"There are innovations that impress us, and those that bring lasting change to our daily lives. It is the latter that we are celebrating tonight." : With these words, Géradline Lancel, Linksium coordinator for the PUI Grenoble Alpes, opened the Deep Impact Awards ceremony. This serves as a reminder that it is possible to combine scientific excellence, entrepreneurial ambition, and positive impact—the very spirit of this third edition, organized by Linksium and BPI France as part of the PUI Grenoble Alpes initiative led by the University of Grenoble Alpes and in partnership with the University of Savoie Mont-Blanc. Discover the four winners of this year’s awards.

Deep Impact Award - Startup Category: Valomed Honored for Its Waste-Reduction Software

Born out of a collaboration between the Grenoble-Alpes University Hospital and Inria, the startup Valomed—founded by Sébastien Rodillon and Thibault Launay and supported by the Inria Start Up Studio—is developing intelligent software that anticipates the risk of medications expiring in hospitals to optimize their redistribution among departments. The result: less waste, a reduced carbon footprint for healthcare facilities, and greater assurance of treatment availability.

Deep Impact Award - Project Category: SioCore, an alternative to animal models

Led by William Bourgeois, a UGA postdoctoral fellow at the Brain Tech Lab (UGA, Inserm, CHU Grenoble Alpes) and supported first through the PUI postdoc program and later by Linksium, the SioCore project has developed a technology that enables the rapid generation of three-dimensional tumoroids from tumor fragments. This ex vivo model platform reduces energy and resource consumption while eliminating the need for animal models, making a direct contribution to a more sustainable form of precision medicine.

Special Jury Prize – Startup Category: Krystalix and Sovereignty in Advanced Materials

The result of more than ten years of research at the SIMAP laboratory (UGA, CNRS, jointly supervised by Grenoble INP and UGA), Krystalix—founded by Kader Zaidat and supported by Linksium from the development phase through scaling up—is developing a technology for growing single crystals using a magnetic cold crucible. This technology reduces energy consumption and the use of critical materials, thereby strengthening European industrial sovereignty over strategic components.

Special Jury Prize – Project Category: Energy-Net Reinventing Electricity Distribution

Led by Denis Genon-Catalot, a professor at UGA, and Karem Hafsi at the Laboratory for Systems Design and Integration (LCIS—UGA, USMB, jointly supervised by Grenoble INP and UGA), and supported by Floralis and later Linksium, Energy-Net enables the simultaneous transmission of data and power over a single pair of wires using a Full IP architecture. This innovation significantly reduces the need for copper cabling, facilitates the integration of renewable energy and energy storage, while ensuring electrical safety and cybersecurity.

Funding to Support the Next Steps

In addition to recognition, each winner receives tangible support: €5,000 for the winning startup in the main category, €2,500 to fund a study or prototype for the winning technology transfer project, and an electric bicycle (worth €2,500) for each of the two winners of the Special Jury Prize, to be made available to their teams.