TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER PROJECTS

As a rule, research results are still a large step away from a concrete product. For market relevance, further investments must be made in the development of the technology, the process, or the software.

To close the resulting financing gap, KIT has "TT projects". These are technology transfer projects that are carried out by an institute together with an industrial partner and in which KIT invests its own central funds.

KIT and an industrial partner further develop an idea, research results, or technology until it becomes a marketable product or process. The financial expenditure is shared equally by the Innovation Fund and the partner. The product is then marketed by the industrial partner. The success on the market determines the returns to KIT, which are divided between the scientist, the institute, and the Innovation Fund.

Are you interested in a grant from the NEULAND - Innovation Fund? Then please contact our contact persons. They will check whether all requirements are met and support you in preparing the TT application. Information on the structure of the TT application can be found in our guidelines.

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The path to the technology transfer project

The Innovation Fund is not tied to a specific program or subject area, nor to a term, budget amount or call deadline. Individual funding is determined by the market potential of the product idea. The higher the later market potential and thus the expected return on investment (ROI) is estimated to be, the more can be invested in product development.

The only prerequisite for an investment from the fund is the willingness of an industrial partner to participate in the project both technically and financially by bearing the costs incurred by the partner itself. The entire project costs of the institute are pre-financed by the fund and are to be refinanced after the market launch by a participation in the later turnover (ROI) of the company. The higher the later market potential of the product idea and thus the expected ROI is estimated, the more can be invested in product development in advance.

You can submit an application for funding at any time. Application reviews for the Innovation Fund take place on an ongoing basis throughout the year by a steering committee.

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FUNDED PROJECTS

At KIT, new innovations, technologies or processes are constantly being developed. An important step for successful technology transfer is the cooperation with an industrial partner. In the following overview, we present a selection of successful TT projects of KIT.

MEASUREMENT OF ICE NUCLEI PARTICLES.

Institute: Institute for Meteorology and Climate Research (IMK-AAF)

Cooperation partner: Bilfinger Noell GmbH, University of Leeds

Start: 15.02.2018

Duration: 1 year 6 months

Ice core particles are the source of primary ice formation in clouds and often influence the formation and temporal and spatial distribution of precipitation. The goal of "PINE - Portable Ice Nucleation Experiment'" is to develop a modular and automated expansion chamber to measure these particles.

 

The functional principle of the PINE mobile expansion chamber is based on volume expansion, which is already known from the KIT aerosol chamber AIDA. In this process, the aerosol particles taken from the ambient air are activated inside the chamber to form mist droplets. Depending on the initial temperature of the chamber as well as the extracted air, a small part of the droplets freezes and forms larger ice crystals. Both the smaller droplets and the large ice crystals are measured with an optical particle counter to determine the concentration of ice nucleating particles (INPs) as well as the total particle concentration. PINE, unlike AIDA, is not limited to INP measurements and ice nucleation research and will function for chambers of variable size and different ranges of wall temperature and sampling pressure. This makes PINE the first instrument capable of automatically measuring long-term series of INP concentrations with high sensitivity, time resolution, and over a wide temperature range.

The Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research of KIT is working on this development together with the University of Leeds and Bilfinger Noell GmbH. Bilfinger brings a high level of competence in the field of refrigeration technology and was already intensively involved in the development of the new dynamic cloud chamber AIDA-2.

Image: The project team around PINE

MULTICENTER CLINICAL STUDY OF BREAST CANCER DIAGNOSIS.

Institute: Institute for Process Data Processing and Electronics (IPE)

Cooperation partner: Realcan Pharmaceutical Co, Ltd.

Start: 15.03.2018

Duration: 3 years 6 months

Together with Realcan Pharmaceutical, the IPE project team aims to develop the next generation of 3D ultrasound computed tomography (USCT) and validate the screening method for early breast cancer detection in a multi-center clinical trial in China and certify it for use in hospitals.

The availability of a cost-effective method for the early detection of breast cancer based on medical imaging techniques and thus a very early treatment option opens up the opportunity to significantly increase the survival rate of affected women. The Institute for Data Processing and Electronics (IPE) at KIT aims at developing an imaging 3D ultrasound tomography system (USCT) capable of detecting very small tumors with a diameter of up to 5 mm and enabling targeted biopsies.

Currently, the prototype 3D USCT II is being evaluated in close cooperation with the University Hospital Mannheim in a test series with approx. 200 test persons in order to verify the significance of the procedure in comparison to mammography and MRI. On the one hand, the cooperation with Realcan offers the opportunity to develop the next generation of the USCT system to market maturity. On the other hand, direct contacts to a large number of clinics via the distribution network of the Chinese pharmaceutical company can support the validation and recognition of the USCT screening method. It is planned to examine more than a thousand test subjects in parallel in several clinics in a multi-center clinical study and to use the data sets both for validation and for general acceptance and establishment of the screening method in medicine.

The USCT method is already considered an innovative alternative to mammography. It enables an early and thus better diagnosis of breast cancer without the radiation risk associated with mammography.

Image: Functional principle of the 3D ultrasound tomography system.

 

PHOTONIC MARKERS

Institute: Institute for Microstructure Technology (IMT)

Cooperation partner: Polysecure GmbH

Start: 01.05.2015

Duration: 3 years

In the context of the technology transfer project "ParMESaN" (Photonic Markers for anti-counterfeiting solutions and plastic sorting), KIT is working together with Polysecure on new ways to separate different plastics by type and to identify counterfeit products by means of fluorescent markers.

Since in the case of complaints or damage claims, brand manufacturers often have the difficult task of proving that the product is a counterfeit and not their original, they incur considerable costs due to product piracy. In the TT project "ParMESan", the KIT team and its industrial partner Polysecure are trying to apply a kind of fingerprint identification to the product by doping it with fluorescent markers, which is invisible to the naked eye. Only when the developed markers are irradiated (excited), for example with laser light of a specific wavelength, is a glow in fluorescent colors achieved through upconversion fluorescence. Depending on the materials used, this can glow from red through yellow and green to blue. The resulting pattern can be flawlessly identified in a tamper-proof manner and used as a viable and economical solution to ubiquitous product piracy.

Fluorescent markers can also be used to great effect in the plastics recycling sector. On the one hand, to sort materials that are very similar and cannot be easily differentiated by other methods - for example, fiber-reinforced plastics that need to be separated from identical, pure plastics. On the other hand, the fingerprint can also be used to separate a large number of plastics from each other in terms of shape and color so that they can be specifically reused - e.g. food packaging (drinking bottles) is returned to the beverage industry. This would be a great contribution to the circular economy concept. The task and competence of KIT in this project is to identify and develop new materials, optimize their quantum yield, and contribute to their industrial production.

Image: Plastic identification by means of optical detection

KALIBIO

Institute: Institute for Technical Chemistry (ITC)

Cooperation partner: VITROCELL Systems GmbH, Waldkirch

Start: 2012

Duration: 3 years

In cooperation with VITROCELL Systems GmbH, the project team is developing an automated system for the exposure of lung cells to ultrafine aerosols.

In Air-Liquid-Interface (ALI) exposure, cell cultures are exposed to gases or aerosols and their biological effects are subsequently investigated. The ALI technique has distinct advantages because the lung cells are treated under physiological conditions and the low particle dose is measured.

In the KALIBIO project, an automated measuring device for ALI exposure of bioassays was developed and introduced to the market. Based on campaign experience, safe-by-design solutions for operation and experiments were developed and implemented. The exposure system is now used by research institutes in Munich, Rostock, Oslo (Norway) and Bilthoven (Netherlands) to assess the toxicity of nanoparticles from industry and combustion.

Publications:

Metabolic Profiling as Well as Stable Isotope Assisted Metabolic and Proteomic Analysis of RAW 264.7 Macrophages Exposed to Ship Engine Aerosol Emissions: Different Effects of Heavy Fuel Oil and Refined Diesel Fuel.

Toxicity testing of combustion aerosols at the air-liquid interface with a self-contained and easy-to-use exposure system.

Particulate matter from both heavy fuel oil and diesel fuel shipping emissions show strong biological effects on human lung cells at realistic and comparable in vitro exposure conditions.

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