🌐 Ox1 Incubator | MedTech & BioTech Track Launch Event

Theme: Innovation, Health, and the Future of Scientific Cooperation for Global DevelopmentDate: Friday, 14 NovemberTime: 5:00–7:00 pmVenue: Christ Church College (Networking drinks to follow)

Ox1 Incubator is pleased to invite you to the official launch of its MedTech & BioTech Track – an initiative designed to support emerging founders, researchers, and innovators shaping the next generation of health technologies.

This session examines how health innovation emerges and succeeds when it is grounded in the lived realities of care. Drawing on fifteen years of experience in global health, including a decade across West and Central Africa, Saran Fadiga-Branchi explores how community-anchored approaches, local leadership, and system-level investment are reshaping Africa’s contribution to the global health innovation landscape. She is joined by Dr. Florent Diby, pediatrician and cardiologist with the Wake-Up Africa NGO, whose work expands access to specialist care through telemedicine and clinical capacity-building in Côte d’Ivoire. Together, they consider how African health systems are generating innovation models that are scalable, resilient, and capable of influencing global health practice and policy. The discussion will be chaired by Anastasiia Rudkovska, Vice President at OX1 Incubator.

Programme
Opening keynote – Ms Saran Fadiga Branchi, Senior Fund Manager at The Global Fund, will share her diplomatic and fund management experience at The Global Fund, covering med- and bio-tech innovation to facilitate global health and development.  – Professor Florent Case, President of Wake Up Afrika,  will provide a case study on the local impact of health tech innovations.
Fireside chat & Audience Q&A
Networking drinks at Christ Church College
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The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria is an international financing and partnership organisation to support attainment of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, established in 2002 with contiunous support from Bill Gates and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

About the Speakers
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Keynote: Saran Fadiga Branchi – Senior Portfolio Fund Manager, The Global Fund
Saran is a dual citizen of France and Côte d’Ivoire with 15 years of experience in global health policy and program development, focusing on West and Central Africa. She currently serves as a Senior Fund Portfolio Manager at the Global Fund, leading a multidisciplinary team to oversee grant implementation in collaboration ministry of health, civil society, technical and financial partners. Previously, Saran was a Senior Specialist in the Global Fund’s Resilient and Sustainable Systems for Health team, where she led strategic initiatives, including the South-South Strategic Initiative, advancing community health in five African countries. 

From 2019 to 2020, she served as a Senior Advisor in the Africa and Middle East Department, contributing to the “Accelerate the Movement in West and Central Africa” initiative by engaging with stakeholders across eight countries to optimize grant implementation strategies. Before joining the Global Fund, Saran held senior roles in global health diplomacy and international affairs at the French Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also served as a regional health advisor covering Côte d’Ivoire, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Nigeria, and Liberia.

Keynote: Dr Florent Kouakou Diby – Associate Professor of Cardiology, Alassane Ouattara University, President, Wake Up Africa

Dr Florent Kouakou Diby is an Associate Professor of Cardiology at Alassane Ouattara University in Bouaké, Côte d’Ivoire, and a Pediatric Cardiologist at Bouaké University Hospital. His clinical and research work focuses on improving cardiovascular care for children and underserved populations. He also serves as President of the Executive Board of the NGO Wake Up Africa, which promotes community health and education initiatives, and is President of the Ivorian Society of Telemedicine (SITELEMED), where he leads national efforts to expand digital health services.

Chair: Anastasiia Rudkovska – Vice President & Strategic Advisor, OX1 Incubator

Anastasiia Rudkovska is Vice President at Oxford’s OX1 Incubator and leads initiatives in cross-border innovation, global connectivity, climate and culture. She is Coordinator of the ZERO Institute ECR Network and serves on the Steering Committee of the Energy UK Young Energy Professionals Forum. Anastasiia holds an MSc in Energy Systems from the University of Oxford and has engaged in research on corporate transition planning with the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group and the World Business Council on Sustainable Development.