Abstract
(Englisch)
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The main objective of the Europractice initiative is to promote the commercial use of advanced technology by delivering global solutions at low risk and reasonable cost. In this respect, our centre of competence has targeted its effort in attracting small and medium size companies involved in bio-analysis. To explore with these new application possibilities the following tasks were delivered:
· Proactive prospecting and potential user contacts
· Feasibility studies, project and concept evaluations
· Customer support, bridging to manufacturing, technology transfer
· Design service and customisation of components
· Training and dissemination
Over two years of activity the centre has made 127 contacts by direct and indirect prospecting methods, from which 43 quotations have been sent for a total value of 1.8 M€. To date, the generated net income is 911 K€, which represents twice the current centre expenditures or 1.8 times the requested budget. Two additional projects under evaluation will possibly increase the income by 861 K€. If granted, the total income will reach over 1.77 M€, from which 990 K€ are directly paid by the customer while the rest is financed by external funds. This will correspond to 1.5 and 3 times the total requested budget, without and with the help of public funding sources, respectively. Aside from our consulting activities (studies and evaluations) the major part of our activity dealt with low volume manufacturing of sensors. Small quantities of devices, i.e. 1 to 10 wafers (10-100 devices, or 100 to 1000 chips) were requested for evaluation purpose. These projects were in general directly paid by the customer, whereas further development eventually called for external funding from national and European funds regardless of the company size. As a general observation, proves of concept still need to be established, particularly in the bio-analysis field, as the number of commercially successful microsystem-based products remains limited.
The ultimate success criteria for the centre activity is the number of microtechnology based products that have entered the market. As the duration of this project is limited to two years, this period is rather short to complete the entire product development cycle and market introduction. The achievement of the centre can thus be measured by the number of projects for which the feasibility studies have been successfully completed and which have entered into the conceptual phase. Most successful projects concerned 3 cases of product development and 2 technology transfers and 1 technology development. The latter illustrates in particular how a business core technology has been adapted to a new application area. Mostly active as subcontractor of plastic parts for the automotive and watch industry, preliminary investigations have shown to the customer new market opportunities in life sciences. This project outcome will eventually lead to a patent filing.
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