Boosting innovation in the renewable energy sector
An EU funded project is boosting innovation in the renewable energy and energy efficiency fields by providing practical help to scientists whose research results have the potential to be transformed into commercially viable products or services. The project is called ProRETT (Promotion of Renewable Energy Technology Transfer). 'Innovation is the single most complicated exercise we have detected, and in the energy sector it is especially complicated,' says Katharina Krell, Secretary General of EUREC (the European Renewable Energy Centres Agency), which is coordinating the project. Speaking at a workshop organised by the project partners as part of the EU's Sustainable Energy Week, Ms Krell pointed out that all too often, publicly funded research results were not being fully exploited. 'We are wasting public money that has been invested in science,' she commented. 'I strongly believe that publicly funded R&D should find its way onto the market as a product or service.' The ProRETT project brings together representatives of all the sectors needed for the successful exploitation of research results, including researchers, technology transfer professionals, a venture capital fund, a bank and the renewable energy industry. Together, they plan to address the technical barriers to transforming research results into innovations, promote the market uptake of new energy technologies by European companies and start-ups and develop best practices and policy recommendations. The project has identified a number of R&D results from publicly funded research in the renewable energy and energy efficiency fields which are ready for innovation activities. The project partners are now helping the researchers to take their work to the next level by agreeing on a commercialisation vision and designing a set of business model options. Services offered by the project partners include help developing a business plan, making contacts with investors, information on intellectual property rights management and advice on how to create a start-up or set up a licensing deal. Access to funding for the exploitation of research results is extremely competitive. Uffe Bundgaard-Jørgensen, CEO of InvestorNet pointed out that the vast majority of proposals for funding sent to investors end up in the bin because they fail to convince the investor that the plan has a realistic chance of making money. 'Investors invest in order to get rich!' he pointed out. ProRETT aims to help researchers develop business plans which will get them a meeting with the investor, a stage reached by only 10% of proposals. However, Dr Bundgaard-Jørgensen pointed out that only 10% of these will go on to receive funding. Through the ProRETT project and the EU's Gate2Growth portal, researchers can access tools which will help them assess whether their business plan is ready to be sent to investors. One major problem in designing business plans is that many researchers underestimate how long it will take for their venture to become profitable. As Serge Galant, CEO of Technofi pointed out, 'there are huge costs for demonstration and commercialisation.' This period where an enterprise is just starting out but fails due to a lack of investment is known as Death Valley, and Mr Galant warned would-be entrepreneurs not to underestimate its depth. Currently the ProRETT project partners are focusing their efforts on 16 initiatives from across Europe which they believe have the potential to develop products or services that could succeed on the market. At the workshop, case studies of some of these initiatives were presented. The FutureE initiative has developed high performance, cost efficient fuel cells. ProRETT has helped them to set up a start-up company and is now providing assistance in the hunt for investors. Meanwhile the Lithojet project has developed a new drilling technology for geothermal wells. Currently, drilling takes a long time and is expensive; the new technique is much quicker and involves melting the rock to create the hole. With help from ProRETT, the Lithojet team decided to form a company and are currently applying for patents for their technology.