Montpellier Innovation Booster: 3 Days to Accelerate Your Idea
The first edition of the Montpellier Innovation Booster (BIM) for 2025–2026 took place from October 21 to 23 on the Saint-Priest campus in Montpellier. The event brought together 8 candidate projects, led by 11 researchers and entrepreneurs, supported by 15 expert coaches from the University Innovation Hub (PUI) at the University of Montpellier (competitiveness clusters, SATT AxLR, partnership and commercialization services, as well as incubators). Fourteen students from the Master 2 in Entrepreneurial Support program at MOMA – Montpellier Management were also enlisted to provide coaching to the project leaders.
The workshops offered allowed project leaders to work on a wide range of topics, including project structuring, developing a strategic action plan, identifying funding needs, exploring ways to promote their projects, and drafting and practicing their pitches, as well as refining their vision and presentation style. The session concluded with a competition before a jury composed of representatives from DIPA,Initium, Pôle mer Méditerranée, and SATT AxLR, among others.
The eight projects supported demonstrate the richness and diversity of innovation in Montpellier, with a particular focus on health this year. NeuroModEx is working on a genetic and pharmacological approach to neurodegenerative diseases; i-Senex is focused on developing senescence inhibitors to combat cellular aging; Optimal Target is a digital tool for optimizing antibiotic treatments in intensive care; DISHI is a targeted antiviral therapy against the hepatitis B virus; the DOIAINM project aims to provide personalized nutritional advice via AI for patients with obesity or diabetes; and finally, Glioprofile – AI focuses on the segmentation and MRI monitoring of low-grade gliomas, benign brain tumors that primarily affect children and adolescents. The last two projects are part of an effort to protect biodiversity: ACAB records the cardiac activity of whales to study the impact of maritime traffic, and Frapam, from an agronomic perspective, is developing precision aquaculture based on computer vision for sustainable farming.
At the end of these sessions, participants will submit their applications to the Investment and Innovation Committee of the University Innovation Hub, which will select the winning projects and propose funding to support their development. The next session of the Montpellier Innovation Booster will take place from January 20 to 22, 2026. Registration is now open.
