Germany’s Federal Agency for Breakthrough Innovation (SPRIND) and Deep Science Ventures (DSV) announce a, first-of-a-kind partnership to drive breakthroughs in Climate and Health sectors by commissioning five Venture Science Doctoral scholars (VSD). This collaboration advances SPRIND's mission to foster disruptive innovations by leveraging DSV's expertise in creating science-based ventures to tackle some of the most pressing global challenges.

Piloted with an award from Innovate UK, this is a partnership of firsts. VSD is Europe’s first PhD programme focused on creating high-growth, deep tech startups. VSD scholars are a crucial first step in laying the foundations for Europe’s €8 trillion deep tech future. stated Rafael Laguna de la Vera, Director of SPRIND on a roundtable at Falling Walls, 2024.

Scholars will focus on developing novel solutions to critical climate and health issues, combining rigorous scientific research with the same venture creation playbooks that built DSV’s $500 million portfolio, backed by Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sam Altman and others. This PhD programme focuses not on discovery - the creation of knowledge, but rather on invention - the application of knowledge. VSD does not focus on the problems of an existing startup or corporate or the ideas of their principal investigator, but instead requires self-driven analysis of complex techno-commercial interplays to create their own research topic; the basis of new inventions. As such, VSD develops skillsets distinct from conventional PhD programmes and the Lean Startup, setting clear standards for deeptech. VSD trains ‘Venture Scientists’, the entrepreneurial leaders of breakthrough deeptech companies.

Barbara Diehl, Chief Partnership Officer of SPRIND, emphasized the transformative potential of this collaboration: By partnering with Deep Science Ventures on The Venture Science Doctorate, we are making science entrepreneurship a more viable career path while empowering young scientists to dedicate their entire careers to the pursuit of applying science to create commercially viable solutions for global challenges. This aligns perfectly with SPRIND's mission to bridge the gap between groundbreaking research and real-world applications, fostering innovations that can reshape industries, create new innovation ecosystems or address significant market failures.

Dr. Thane Campbell, Founding Dean of Deep Science Ventures, added: The process of engineering breakthroughs is the field of every Venture Scientist. We begin by asking What is the most important question in my field?” In collaboration with SPRIND, The Venture Science Doctorate protects the freedom to answer this question and invests in those scholars who dare to keep asking. We're not just training scientists; we're empowering a bolder generation who engage academics, industry, investors and innovation policy-makers in pursuit of the impossible solutions we all need."

The five VSD projects will investigate areas such as sustainable energy solutions, water scarcity pandemic preparedness, and paediatric oncology. Scholars will systematically remove constraints to realise outcomes for society deemed impossible today.

Key features of the SPRIND-DSV Venture Science Doctorate projects include:

1. Full funding for three years, including living stipend, travel, and research costs.
2. Access to SPRIND's Deeptech expertise and DSV's venture-building methodology.
3. DSV’s Generative AI - ‘Elman’ - accelerates industry analysis, acts as a co-pilot to the process of invention and facilitates co-founder hiring.
4. A portfolio approach to invention emphasises unconventional and breakthrough inventions.
5. Goal of launching high-growth startups to resolve critical climate and health challenges.

Scholars will also have access to a global lab network across four continents to carry out proof of concept research, including global research leaders. >30 university, corporate and national labs stand open to each scholar for manufacturing prototypes, including global research leaders: The Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, The National Physical Laboratory, Forschungszentrum Jülich, The German Cancer Centre and CGIAR.