Neil Sharkey, vice-president for research at Penn State University, will retire on June 30, with a national search for a replacement launching immediately.

Arch Venture Partners has filed to raise its largest fund to date that would increase assets under management by the venture capital firm to $2.86bn.

Nova University Lisbon has established chemicals producer Des Solutio with the support of Frontier IP, making it the second spinout launched in Portugal by the commercialisation firm.

The University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien spinout has secured a six-figure sum from state-owned fund aws Gründerfonds and Segnalita Ventures.

UniServices has committed $2m to a targeted $20m series B round through the Inventors Fund, with investors also including Daimler Financial Services.

Bristol Myers-Squibb, Merck Group and Novo all took part in a $90m series C round for Galecto Biotech, which is commercialising research from Lund and Edinburgh universities.

Quark Venture and GF Securities have invested $1.9m in Sitka Biopharma, a spinout of University of British Columbia and Centre for Drug Research and Development.

The VPRI Innovation Fund will invest between $25,000 and $75,000 at the proof-of-concept stage to drive commercialisation activities at University of Oregon.

A roundup of all the latest news on www.globaluniversityventuring.com for our subscribers.

The fund will invest in agritech companies connected to Brightlands, an ecosystem backed by Maastricht University, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences and Fontys University of Applied Sciences.