Innovation Days 2012 in Munich. Photo: E. Fesseler/Helmholtz Association

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Technology Transfer 02/2013

The first Innovation Days and the Research Day with Roche have proved to be a successful format. Moreover the Helmholtz Association supports three new spin-off projects and three research projects which have the potential for a promising economic exploitation.

Successful Format: Innovation Days

Bringing together science and the industry: this was the aim of the first Innovation Days, which were organised under the leadership of the Helmholtz Association in collaboration with the Max Planck Society, the Leibniz Association and the Fraunhofer Gesellschaft. The event serves as a joint realisation platform for the best application-oriented technologies and the most promising spin-off projects originating from extramural research. In late November in Munich, a total of 100 industry experts and 150 scientists and technology transfer experts met to discuss significant technologies and spin-offs from out of the leading German research organisations. Using an online partnering platform, the participants had made previous arrangements for 170 half-hour meetings in order to discuss joint projects and potential joint ventures.

Numerous enterprises such as Siemens, BASF, Bayer, Volkswagen, Zeiss, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Roche, Evonik, Merck, Sanofi, RWE and many venture capital companies took part in the Innovation Days. The supporting programme included workshops, company presentations by the eleven industry sponsors and 40 short presentations of selected technologies and start-up projects. A joint evening reception including the guests of the Karl Heinz Beckurts Award ceremony provided the event with a celebratory opening. Each year, since 1989, the Karl Heinz Beckurts Foundation's award honours scientific impulses for industrial innovation; in 2012, it went to three researchers from the Daimler AG for a new method for avoiding traffic accidents. As the Innovation Days have been very well accepted both by the participants and sponsors, the event will take place again in December 2013, this time in Berlin.

More information:

www.helmholtz.de/innovationdays

Up-to-date interview in the newsletter of our partner Fraunhofer Venture

Research Day with Roche Generates New Joint Ventures

The Helmholtz-Roche Research Day took place in Penzberg near Munich on the sidelines of the Innovation Days. Previously, Roche and the Helmholtz Association had selected 28 projects from approximately 60 submissions, which were then presented during the event. The project suggestions cover six Helmholtz centres. Three projects immediately met with approval and now will be implemented in the context of bilateral co-operation with Roche. Ten other project suggestions have been chosen for in-depth discussion regarding potential co-operation.

Helmholtz Supports Business Formation

The Helmholtz Association funds three new spin-off projects by scientists from Helmholtz centres to carry them over the critical starting phase. This makes a total of nine projects that have been considered worthy of funding by the expert committee in 2012. Since 2005, the Helmholtz Enterprise instrument has provided funding from out of the President's Impulse and Networking Fund for a total of 76 business formation projects. The newly funded projects are:

1. i3membrane: A research team from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf under the leadership of Prof. Andreas Kolitsch has developed a simple and environmentally friendly method of producing metal membranes with extremely tiny pores. Compared to the currently frequently used polymer membranes, the metal membranes have the advantage of being insusceptible to contact with chemicals and being particularly stable.

2. WxFusion: Dr Caroline Forster and Dr Arnold Tafferner from the German Aerospace Center have developed a new process for forecasting thunderstorms. Their technology uses satellite- and ground-based radar data to identify thunderstorms, trace them and forecast them with up to one hour lead time. The system can issue warnings, if a thunderstorm is located within a radius of 100 kilometres around a selected site, for example, an airport. The new technology serves in particular to increase safety and improve scheduling in air traffic.

3. Drift & Noise Polar Services: The team around Dr Thomas Krumpen and Dr Stefan Hendricks from the Alfred Wegener Institute Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research collects and processes the latest data regarding polar sea ice. It thus enables an environmentally responsible utilisation of the polar region and provides important information for the ship building industry and shipping companies.

This year, the Helmholtz Enterprise funding instrument will be extended to include a measure for external management support. So far funded via a model project of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, this support measure allows for expanding the expertise of business formation teams by management competences and, for instance, the winning over of experienced trainers, managing directors or specialists for the young spin-offs. The funding now totals a maximum of 130,000 Euro: up to 100,000 Euro by way of classical Helmholtz Enterprise funding and up to 30,000 Euro by way of external management support. Both components can be combined. The respective Helmholtz centre contributes a minimum of half the funding.

Increasing the Desirability of Technologies

The Helmholtz Association has selected three projects it feels to possess great potential for successful industrial utilisation. It will now fund these projects for two years and a total of 3.3 million Euro from out of the Helmholtz Validation Fund to allow for the speedy appreciation of these respective products. The selected projects are: the further development of a substance to a potential active agent in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease (Prof. Dieter Willbold, Forschungszentrum Jülich), the validation of an innovative fuel cell to serve as a secure energy supply in mobile communication master stations (Prof. Detlef Stolten, Forschungszentrum Jülich), and an innovative assist system for the aviation industry that can actively follow human communication (Prof. Hartmut Helmke, German Aerospace Center). Since 2011, twelve promising validation projects have been selected for funding; another selection round will follow in 2013.

Jörn Krupa

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