December 8, 2022, 14:00 – 15:30 CET
YEAR is organising the final webinar of 2022 showcasing the success story of three spin-offs from our member RTOs. Research is the place where groundbreaking and disruptive ideas are born. But the challenge is how to bring these great ideas to a higher business level? And how do you bring the right people together, find the right financial profiles and refine your business plan?
The speakers in this webinar have developed their ideas into a successful start-up. They will describe their road from research to market.
AGENDA
14:00 – 14:05 Introduction
14:05 – 14:25 The story of eniferBio by Simo Ellilä, spin-off from VTT
14:25 – 14:45 A SINTEF journey from an internal project on Thermal Energy Storage to a start-up by Alexis Sevault
14:45 – 15:05 The story of Firecomms by Dr John D. Lambkin, spin-off from Tyndall
15:05 – 15:30 Spin-off Q&A
BIOGRAPHIES
The story of eniferBio – Simo Ellilä from VTT
Simo Ellilä is the CEO and Co-founder of eniferBio, a Finnish biotech start-up producing game-changing protein ingredients through fermentation. A biochemist by training, prior to spinning out the company from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Simo worked for 10 years in biorefining R&D, project management and sales, in Finland and in Brazil. His core expertise is in fungal fermentation, and using fungal biotech to valorize industrial side-streams into value-added products
EniferBio is a biotech company spun out from VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in 2020 working in the alternative protein sector. The company develops the so-called PEKILO fermentation process, which produces sustainable mycoprotein ingredients for application in animal and human nutrition. A unique Finnish innovation, the core process was originally developed already in the 1970s and saw more than 15 years of industrial application at the time. With global protein demand exploding in the 2000s, eniferBio has revamped this tried and tested solution and is ready to go global.
A SINTEF journey from an internal project on Thermal Energy Storage to a start-up – Alexis Sevault from SINTEF
Alexis Sevault is the Research Manager of the Energy Storage group at SINTEF Energy Research (Norway). He started to work on an innovative technology for thermal energy storage just about 5 years ago. Since then, the technology has been successfully demonstrated at pilot scale and proves to have so much potential to effectively provide flexibility to energy systems that he and his colleagues are now paving the ground for a spin-off company. The startup will be established in 2023 and will produce the energy storage technology to customers both from the building and industry sectors. Alexis will tell more about his journey from research to startup and all the lessons learnt so far.
The story of Firecomms – Dr John D. Lambkin from Tyndall
Dr John D. Lambkin is a co-founder and managing director of Firecomms. Firecomms is a technology company whose principal business is manufacturing optical transceivers for use in industrial power electronics and medical applications. R&D, product development, sales and marketing are located in Cork, Ireland and manufacturing is located in China. Prior to establishing Firecomms, Dr Lambkin was a senior research scientist at the Tyndall National Institute in Ireland managing research consortia funded by the EU. He holds a BSc and PhD in Physics from the University of Surrey, UK and has 30 years of experience in the research and development of semiconductor light sources, components and their applications.