Our Mission
The External Innovation Europe team drives flexible, impactful partnerships across the full drug discovery and development continuum. From early-stage seed funding and sponsored research to large-scale strategic alliances, we empower Europe's most innovative healthcare ecosystem to build lasting relationships with partners of choice and accelerate the breakthroughs that will become the transformative medicines of tomorrow.
Our Goals
Understand
Develop
Leverage
Our Initiatives
We are committed to building value-generating partnerships across Europe through core initiatives to accelerate the R&D pipeline: Innovation Awards, Strategic Partnerships and incubators.
Innovation Awards
We lead two seed-funding initiatives to explore new ways of thinking, to maximize exposure to the latest ground-breaking science and technology and to identify new collaboration opportunities. Selected projects benefit from a seed funding and the scientific support of a dedicated Sanofi researcher to mature ideas for 1 year and build on future long-term collaborations.
iAwards Europe
A partnering mechanism to transform breakthrough innovations developed by partners into new therapeutic solutions.
iDEA-TECH Awards Europe
A partnering mechanism to transform breakthrough technologies and processes developed by best-in-class academic partners and start-ups into innovative solutions to accelerate our R&D portfolio.
iNext Awards Europe
Welcome to Sanofi’s iNext Awards — a bold initiative bridging the innovation gap in immunoscience. Led by Vaccines in partnership with Pharma R&D, this pitching competition seeks breakthrough ideas that challenge conventional R&D and venture models. Winning “Moonshot” projects receive up to $500,000 USD (all-inclusive) to fund 18 months of pioneering research, backed by Sanofi’s R&D expertise.
Strategic Partnerships
We work hand in hand with the European ecosystem to build strategic partnerships and accelerate innovation in R&D.
Bioproduction Sector
Sanofi fosters the emergence of disruptive technologies to make France a leader in the field of biomanufacturing by 2030 and thus contributes to ensuring a strategic autonomy in the production of biotherapies and vaccines. With the Bioproduction project of the Contrat Stratégique de Filière des Industries et Technologies de Santé (CSF-ITS) led by EI, Sanofi helps strengthen the French biomanufacturing sector through the development of academic laboratories, start-ups and SMEs.
Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster
The Paris Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC), inaugurated on February 4, 2022, illustrates Sanofi’s commitment to oncology alongside Gustave Roussy, the University of Paris Saclay, the Polytechnic Institutes and Inserm to create a unique collaborative and attractive environment. EI has largely contributed to the creation of the PSCC and the initiation of the first partnership programs. With this initiative, Sanofi will accelerate the access for many cancer patients to innovative treatments thus improving their care pathway, life expectancy and quality of life.
Biolabs
As part of the team dedicated to Sanofi-Biolabs partnering, we are contributing to the organization of the Golden Ticket competition to select promising Biotechs to be hosted in Biolabs locations in Germany and France. We will also contribute to coordinate the relations with the Biolabs co-working space in line with Sanofi’s global mission to foster best science and to drive innovation in the European ecosystem.
Future4care
Future4care, launched in January 2021 in Paris, exemplifies Sanofi's commitment to digital health innovation alongside Capgemini, Generali, and Orange to create a unique European multidisciplinary e-health ecosystem. This initiative brings together cutting-edge startups, scientific experts, and major corporations to collectively shape the healthcare system of tomorrow. By leveraging network strength, market expertise, and deep industry insight, Future4care transforms meaningful connections into high-value business opportunities. Through this partnership, Sanofi accelerates the market adoption of innovative digital health solutions, enabling healthcare transformation for future generations and ultimately improving patient care pathways, treatment outcomes, and quality of life.
STATION F
Sanofi is partnering with STATION F, the world's largest start-up campus, to accelerate innovation at the intersection of life sciences and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital modelling, and data science. This is fully in line with Sanofi's strategy of embedding AI and open innovation at the heart of its R&D, by leveraging collaborations with external partners to accelerate the development of new treatments.
External Innovation Team, Europe
Jacques Volckmann
Global Head of R&D External Innovation
Marielle Chiron
Head of Europe R&D External Innovation
Jean-Pierre Burnouf
Ecosystem and Scientific Innovations Lead
Annemarie Van Nieuwenhuijze
Ecosystem and Scientific Innovations Lead
Antonio Almario
Ecosystem and Scientific Innovations Lead
Isabel Pepeljak
External Innovation Project Manager
Patricia Schempp
External Innovation Project Coordinator