking distance of the main University campus and will share access to the Glasgow Imaging Facility and the Polyomics facility featuring:

• State-of-the-art labs and facilities for mammalian cells (primary, secondary, organoids) and bacteria culture 
• Advanced optical microscopy and force spectroscopy 
• Mechanical characterisation of materials (rheology, nanoindentation) 
• Processing and synthesis of materials 
• Physical and chemical characterisation of bio-gels  
• Microbiology

The Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level. The university has 3,100 employees and 10,000 students and offers engineering, science, shipping, and architecture education.

Equipment and services

The Department of Life Sciences has state-of-the-art labs for yeast engineering and synthetic biology equipped with:

• An extensive library of regulatory genetic elements for strain engineering
• Cultivation systems ranging from microliter scale for high-throughput screenings to lab-scale bioreactors for in-depth physiological characterisation  
• A fluorescence microscope, a flow cytometer and a Biolector instrument for qualitative and quantitative characterisation of fluorescence-based biosensors 

A FACS instrument and microfluidics technology are available to screen for biosensor variants. The group has access to the Chalmers Mass Spectrometry Infrastructure for metabolite and metabolome analysis and local and national infrastructures.

CELLINK was founded in 2016 to focus on the development of bioprinting technologies. The company introduced the first standardized bioink consisting primarily of nanocellulose and alginate, enabling human cells to grow and thrive as they would in the human body. It is now an international, innovative biotechnology company focusing on developing 3D bioprinting platforms and bioinks for different tissue engineering applications and 3D cell culture.

CELLINK strives to make the bioprinting technology as accessible, user-friendly and high performing as possible. We develop our products in our state-of-the-art facilities in Sweden and the USA. The company is home to over 100 engineers, scientists, financial experts, and sales and marketing specialists.

Equipment

All the facilities required for the project, including Cell Lab, are available at the CELLINK Bioprinting facility in Gothenburg, Sweden. The facilities include:

• Three incubators
• An inverted fluorescent Revolve microscope by ECHO, also equipment for Polymerase chain reaction, Immunohistochemistry and Immunocytochemistry
• A rheometer
• 3D bioprinters and 3D pritning software

Radboud University in Nijmegen, Netherlands, is one of the country’s best universities. Established in 1923, it hosts over 24,000 students and 5,500 staff members distributed through 7 faculties with over 90 educational programmes. The university is among the leading group within the most important international rankings.

The Faculty of Science, established in 1957, already included the Department of Philosophy. Each faculty was deemed to host a group on the values and principles of the discipline concerned. The first department chair was Professor Andries van Melsen (1912-1994), a chemist and philosopher.

Experts

The department—now Institute for Science in Society (ISiS)—hosts a variety of experts, including philosophers, sociologists, anthropologists and interdisciplinary scientists, to analyse, assess and improve the societal embedding of science and technology.

The University of Aveiro (UAVR) was founded in 1973 and is widely recognised as one of Portugal’s most innovative and diverse universities today. It hosts over 15,000 students, around 2,000 staff members, and just under 500 researchers distributed through 20 faculties with over 500 ongoing research projects. With almost 100 nationalities and 1000 partner universities, UA is a truly global institution.

The CICECO – Aveiro Institute of Materials, at UAVR (PT), one of Portugal’s largest Materials Science and Engineering institutes, is helping to develop diverse materials like biopolymers and organic-inorganic hybrids. Prof. João Mano, vice-director of CICECO, and his research group COMPASS aim to use a multidisciplinary approach to employ biomaterials and cells in regenerative and personalised medicine.

Equipment and services

Thanks to the COMPASS Research Group, CICECO holds some of the best instrumental facilities for research and innovation in Materials Science and Engineering. The group hosts a technology transfer centre assisting in IP and fundraising and has access to five laboratories capable of processing and characterising biomaterials:

• Biomaterials Science and Engineering
• Bioprocessing lab
• Biology and Cell Characterization platform
• Bioengineering lab for developing cell-based materials
• Imagin(g)ative lab for chemistry of biomaterials