On Wednesday, February 24 and Thursday, February 25, 2021, Life Sciences BC held the 6th annual Access to Innovation Conference. The conference brought together leaders from across academia, research, health institutions, government, and industry. As well, the conference provided a venue for dialogue on topics of relevance to life sciences from scientific discovery, emerging trends, innovation, economic impact, translational science, and policies to advance the sector.

Conference sessions covered the following topics:

• Importance of the life sciences ecosystem – economic contribution, opportunities to accelerate, the importance of collaboration amongst all stakeholders
• Pandemic preparedness
• Scaling companies – how do we accelerate the growth of SMEs, spinning companies out of universities
• Diversity & inclusion
• Adoption of virtual health – now and looking ahead
• The optimization of patient treatments through the utilization of AI and quantum computing