Have you ever had a great idea or research outcome and wondered if it might lead to commercial opportunities, such as forming the basis of a startup company or collaborations with industry?

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This workshop is aimed at colleagues who are interested in developing their academic research into real-world applications. It will explore some of the challenges you might face when translating your research from the lab into commercial outcomes. Experienced colleagues from different research environments will share their research translation journeys, highlighting opportunities, revealing common pitfalls and demonstrating mitigation strategies to create real-world impact. These will include:

• Dr Monique Deon (Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Brazil), who co-founded the start-up company Formula-3D in 2020 in Brazil. The company is currently developing 3D printing technology for manufacturing personalized pharmaceuticals in Brazil.

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• Professor Stephane Parola (École normale supérieure de Lyon, France), a cofounder of the startup Mathym, which was launched in 2014 and is currently commercialising a unique nanomaterials portfolio using dedicated R&D facilities and a versatile manufacturing line.

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• Professor Aleksandra Lobnik (University of Maribor and Institute of Environmental Protection and Sensors (IOS), Slovenia), who launched IOS as a startup company in 2006 based on research undertaken by her team at the University of Maribor on topics including water treatment and sensors for agroindustry.

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• Dr Daniel Mann (TNO, The Netherlands and Hasselt University, Belgium), a researcher at TNO (an independent research and technology organisation) and guest professor at Hasselt University, involved in translating university research into commercial applications, including scaleup, real-world testing and implementation of new technologies such as thermochromic smart windows.

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• Professor Kazuki Nakanishi (Kyoto University, Japan), whose academic work on developing techniques for precisely controlling the pore structure of silica has been commercialised by Merck KGaA to manufacture high-performance monolithic chromatography columns as alternatives to conventional particle-packed HPLC columns.

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• Dr Sophie Senani – de Monredon (Safran), a senior group expert in coatings and nanomaterials, who will present the perspective of larger companies on technology transfer challenges. (More information to come.)

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The workshop will conclude with a dynamic panel discussion, in which the presenters will address questions posed by participants on topics such as obtaining seed funding; intellectual property; addressing challenges in scale-up and real-world applications of new technologies; involving PhD students in industrial R&D; career opportunities in industry; etc.

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Schedule for the Workshop (More information to come.)

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9h00 – 9h15: Registration, Welcome and Opening Comments

9h15 – 10h00: Speaker n°1

10h00 – 10h45: Speaker n°2

10h45 – 11h15: Coffee break

11h15 – 12h00: Speaker n°3

12h00 - 12h45: Speaker n°4

12h45 - 14h00: Lunch break

14h00 – 14h45: Speaker n°5

14h45 – 15h30: Speaker n°6

15h30 – 16h00: Coffee break

16h00 – 17h00: Panel discussion and closing comment

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• Professor John Bartlett (co-chair) - Western Sydney University (Australia)
• ‍Dr Maria Basso (co-chair) - University of Cologne (Germany)
• ‍Dr Mathilde Laird (co-chair) - CNRS and Université de Bordeaux (France)
• ‍Dr Elena Colusso - University of Padova (Italy)
• ‍Dr Esteban Gioria - Universität Leipzig (Germany)
• ‍Dr Claudio Imparato - University of Naples Federico II (Italy)
• ‍Dr Jakub Kusz - Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces (Germany)
• ‍Dr Gabriel Tayama - Université Laval (Canada)
• Dr Virginia Venezia - University of Naples Federico II (Italy)

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