PLS-complimentary project Juno

PLS-complimentary project Juno Perinatal Healthcare was awarded one of five Eindhoven Engine innovation projects

Article translated and adapted from Linkmagazine (Dutch)

With an investment of more than € 2.2 million, various innovative challenging projects with potential impact on society and the economy are given additional funds from Eindhoven Engine. Together these projects represent an investment of € 16.8 million. The money for the Eindhoven Engine OpenCall comes from the Regio Deal Brainport.

A team of experts examined 11 submitted projects from the June 4 submission deadline. Each of the projects was first tested against formal criteria that had been previously published and set a high quality standard. OpenCall coordinator Paul Merkus : “The text of the OpenCall 2020 was clear, allowing the evaluation process to run smoothly and fairly. Based on these criteria, the team of experienced independent experts was well able to determine the ranking of the nine eligible proposals. I am proud of that. ” Yesterday the Advisory Board of Eindhoven Engine, together with representatives from the knowledge institutes TUe, TNO and Fontys and the business community, also gave a positive advice on the proposed selection of projects.

“Especially in this time of the corona pandemic, we see a great need for innovation. Companies and knowledge institutions have worked together intensively to come up with strong project proposals” directors Katja Pahnke and Maarten Steinbuch add. “We therefore see a nice mix of diversity in the consortia. Eindhoven Engine is gaining momentum.” The focus of the projects is diverse: climate, vitality, health and smart manufacturing.“Co-creation and co-location, are the basic ingredients for unlocking collective intelligence in order to boost innovation” is the Eindhoven Engine way of working. We look forward to the consortia involved becoming part of our ecosystem soon. ”

Eindhoven Engine

Eindhoven Engine unlocks collective intelligence in the Brainport region. Through a unique formula, innovators of companies commit themselves to students and experienced employees of knowledge institutions to work together to accelerate innovation and realize disruptive co-creation projects, where co-location is a precondition. Founding fathers of Eindhoven Engine are the knowledge institutions Fontys, TNO and Eindhoven University of Technology and companies Philips Healthcare, Signify, ASML, VDL, NTS and NXP. The Eindhoven Engine funds come from the Brainport Regio Deal.

Of the five awarded projects, PLS-related Juno was one of them.

Juno Perinatal Healthcare: to an artificial uterus (womb)

After birth, every child faces a physiological transition from maternal-placental life support to (self-sufficient) ectopic life. For some of the premature babies, this transition is too fast. This places a heavy demand on the immature vital organs of the child. Hence, extremely premature babies often experience lifelong serious health problems with possible social consequences. As a trial, premature lambs have been successfully kept alive in a fluid-based environment in recent years, allowing them to develop in the same way as in the womb. The results are promising for human applications as well. The JunoConsortium will develop a medical device – an artificial uterus – that supports the safe development of extremely premature babies outside the uterus. Ultimately, these infants will have a better health expectancy than preterm infants with conventional care.

You can find more information about Juno Perinatal Healtcare here.