I agree with Amy,

Here's a summary of my own experiences with them:

Three people in my academic network received similar copy/paste emails. Mostly the projects "Claire" pitches on collaborating are copy/paste jobs from industry calls for proposals. If the subject seems interesting to you, simply Google it and you will find it yourself. I would not engage with Inospin or any of their bots.

The last email from this place proposed to connect me with an industry partner we're already working with. My guess is there is an automatic bot search for your expertise and a similar one for any key words that lead back to industry calls for proposals.

Use as a starting point if it sounds interesting, but I would not reply/engage as I'm pretty sure no real people/academics/scientists are involved in the generation of these emails.

No, but my spam filter sent them straight to my junk mail folder...

A similar request sent to me was equally sent to my junk mail box.

It seems very sketchy. There are only pages directly from the "company" that talk about what they do, and zero independent articles. People on LinkedIn are mostly in Switzerland or France. We got one of these recently and it had odd wording:

" Would you be interested in receiving more information about our partner (name of the company, criteria of interest, collaboration types, etc.) and how to get in touch with them for a collaboration? It is completely free of charge."

(If they had a legit company couldn't they give you examples of their partners?)

" PS: If you don’t receive any answer from me within 72h, please contact us on [email protected], I may have technical issues on my mailbox. I apologize for the inconvenience." (Suggestive that this is some kind of unmonitored account? who does business this way?)

A better suggestion, read this article ( https://www.elsevier.com/connect/building-successful-partnerships-between-academia-and-industry ) and don't be afraid to approach pharma with a plan. I work with MSLs all the time now and they are fabulous. Their job is to talk to people and make connections, so don't hesitate to approach them!

Hi. Any news about Inospin? Is it a reliable company in your opinion? Thanks.

Hi, I received a similar email. I asked them for more information! Is it harmful?

I agree with Amy,

Here's a summary of my own experiences with them:

Three people in my academic network received similar copy/paste emails. Mostly the projects "Claire" pitches on collaborating are copy/paste jobs from industry calls for proposals. If the subject seems interesting to you, simply Google it and you will find it yourself. I would not engage with Inospin or any of their bots.

The last email from this place proposed to connect me with an industry partner we're already working with. My guess is there is an automatic bot search for your expertise and a similar one for any key words that lead back to industry calls for proposals.

Use as a starting point if it sounds interesting, but I would not reply/engage as I'm pretty sure no real people/academics/scientists are involved in the generation of these emails.

I have talked with people at Inospin about using their technology-matching/finding services. They seem legitimate though I am having trouble finding independent articles describing their successes. It isn't unusal, though, that they mention a "partner" instead of a company. Companies (like mine) can pay to remain anonymous so as to not tip off their competition regarding innovation interests. They are a lower cost version of NineSigma so perhaps the autogenerated outreach is how they remain inexpensive. I haven't yet decided whether to utilize their services but I don't think you should be wary of talking with them. Just don't share details about anything proprietary.

I am also interested in this discussion. Please share any news you might have.

I just spoke to one of them on the phone, and I am underwhelmed!

I did not doubt the initial email approach as much as some commentators above (although I do understand my colleagues' hesitation above).

After the first approach from 'Claire', I had a written exchange with her and filled in a 'proposal sheet' (i.e. it was a very detailed sheet, but all I did was to say 'I am not doing any research myself, but I am happy to help find somebody, who can help innovate in the specific question of 'xxx', related to the innovation-request).

Today, I was called by somebody called 'Aina', and now I am totally underwhelmed and would not recommend to anybody to go through this communication process with Inospin:

while my first question to Aina was ' have you read my proposal sheet, and do you understand my limitations (i.e. no research) and my proposed next steps?' Aina assured me that she was aware of my submission, and then went into her pre-programmed spiel on the phone: 1. a description of Inospin that was entirely read off the sheet and that did not say anything else than the website, 2. a description of the innovation-request from their partner ... and at that stage I realized that I was taken for a ride, because Inospin had not sent me somebody, who would speak to me as an expert, but who was just wasting my time.

Alerting Aina again that I already had described that I myself was not a lab researcher, she finally seemed to find and look at my proposal description and concluded that she was not the right person to speak to me. She furthermore concluded immediately that her client company was not going to be interested in my proposal (NOTE: in my view she could and SHOULD not have taken that decision without speaking to her client again, because of the technical details involved ... but maybe she indeed was an expert in that very field of science and I am doing her wrong here).

So, don't waste your time!

I think we would all wish that there was a company that would contact us as 'experts in a field' and then develop a lucrative commercial collaboration with and for us, but Inospin is not the one!

Thanks Steffi. I suspected as much, but it's good to hear someone's actual experience of them.

I had a request from them today. It looks like an industrial espionage outfit to benefit who? They are based in France because the forms are translated from French.

It has been widely known in the US that France was spying on industrial subjects in the US in the '80s. They got caught by the FBI trying to steal HP servers know-how. The current attempt may as well be another campaign to steal data for use by the French (?) companies.

Wes

THanks for the comments. I have also received a very specific offer related to recent work. So, I was wondering... I guess they charge you for the contacts. I have asked them to sign a confidentiallity agreement and they tell me to do a proposal (!) onow only with no confidential ideas... which it does not make any sense, if it is a proposal.....

Beware of sending any proposals without an NDA in place. It would invalidate your ability to be included in any patent or IP if they decide to move forward with your proposal without you.

Thank you all for your Valuable comments. I personally could not find much valuable information on them and as such i am advising colleagues to give them a miss.

Thank you all for sharing. I just saw the email from "Claire" and wanted to find out if it is worth my time. So this post is very helpful.