NEED wins First Prize and Audience Award at KRK InnoTech Demo Day
Congratulations to Rosemary Blanco and Luca Gherardini!
Success at the Grand Finale
At the Grand Finale held at the Zabłocie Innovation Cluster in Kraków, Luca Gherardini and Rosemary Blanco stepped on stage to present NEED to a jury of investors, venture capital representatives, and the local innovation community. In a showcase of early‑stage ventures tackling diverse challenges, their project not only impressed the expert jury enough to earn first prize, but also captured the hearts of the audience, securing the Audience Favorite Award. This double recognition highlights both the technological strength of the solution and how strongly its mission resonates beyond the research community.
For the NEED team, Demo Day was more than just a competition. It offered a chance to test their idea in a real‑world setting: to gather feedback on their roadmap, discuss next steps with investors and industry partners, and explore collaborations within the regional innovation ecosystem. These conversations are a crucial step toward turning a research‑driven concept into a solution that can reach clinics and patients.
Bridging computational medicine and entrepreneurship
NEED sits at the intersection of computational neuroscience, machine learning, and clinical neuromonitoring. The project shows how methods developed in the lab can be transformed into tools that support doctors in everyday practice. In recent years, EEG‑based approaches have been increasingly recognised as promising candidates for the early detection of cognitive decline and dementia, offering a non‑invasive and relatively affordable way to monitor brain activity.
Building on this growing body of evidence, NEED proposes a screening pathway designed to be more accessible, scalable, and patient‑friendly – with the ambitious goal of making dementia detection as simple and routine as a basic laboratory test. If successful, such an approach could help identify problems earlier, when interventions have the greatest chance of slowing disease progression and preserving quality of life.
The dual success at KRK InnoTech – securing both the main jury award and the Audience Favorite Award – underlines the potential of NEED to contribute to earlier and more efficient dementia detection. At the same time, it shows that deep‑tech ideas emerging from computational medicine can thrive in entrepreneurial environments and attract interest from investors looking for innovations with real clinical and societal impact.
Congratulations to Rosemary Blanco and Luca Gherardini on this outstanding achievement and for representing Sano so impressively at KRK InnoTech. Their success with NEED is an inspiration for our entire community and a clear example of how research‑driven innovation can move from the lab toward solutions that make a meaningful difference for patients and society.
