Investing in technology that's a few years from commercialisation can be tricky. Lori Valigra finds out how some venture capitalists sort the wheat from the chaff.

With the US in regulatory limbo, Europe is winning the race to be the first regulated drugs market to approve generic copies of biotech drugs - despite the protests of the biotech pioneers who created them.

A new Swedish company backed by government and business angels aims to create an entire funding ecosystem for young companies until they become ready for venture capital.

AB Volvo has hired Jan-Eric Sundgren, the president of Chalmers University of Technology, to become a member of its executive committee, overseeing the Swedish carmaker's ties with public authorities and academia.

A Swiss team has developed a reliable blood test for younger, live cows. Now it is looking for investment to develop a test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans.

IP2IPO Group, which specialises in commercialising university technology, has made an exclusive 25-year deal with the University of Bristol to form spin-out companies from the university. Analysts greeted the deal as a boost for the company.

Microsoft is to open more research centres in Europe, in a move to step up its research collaboration and boost students' interest in the technology field.

"Anything that won't sell, I don't want to invent. Its sale is proof of utility, and utility is success." Thomas A. Edison (1847-1931).

A new Munich-based company that says its patented technologies can reduce household water consumption by 90 per cent on average is looking for more investment.