YTKO's expertise in developing bioscience innovation has led to the appointment of Peter White, YTKO chairman, to the Europe INNOVA Biotechnology Innovation Panel.

Europe INNOVA is a multi-million Euro initiative of the European Commission to develop a roadmap for a more innovative Europe.

The panel is meeting in Valencia, Spain on the 28th of November during the first Europe INNOVA conference.

There they will discuss how to help young, innovative biotech companies accelerate their growth and market position.

'We are debating issues impacting biotech innovation at national and European levels, and making recommendations directly to the Commission', said Mr White.

'The panel is involved with two biotechnology research programmes, on clusters and on innovation financing, providing information and case histories from all over Europe.'

Mr White's appointment follows the success of an innovative proof of concept scheme in Yorkshire universities, supporting bioscience commercialisation.

The scheme drew three times the initial investment into Yorkshire, and saw the launch of several new biotech companies, more than half of which are led by women.

Successes like this led to Mr White's appointment as the only UK biotechnology panellist.

Background:

The European Commission is the European Union's law and policy arm. It is committed to Europe becoming a truly knowledge-based and innovation-friendly society.

Peter White is the founder and chairman of YTKO, which has its UK operations based in Cambridge and Leeds. YTKO is best known for supporting science and technology commercialisation and innovation.