[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/5950\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EBeing your own boss benefits career, family \u2013 Dr Saskia Biskup\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDo you think prizes like this encourage women to pursue research careers? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I hope so. I hope women hear about the prize and find it motivating, and I would hope it inspires them to pursue a career in research.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat advice would you give to other women who are considering such a career?\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I think it is very important to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Having this in mind, you have to choose your team members to be supported, especially where you are not strong enough. Clearly the success comes with interdisciplinarity, which includes especially someone with expertise in economic strategy, marketing, etc. when you are the researcher or scientist. This year\u2019s winners shed special light on this as, for all three of us, the team is absolutely central.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat are the biggest challenges facing women who wish to pursue a career in research? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Well, I don\u2019t have children, but I don\u2019t know how I would manage it all at the same time. It seems to me that running your own company might be the best option, rather than working for a place where you always have to ask your boss. The freedom you have with your own company should give you better options for your career and your family.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Among the finalists for this prize was one woman who had four children, and another has three. I think it can still be very difficult for women, but I think that it is possible if you organise yourself.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018In general, and this applies to everybody, the most important thing is to have a very good network. You cannot run a company by yourself, you need to find the right team and put it together. The more opportunity you have to find these people, the better. They could all be in different parts of Europe, and you need to have access to those people.\u2019 \u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The freedom you have with your own company should give you better options for your career and your family.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003EDr Saskia Biskup, the co-founder of CeGaT GmbH\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EWhat about gender quotas? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201870 % of my employees are female, but I didn\u2019t do that deliberately. We don\u2019t have a gender quota and I don\u2019t believe in them. I do it because I wanted the best people, and the best people I could find happened to be women. My view is that you choose people because they are the best at what they do, and if that person has children then it\u2019s in your interests to support her.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I employ 60 people and many of them are women who are in their mid-twenties and early thirties, and sooner or later they will want to have children. I feel that I have a responsibility to create an environment where they can have children and that we can still keep them because they are great workers. We have a huge vested interest in giving them a good opportunity to do the work and allow them to have their children.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018But, on the other hand, I don\u2019t have a limit in terms of employees, so I have the flexibility to hire more staff. If one of them has to stay at home because their children are sick, I have enough people to cover her. A clinic, however, has only a limited number of staff, and if half of them have children and they all get sick at the same time it could be critical. It\u2019s less flexible. The same goes for patient care.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou also won the German Founders Award. How important is this type of recognition for your work? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I have never thought much about prizes, it\u2019s all about the work. But it\u2019s true that the \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.deutscher-gruenderpreis.de\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022\u003EFounders Award\u003C\/a\u003E brought us a lot of visibility in Germany, and this one gives us visibility on a European level. We won the Founders Award for being the most successful start-up in 2011. Before that nobody knew us, so that prize was great for raising our profile. But, ultimately, the most important thing is the research, and the team. You appreciate something like this if it comes along, and then you get on with your work.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EYou founded the company with your husband. Is it bizarre that you alone are being recognised for this particular award? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018It\u2019s often like that in a business: someone is in the forefront while someone else takes more of a back seat, and their work is not equally recognised. My husband is an economist, and for the first three years he helped with administration while I ran the company. He joined fully in 2012, and since then he\u2019s been catching up. He gives talks, he\u2019s very familiar with the work and he can talk about the medical side of things like I can. He does a fantastic job supporting me. None of this would be possible without him.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow will you spend your EUR 100\u0026nbsp;000 prize money? Will you use it to fund your research? \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018I can imagine using the money to start a foundation. We have many samples sent from all over the world and testing is still very expensive so we are thinking about supporting families who cannot afford to pay for testing themselves.\u2019\u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n \u003Ch3\u003EThe EU Prize for Women Innovators \u003C\/h3\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EDr Saskia Biskup is the co-founder of German biotech company CeGaT GmbH, which produces diagnostic gene panels for patients with rare diseases. She received the top award in the EU Prize for Women Innovators 2014 at the EU\u2019s Innovation Convention in March.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe prize recognises female scientists who have founded or co-founded a company and whose research has benefited from EU funding.\u0026nbsp;The aim of the prize is to inspire young female scientists by providing role models of women who have turned a scientific discovery into a business.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe second prize was awarded to Dr Laura van\u2019t Veer, the co-founder and chief research officer at Agendia NV, a personalised health company producing diagnostic tests that predict the risk of breast cancer recurrence.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe third prize went to Dr Ana Maiques, the co-founder and director of Starlab, a research and innovation company that is focused on the fields of space and neuroscience.\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-cgusimnilojsgzlsnc8x4so4am1wxvd6xd-tjyt-jaa\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-CgUSImNIlOJsgzlsNc8x4SO4aM1wXvd6XD_TJyt_jaA\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]