By JoJo Platt, senior contributing editor
June 30, 2026 | On June 23 and 24, the campus of imec in Leuven, Belgium hosted the second annual Neurotech Leaders Forum at imec, bringing together executives, investors, researchers, and regulators from across Europe and the U.S. for two days of sessions spanning clinical translation, capital formation, regulatory strategy, and the emerging and converging frontiers of neurotechnology. Imec vice president of health technologies Paru Deshpande welcomed attendees to the campus, setting the tone for what became a dense and largely practical two days.
James Cavuoto, editor and publisher of Neurotech Reports, followed with his state of the European neurotechnology industry overview, situating the current moment within the longer arc of a field that now includes major commercial anchors such as LivaNova, MED-EL, Biotronik, Nyxoah, and Mainstay Medical, alongside a growing cohort of startups working to reach the same scale.
A Keynote Worth Quoting
Thomas Stieglitz, professor at the University of Freiburg and one of Europe’s most recognized figures in neural engineering, delivered the Day 1 keynote. He brought a practitioner’s directness. On perseverance: “Stay stubborn if you want to get things done.” On design philosophy: the Bauhaus principle applies to neuroelectronics as readily as to architecture. Form follows function. “What do I need? One or two electrodes could be enough, it just depends on your use.” And, with some humor, on the fundamental complexity of peripheral nerve engineering: “Unfortunately, fibers in the nerve aren’t color coded.”
His observation that the human in the loop actually means two different humans, clinical professionals and patients, each capable of breaking what engineers build, was one of the most practically useful framings of the conference.
imec as Platform
Two imec presentations bracketed the event. On Day 1, Carolina Mora Lopez, scientific director of neurotech at imec, traced the organization’s trajectory from Neuropixels to current high-density ASICs, underscoring that imec’s value to the field is not simply as a research facility but as a platform for translational development. On Day 2, principal scientist Vojkan Mihajlovic addressed advances in bidirectional neural technology and closed-loop stimulation paradigms, the kind of foundational work that commercial firms will eventually build products upon.
FemTech Meets Neurotech: A Session Long Overdue
One of the more substantive conversations of Day 1 centered on women’s health, a topic that has received limited attention at neurotech forums despite a documented and significant clinical need. Ida Tin, widely credited as the inventor of the term “femtech” and currently developing a network of biosensors aimed at continuous hormone monitoring, joined via video with a call for collaboration. Daniel Chew, CEO and co-founder of Artemis Medical, presented the company’s clinical device targeting PMCS (formerly recognized as “PCOS”) and noted they are actively seeking a technology development partner to bring it to market. Hubert Martens, CEO of Salvia Bioelectronics, addressed migraine, a condition affecting 43% of women compared to 18% of men, and one where Salvia’s neuromodulation approach is targeting a persistently underserved patient population.
The session made a straightforward case: the total addressable market is real, the unmet clinical need is documented, and the neurotechnology tools to address it exist or are within reach.
BCI Leaders of Europe
Europe’s BCI sector sent three representative voices. Fabien Sauter of CEA Clinatec outlined near-term directions for the program, including home use and applications in post-stroke rehabilitation and motor substitution. Dorian Haci, CEO of Mint Neurotechnologies, brought a semiconductor-forward perspective, highlighting purpose-built chip architectures as a distinguishing approach. Willem Koenders of INBRAIN Neuroelectronics focused on therapeutic impact and the commercial potential of the company’s graphene-based platform. Taken together, the three companies reflect the breadth of approaches Europe is pursuing in this space.
Entrepreneur Highlights
Three entrepreneur panels ran across both days, and several companies stood out.
WISE SpA, the Italian firm whose WISE Cortical Strip already holds both CE Mark under EU MDR and FDA clearance, closed an oversubscribed €30 million Series D round just ahead of the conference. CEO Luca Ravagnan presented an update on the Heron SCS lead, the company’s flagship development-stage product. The Heron is designed to deliver the therapeutic precision of a surgical paddle lead through a minimally invasive percutaneous implant, a combination the SCS market has not previously had. The round, which included venture debt from the European Investment Bank and a strategic investment from ENEA Tech and Biomedical, will fund regulatory certification and first-in-human studies. In Ravagnan’s words: “This financing gives us the resources to complete the journey from bench to bedside.”
Melora Medical was among the conference’s more unexpected introductions. CEO Michael Pare presented the company’s application of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation, or taVNS, to dermatological conditions including rosacea, psoriasis, and atopic dermatitis. Dermatology is not a target indication the neurotech field has seriously engaged before, and Melora’s premise, that the autonomic and inflammatory mechanisms underlying these conditions are accessible via neuromodulation, marks a meaningful expansion of the field’s clinical scope.
DeepPulseNeuro is pursuing endovascular brain monitoring for epilepsy, an approach that avoids the surgical burden of traditional intracranial monitoring. The company’s roadmap suggests a clear intention to extend from monitoring into stimulation, moving toward a therapeutic device once the sensing platform has established its clinical and regulatory footing.
Among the other companies presenting: Phosphoenix (retinal stimulation for blindness), Precisis (minimally invasive SCS for epilepsy), Syntropic Medical (neuromodulation for depression, with new data released during the conference week), Stimalia (neurostimulation for PTSD, with a veterinary application as well), SONA (closed-loop autonomic nervous system regulation), and ReVision Implant (visual cortex BCI for blindness).
Capital, Regulation, and the Global Position Question
The VC session, moderated by Cavuoto and featuring Ugo Tomasello of European BrainTech Fund, Mario Huyghe of imec, and Jan Debets of META Group, addressed capital efficiency, platform narratives, and valuation in a market where European firms still face structural disadvantages relative to U.S. counterparts in late-stage fundraising.
The regulatory session, moderated by Jeremy Koff, tackled the practical decision-making around FDA versus CE Mark sequencing, EU MDR updates, and the value of breakthrough device designation as a deliberate commercial strategy. Commentary from Lindsey Jardine, VP of clinical, regulatory, and quality at epilepsy start-up Adraxe and Jacek Eisler, market segment manager for neuro at Tüv Süd—a European notified body—along with Martin Becker of CTI, extended insightful and practical advice for going to market across multiple geographies.
The Day 2 session on Neurotech Europe on the World Stage, moderated by this editor, brought together three figures with distinct but complementary roles in the ecosystem. Mark Vlek de Coningh, secretary general of Neurotech EU, described the organization’s work across more than 15 European universities to build the next generation of neurotech talent and community. François Véron, general partner at Newfund, addressed the capital gap directly. Stephen Hicks, Science and Technology Lead at ARIA, outlined how that organization is approaching high-risk, high-reward research investment at scale. The through-line of the session was honest: Europe has scientific depth, but translating that into competitive global market position requires deliberate work on capital formation, regulatory alignment, and coordination across a fragmented landscape.
Closing Observation
The second Neurotech Leaders Forum at imec confirmed that Europe’s neurotech sector has both the science and the institutional will to compete globally. The harder questions, about capital at scale, regulatory coherence, and reimbursement infrastructure, are not new, but they were addressed with more specificity this year than at most forums of this kind.
