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Higher Education
July 28, 2026
NTUA and Columbia support young scientists – entrepreneurs, the first Pitch Competition has been completed

The Blavatnik Family Foundation is supporting Lab to Market: Bridging Innovation and Entrepreneurship, a five-year initiative coordinated by the National Technical University of Athens and Columbia Engineering to help emerging scientists in Greece translate research into viable ventures. Launched in January 2026, the program provides entrepreneurship education, mentoring, access to Greek and international innovation networks, and direct engagement with Columbia University and New York’s entrepreneurial ecosystem. The Foundation’s support enables the program, including travel to New York, to be offered at no cost to participants. The first cycle concluded with an inaugural Pitch Competition, where 15 teams presented ideas spanning health, artificial intelligence for shipping, sustainability, and diagnostics. Participants represented 18 cities across Greece and eight Greek universities, reflecting the initiative’s geographic and scientific breadth. WasteChain, Pharos Maritime AI, and Mediva-RX received the top three awards as the initiative continues to strengthen connections among academic research, innovation, and entrepreneurship in Greece.

Arts & Culture
July 24, 2026
Upstairs, Downstairs, in a House Full of Spies

A New York Times feature examines the remarkable wartime history preserved at Trent Park House of Secrets, now open to the public as a museum. During the Second World War, British intelligence secretly monitored captured senior German officers at the North London estate, gathering critical information about Nazi weapons programs, military strategy, and the Holocaust. The operation relied on approximately 40 listeners, many of them German Jewish refugees, who recorded and transcribed conversations from concealed rooms beneath the mansion. The museum brings this history to life by recreating both Trent Park’s elegant reception rooms and the discreet underground spaces where the intelligence team worked. Its opening follows a decade-long effort to save the house and ensure that the contributions of the listeners receive wider recognition. The Blavatnik Family Foundation is proud to support Trent Park House of Secrets in preserving this important history and making it accessible to future generations.

Scientific Research
July 22, 2026
Harvard Business School Announces Its 2026-2027 Blavatnik Fellows

Harvard Business School has announced the five members of the 2026–2027 Blavatnik Fellowship in Life Science Entrepreneurship, the program’s thirteenth cohort. Russell Beckerman, Parisa Farzam, Mahmoud Mikdar, Nora Rodden, and Anna Trepekli are developing ventures spanning precision medicines for obesity, real-time brain monitoring, engineered red blood cells, digital support for chronic symptoms, and virtual pediatric obesity care. During the 12-month fellowship, they will receive mentorship, strategic guidance, and access to Harvard’s entrepreneurial and scientific resources as they advance their technologies and leadership. Since its launch in 2013, the program’s fellows have founded 50 biomedical companies working across therapeutics, cell and gene technologies, drug delivery, and digital health. Supported by the Blavatnik Family Foundation, the Fellowship helps translate promising life science discoveries into ventures that can improve patients’ lives. The new cohort continues its mission of equipping emerging life science leaders with the resources, networks, and professional development needed to move breakthrough ideas toward real-world impact.

Social and Charitable Causes
July 21, 2026
Preservation Hall Jazz Band to Play City Parks Foundation Benefit Honoring Joe Killian & Alex Blavatnik

City Parks Foundation will honor Joe Killian and Alex Blavatnik at its 2026 dinner and concert benefit on September 10 at Rumsey Playfield, SummerStage’s flagship venue in Central Park. Killian, who founded SummerStage in 1986, will receive the SummerStage Icon Award in recognition of his vision to bring free performing arts programming to New Yorkers. Alex Blavatnik, chairman of Access Industries and senior advisor to the Blavatnik Family Foundation, will receive the City Parks Foundation Icon Award. The award recognizes his and the Foundation’s longstanding support for preserving cultural history and making it freely accessible to the public. Preservation Hall Jazz Band will perform at the benefit, with additional guests to be announced. The event coincides with SummerStage’s 40th anniversary and celebrates City Parks Foundation’s continuing role in presenting free music, art, and culture across New York City.

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Providing many of the world's best researchers, scientists, and universities with support, and funding to discover breakthroughs that solve humankind's greatest challenges.

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The Foundation contributes to renowned institutions that showcase the breadth of arts and culture, including performance, exhibition and education.

Visit the Blavatnik Archive

The Blavatnik Archive is a nonprofit foundation dedicated to preserving and disseminating materials that contribute to the study of 20th-century Jewish and world history, with a special emphasis on World War I, World War II, and Soviet Russia.

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