Accelerating drug innovation with the Euridis school and its DDD Challenge

The project addresses a dual challenge: on one hand, the increasing complexity of drug development, which requires a thorough understanding of scientific, medical, regulatory, industrial, and entrepreneurial issues; and on the other, the urgent need to train young researchers capable of working across these disciplines. In a landscape where therapeutic innovation is often slowed by institutional silos, insufficient dialogue between academia and industry, and overly specialized training pathways, this integrative and entrepreneurship-oriented approach is essential.

The objective is to prepare students to design and lead cross-disciplinary research projects by confronting them with real-world public health challenges. The methodology is built around the DDD Challenge, a full-scale exercise in which students identify an unmet medical need, design an interdisciplinary project ranging from proof-of-concept to potential technology transfer and entrepreneurial valorization, and defend their proposal before a mixed jury of academic and industrial experts. This immersion compels them to acquire not only scientific expertise but also skills in project management, communication, entrepreneurship, and valorization strategies.

The expected impact is already visible on several levels. Scientifically, the first funded projects have generated significant results, with some expected to be published before the completion of current PhD theses. From an educational perspective, students demonstrate exceptional maturity for their stage of training, both in their understanding of medical challenges and in their ability to organize, present, and defend their projects. In the long term, this initiative supports the emergence of a new generation of researchers and innovators capable of bridging academic research, clinical practice, the pharmaceutical industry, and entrepreneurship. We are confident that concrete applications arising from their discoveries will emerge in the coming years, directly contributing to improved medical practices and the development of novel therapeutic solutions