On Wednesday, 25th of May 2011 in Lappeenranta, Finland, in the framework of the second EU-Russia Innovation Forum, Spinverse announced that it is seeking partners for the Finnish-Russian Nanotechnology Innovation Alliance project.
Spinverse's Managing director Pekka Koponen describes how the USA, Japan and China radically changed the structure of their economies by investing in industry and by acquiring expertise from abroad. The column was originally published in Kauppalehti on 3 January 2011.
The workshop on ”Printed Intelligence – Towards Applications” arranged by Spinverse Functional Materials coordination team brought together the key Finnish companies and research groups in the field and a multidisciplinary audience of altogether 100 experts.
At the Moscow RUSNANOTECH 2011, ETU and TEKLAB announced their partnership in commercializing the NanoLab, a highly cost-effective nanotechnology education laboratory for trans-disciplinary training of nanomaterials synthesis and analysis at universities.
Pekka Koponen, Spinverse CEO, writes about the value of patents. This column was originally published in Kauppalehti on the 3rd of October 2011:
Aurubis Finland Oy (former Luvata Pori Rolled Products) has developed a novel solution for energy efficient buildings. Their Nordic Solar concept now demonstrated in full scale in the Pori swimming hall opened September 24th, 2011 comprises solar thermal collectors embedded directly within the prepatinated copper façade elements. Their development on new absorption coatings made in the Tekes Functional Materials Programme guarantees effective heat transfer, but more widely it shows how target-oriented material R&D combined with understanding of the application needs opens new business opportunities in a short time frame, says Dr. Markku Heino, Spinverse, Coordinator of the Functional Materials Programme.
The objective of the Demo2013 project is to create an integrated and comprehensive area in Port of Helsinki, Vuosaari Harbour based on fuel cells and to gain insight on usage of fuel cells in energy production. Demo2013 is an umbrella project for several company R&D projects. The aim is to have different fuel cell applications of several companies in simultaneous operation during the latter part of year 2013 and demonstrate a collaborative long term field test of noiseless and emission-free energy applications. Results will be based on user experience and feedback the field tests. Applications include power plant, material handling equipment, backup power, light vehicles and a hydrogen refueling station.
A critical factor for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the existence of a hydrogen distribution infrastructure. The Finnish company Woikoski Oy is building the first hydrogen refueling station in Finland at the Arctic Driving Center in Rovaniemi, Finland. A similar station will be used in the Demo2013 project in Vuosaari Harbour, demonstrating simultaneous operation of different fuel cell applications and long term field tests of noiseless and emission-free energy applications.
Together with Gaia Consulting and Attorneys at law Borenius, Spinverse in conducting a study on REACH contribution to development of emerging technologies. The project started in June 2011 and final results will be published in February 2012.
European sources can provide very substantial support for company’s investment in R&D. For example, compared to TEKES, the percentages of allocated funding can be larger: 50% for demonstrations, 75% for research activities and 100% for the coordination of projects. On the other hand, the competition in all EU-funding is tougher, and the amount of bureaucracy higher.