The business opportunity detected at SIMUNE is that currently no company offers support and complementary software tools for an open-source scientific code to cover all the needs of the industrial field. This combination of solutions (services and products) includes professional support, guarantee, tools and usability comparable, or even better, than existing commercial alternatives. SIMUNE takes as a starting point a scientific atomistic simulation code developed by the founders of SIMUNE; a popular, prestigious and widely used DFT atomistic simulation open source software in the scientific community named SIESTA. SIMUNE has focused its efforts in developing product and commercial strategy taking advantage of the SME Instrument program.
The main strategy for SIMUNE has focused on promoting and extending capabilities of using (high power) computing for scientific research purposes through complex software tools. While this objective must be achieved in a profitable business manner, it is ultimately the same driver in principle as existing objectives in the general scientific community; more knowledge sharing to advance in new scientific discoveries that will translate into advantages for our society. Atomistic simulation can provide insight to challenging problems that our current society faces such as diseases, environmental issues and other challenges that prevent higher quality of life in general. After all everything that exists (we see
and touch) is formed by atomic structures, so clearly understanding and controlling the properties of matter may help improve our way of life in all different aspects. While experimental approaches of science have worked through history to result in great advances, trial and error approaches are slow and very costly. Calculating and anticipating properties of atomic structures is an effective way that will allow to shortcut the path (and costs) to successful results in the laboratory. It is this principle that presents a great potential for socio-economic impact of SIMUNE's work in our society. The closer we get to SIMUNE's objectives as a company, the greater the impact will produce in our society.
The objectives set for the current business plan duration of the SME Instrument project are to revise at SIMUNE and initiate the execution of the updated plan to become a profitable company while contributing to the scientific community. SIMUNE's ultimate long term goal is to adopt open source scientific software tools to improve their functionality and guarantee the longevity for academics and industry users. All this while maintaining a profitable status as a company and expanding its customer base and product offering.
