Unitectra, the technology transfer unit of the universities of Basel, Bern and Zürich, has won the EUROPEAN BIOTECHNICA AWARD in 2011. The company received the award in Hannover during Tuesday evening's opening ceremony of BIOTECHNICA. It was presented by Jörg Bode, Lower Saxony's Minister of Economics, Professor Dr. Heinz Riesenhuber, former German Minister for Research and Technology, and Dr. Andreas Gruchow, member of the Board at Deutsche Messe AG.

The award - which was being presented for the ninth time - this year honours the contribution of European transfer organizations within academic biotech and life science institutes to successful technology transfer between business and industry.

"Unitectra has made an exceptional contribution to the initiation and promotion of cooperation between the publicly funded research community and business", stressed Dr. Karsten Henco, chairman of the international jury. "This organization fulfils the criteria of this year's award in an exemplary fashion, and the services it provides have proven immensely valuable." Unitectra offers researchers and university management a broad spectrum of services in the field of research collaborations and in the commercialization of research findings, and also plays a special role in assisting spin-off companies and start-ups.

"We are delighted to receive this award", says Herbert Reutimann, co-founder and director of Unitectra. "It is recognition of the hard work carried out by the entire Unitectra team over the past 15 years and confirms that we are on the right track with our approach at the interface between universities and the business sector." The incorporated, not-for-profit company Unitectra is owned by the universities of Bern and Zürich.

Unitectra was founded in 1996 under the name Biotectra as the technology transfer unit of the Swiss National Science Foundation's Priority Program Biotechnology. In 1999 Unitectra was converted into an incorporated, not-for-profit company which is fully owned by the universities of Bern and Zurich. Unitectra offers a range of services for the researchers of these universities and their associated hospitals, in particular in the areas of research collaboration and the commercialization of research results (patents, licensing, support of spin-off companies). Since January 2011 Unitectra has also acted as the technology transfer unit of the University of Basel and its associated hospitals. Unitectra maintains offices in Basel, Bern and Zurich.

Homepage: www.unitectra.ch