Insights

FIMECC research programmes have already proven their strength as target-oriented public-private partnerships (PPP), capable of creating new solutions and implementing results effectively. Now a new wave of intensive research cooperation between academia and industry is brought alive through an industry-led FIMECC Breakthrough Materials Doctoral School. Built as a part of the FIMECC BSA and HYBRIDS programmes launched in the beginning of 2014, it will involve 22 doctoral students in its first phase. Focusing on fundamental scientific challenges and modelling, this multi-disciplinary group of young scientists with their senior advisors and international partners will tackle critical research questions set by the companies involved to build new solutions and relevant competence for the industry.

FIMECC has launched two new research programs that will have a major impact in bringing innovative and sustainable materials solutions for many emerging and growing industry sectors. The programs will also enable a major renewal in the Finnish metals and engineering cluster. Spinverse facilitated the preparation of these novel industry driven public-private partnership (PPP) programs and has now been selected to manage both of them.

The Green Growth & Cleantech Summit 25.2.2014 in Helsinki brought together over 600 top Finnish influencers and experts. Tekes’ Green Growth programme, coordinated by Spinverse, was one of the main partners of the event.

The Final seminar of the Tekes Functional Materials programme coordinated by Spinverse gathered together close to 300 experts at The Circus, Helsinki, 11.12.13. The event arranged in a former rock club provided a cosy atmosphere for digesting the scientific novelties and technological result highlights provided by short and sharp presentations. A special session and exhibition focusing on “Coatings & manufacturing” showcased highlights regarding the theme. Exciting keynote speakers: Prof. Nasser Peyghambarian (holographic telepresence), Paul Kallmes (Strategic IP Management) and Kivi Sotamaa (Design & 3D manufacturing), a bunch of fresh result highlights from science and industry and a multi-disciplinary audience made it THE EVENT in the field. The “hard day’s night” culminated with an interactive networking session around demos, posters and live blues music – a great forum to build new ideas, multi-disciplinary co-operation and next steps to the future.

Resource scarcity is the new trend. We have e.g. too little clean water, energy, and rare raw materials. At the same time many resource side-flows from production are being thrown away or seen as waste. The mountains of garbage at the landfills are growing as we speak. Could your waste be my gold? Can this even be seen as a new underused business opportunity? According to the CTOSurvey2014, the respondents believe so.

Inefficient solid waste disposal is a huge global problem that has substantial deteriorating effect on our quality of life. The nasty consequences include emissions, hazardous effect on human health, environment pollution, health problems and land depletion.

European partnership focusing on nanoelectronics ENIAC Joint Undertaking has granted funding for a project coordinated by Okmetic Oyj. The total budget of the “Processes for MEMS by Inkjet Enhanced Technologies,” or PROMINENT project is 9.4 M€, and the coordination is managed by Spinverse Oy.

On March 12th Beneq opened a subsidiary and operations in Saint Petersburg to commercialise its atomic layer deposition technology (ALD) in the Russian market. As part of the overall strategy, the company will sign an agreement to launch a joint laboratory for research and development of industrial applications in ALD with Saint Petersburg State Electrotechnical University (SpbGETU).

Finnish Chief Technology Officers have stayed optimistic according to the CTO Survey 2013, which was published last week. Almost half of the CTOs believe in increasing their R&D investments and nearly a third their recruitments. The number has however decreased from the last two years.

The Spinverse coordinated Tekes Fuel Cell programme will have an exhibition stand and organise a delegation to the world's largest exhibition and conference specialised in Hydrogen & Fuel Cell: 9th Int'l Hydrogen & Fuel Cell Expo. The event is held in Tokyo 27.2.-1.3.2013 as part of the World Smart Energy Week - exhibition.