Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ATTRACT2 (Breakthrough Innovation Programme for a Pan-European Detection and Imaging Eco-System – Phase-2)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-02-01 bis 2022-07-31
Six of Europe’s leading scientific laboratories have joined forces with industry and experts in business and entrepreneurship to develop next-generation scientific tools and co-create new products, companies and jobs.
The six labs – CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (European XFEL) and Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) – will partner with Aalto University, European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA) and Esade Business and Law Schools.
For the first time, this consortium of big research infrastructure projects — including telescopes, particle accelerators and other capital-intensive scientific instruments — and leveraging in the know-how of industry and business and entrepreneurship experts will be explicitly used to generate and capture value, create jobs and promote growth.
Historically, promising deep-tech ventures have struggled to reach commercialisation – the process of turning scientific breakthroughs into viable products and services is incredibly risky.
ATTRACT is able to support innovation by helping to absorb (phase 1) then minimise (phase 2) that risky process, and by offering funding and expertise that would be extremely difficult for projects to gain through market forces alone.
In doing so, the ATTRACT initiative is helping to ensure that breakthrough ideas are not overlooked or lost along the way – and that instead, they have a solid chance of becoming products and services that benefit society.
The six labs – CERN, the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (European XFEL) and Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL) – will partner with Aalto University, European Industrial Research Management Association (EIRMA) and Esade Business and Law Schools.
For the first time, this consortium of big research infrastructure projects — including telescopes, particle accelerators and other capital-intensive scientific instruments — and leveraging in the know-how of industry and business and entrepreneurship experts will be explicitly used to generate and capture value, create jobs and promote growth.
Historically, promising deep-tech ventures have struggled to reach commercialisation – the process of turning scientific breakthroughs into viable products and services is incredibly risky.
ATTRACT is able to support innovation by helping to absorb (phase 1) then minimise (phase 2) that risky process, and by offering funding and expertise that would be extremely difficult for projects to gain through market forces alone.
In doing so, the ATTRACT initiative is helping to ensure that breakthrough ideas are not overlooked or lost along the way – and that instead, they have a solid chance of becoming products and services that benefit society.
The ATTRACT initiative’s overall goal is to turn scientific breakthroughs in imaging, detection and computational technologies into commercialised products and services for industrial markets.
In 2018, ATTRACT launched an open call for breakthrough ideas. An independent research and development and innovation (R&D&I) committee selected 170 promising projects. Each was awarded €100,000 to develop a proof-of-concept in 12 months. With ATTRACT phase 1 now complete, the 170 selected projects have reached the end of the 12-months permitted to develop a proof-of-concept. Now, ATTRACT phase 2 will take forward the most promising opportunities. In this phase, the emphasis will be on turning the proof-of-concepts into clear applications in the realms of science and industry and, in parallel, generating new business and products for citizens. This phase will place special emphasis on relationship-building activities – connecting projects with one another, student researchers, and potential investors – to maximise the benefits of the new technologies on society. By the end of ATTRACT phase 2, the projects should be ready to shift from taxpayer funding to investment from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, helping to boost Europe as a preeminent hub for deep-tech ventures.
In 2018, ATTRACT launched an open call for breakthrough ideas. An independent research and development and innovation (R&D&I) committee selected 170 promising projects. Each was awarded €100,000 to develop a proof-of-concept in 12 months. With ATTRACT phase 1 now complete, the 170 selected projects have reached the end of the 12-months permitted to develop a proof-of-concept. Now, ATTRACT phase 2 will take forward the most promising opportunities. In this phase, the emphasis will be on turning the proof-of-concepts into clear applications in the realms of science and industry and, in parallel, generating new business and products for citizens. This phase will place special emphasis on relationship-building activities – connecting projects with one another, student researchers, and potential investors – to maximise the benefits of the new technologies on society. By the end of ATTRACT phase 2, the projects should be ready to shift from taxpayer funding to investment from venture capitalists and entrepreneurs, helping to boost Europe as a preeminent hub for deep-tech ventures.
Please see submitted technical report and deliverables