📋 Tender Overview
How do innovations get from the laboratory to the wider world? There are different ways to do this, summarized under the term technology transfer. Marlen Muller heads up knowledge and technology transfer at Empa and explains in an interview why cooperation with industry is in the Empa DNA, what makes Switzerland so innovative and how researchers benefit from industrial projects.
Marlen Muller, what is meant by technology transfer?Technology transfer - applied to Empa - means bringing research results from our laboratories to industry. At Empa, this happens primarily through direct cooperation with companies or through the establishment of spin-offs by our researchers. Viewed holistically, however, technology transfer also includes the transfer of minds: when our researchers accept positions in industry or public administration, they bring the knowledge they have acquired at Empa into society. How important is technology transfer at Empa?In addition to research and teaching, technology transfer is one of Empas cornerstones. We see ourselves as a bridge between research on the one hand and industry and society on the other. Collaboration with industry is in our DNA: Empa was founded as a materials testing institute. Even back then, the benefit for society and the economy was our top priority. Empa has since developed into a renowned research institute, but we have always maintained and even further expanded our close ties with Swiss industry in particular.
Does this distinguish Empa from other research institutions?Most universities and research institutes now have technology transfer offices. As a materials research institute, however, we can offer a lot, because practically everything that industry does has to do with materials or processes. And this is precisely where Empa has its core competencies: We research the entire range of materials, from wood and ceramics to nano and quantum materials to thin films and composites. Our researchers have extensive experience with inter- and transdisciplinary collaboration, and it is not uncommon for several research groups with a wide range of expertise to work together in industrial projects to develop new solutions, thereby creating real added value for our partners. In addition, our demonstrators NEST, ehub, and move offer industry unique platforms to test their innovations under real conditions. What type of technology transfer is most important for Empa?Our most important channel for technology transfer to industry is direct collaboration with our industrial partners. We have around 130 Innosuisse projects every year. These result in products, patents, software, and technologies. We contractually regulate the terms of collaboration as well as ownership and use of the research results with our project partners. Sometimes the project ideas come from our researchers, but often they arise from a direct need in industry, for example when a company wants to replace a material with an environmentally friendly alternative or optimize a manufacturing process to save energy. How do companies benefit from such cooperation?Our implementation partners are often Swiss SMEs that are too small to operate their own research and development departments. Personnel, time and resources are also often scarce. However, many Swiss SMEs operate on the global market, where they have to assert themselves against international competition. Joint Innosuisse projects with Empa strengthen their innovative strength and thus the Swiss economy as a whole. But cooperation with us is also attractive for large companies. Even if they already conduct their own research and development, they can venture closer to basic research with us. In Empas demonstrators they can also test the new technologies and materials in a real environment. A prime example of this is the brand new NEST unit STEP2, which focuses on new digital design and manufacturing techniques with innovative materials and a comprehensive energy and comfort concept. The unit was planned and built together with BASF and other industrial partners. And what do the researchers get out of it? Our researchers can also publish their results in industrial projects after consultation with our partners. This is contractually regulated, because academic work is extremely important for researchers, especially doctoral students. At the same time, cooperation with industry is a valuable experience for young researchers.
It comesIt is not uncommon for researchers to find jobs in industry through Innosuisse projects. Switzerland is considered to be an extremely innovative country. Do we owe this to a well-established technology transfer?Switzerland is a knowledge society. We have few natural resources, so we have always had to secure our prosperity through innovation. We are particularly strong when it comes to the number of patent applications, which has earned us first place in the Global Innovation Index (GII) and similar rankings. But we cannot rest on our laurels here: great ideas alone are not enough; innovation is about actually bringing these ideas to market, i.e. introducing new or improved products, services or processes. In addition, other countries such as China are catching up quickly. What does the future of technology transfer at Empa look like?We want to provide our industrial partners with closer support after the project has been completed. Before the new process is implemented or the new product is on the market, a few important steps still need to be taken by the partner. This can be a challenge, especially for SMEs. In the longer term, we are also observing a trend towards open source in research: more and more research funders such as the EU are demanding open source approaches and open access to research data as a prerequisite for funding. This is changing technology transfer.
