Deliverable D1.2 of ProNano “30 selected research results” is publicly available at http://www.pronano.eu/node/15
There are many nanotech innovations which have potential to reach the market. The ProNano consortium has evaluated research results and selected innovations for coaching, to reach licensing deals or spin-offs. This deliverable describes the 30 innovative technologies, selected for coaching by ProNano. These summaries can be a valuable resource for researchers who have developed an innovation in the nanotech field and would like to get a better picture of what kinds of results have qualified for coaching. Some of the projects which have been offered support are, for example, “Industrial Fabrication Processes of Nanostructured Thin Film Solar Cells”, “Portable automatic device for diagnosis using biochips”, “Exploitation of a multifunctional synthetic platform for the preparation and coating of magnetic nanoparticles” and “Fabrication of gecko-type structures applying a patented hot pulling technique”.There is a big diversity in the application of the innovations, which is illustrated through two pie charts.
For research teams holding promising results in the nano field, ProNano acts as a door opener to reference customers, cooperation partners and investors.
Deliverable D2.3 of ProNano “Lessons learnt on WP1 and WP2” is available at http://www.pronano.eu/
ProNano coaches research teams holding commercialization results in the field of nanotechnologies. The process for the identification, selection and, finally, coaching of the research teams is fully described in the project deliverable “Lessons learnt on WP1 and WP2”. ProNano coaching activities rely on strong interactions with local networks, technology transfer professionals and trainers all over Europe. The deliverable highlights discrepancies between the targeted European countries in terms of maturity of the technology transfer frameworks. From all over Europe, the ProNano team detected a need for more visible and coherent support schemes -local, public, public-private, EU- which sometimes appear as a “jungle” to the researchers. As nanotechnologies are typically cross-sectoral and have many potential fields of application, a major challenge faced by ProNano is to identify the most proper business and financial model for the research results which are candidate for commercialization. In this deliverable, the ProNano team provides interesting insights on the specific training needs of researchers, according to different stages of maturity of the commercialisation process.
Valuable help in the business development process for nanotech researchers
Deliverable D4.1 of ProNano “Analysis of processes for the commercialisation via spin-off including recommendations related to entrepreneur team building, business plan writing, investor requirements and finance acquisition for Nano RTD projects ” is publicly available at http://www.pronano.eu/node/15
Starting a business without proper training is a very challenging task. Many researchers aiming to become entrepreneurs do not understand the wide variety of business models they could use and what these models advantages and disadvantages are. They also need to find out who the end-users of their innovation are and how potential customers make decisions concerning purchase. Researchers within the nanotech field can obtain valuable help from recommended Standard Operational Procedures, in this report, used for coaching of researchers in the business development process. Advice connected to entrepreneur team building, business plan writing, finance acquisition and investor requirements are included. The coach helps the researchers, for example, to find substantiated assumptions and solutions, meaning that the final solution can be very different from the original concept. The provided checklists offer a clear overview of what questions that can be asked when preparing a business plan, to make the development process more efficient.
The procedure used to evaluate technical and commercial potential of nanotech innovations
Deliverable D3.1 of ProNano “Analysis of processes to establish commercialisation readiness e.g. guidelines to decide on commercialisation route” is publicly available at http://www.pronano.eu/node/15
The ProNano consortium uses a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) to assess business opportunity in nanotech innovations, evaluate the commercial potential and advice researchers on how to bring their new technologies to the market. A three-step approach is applied during the evaluation process. The first step is about the evaluation of technology and market opportunities, where a “four‐eye” principle is used. A short report recommends if the innovation can be taken to the next step or not. The second step is an evaluation workshop where the logical framework approach (LFA) helps the participants to analyse the business opportunity through the steps: analysis, planning and assessment. The participants take, for example, the initial steps towards a financing strategy and obtain an initial overview on financial needs. The third step is about the final evaluation and recommendations. A qualitative assessment and a quantitative assessment of the innovation are conducted, where the fundamental criteria are, for example, finance needs, innovation and technology, and market.
Press Release September 2011
Supporting Action funded by European Commission DG RTD – FP7 NMP, Nr.: 248219, for further information contact: Elisabeth Schmid elisabeth.schmid@youris.com
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