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25. June 2020
Every year, dozens of new discoveries and results of research activities are created at CEITEC BUT. The internal Innovation Entrepreneurship Award aims to identify and support these projects with a potentially significant impact on practice and the precondition for application in industry. Within the historically first year of the competition, two projects were awarded, which will receive financial support to reduce costs in putting innovations into practice, enable the start-up of a new company start-up or spin-off or obtain professional consultations.
So far, the only, but very successful spin-off company that was established at CEITEC BUT is the company NenoVision, which developed a uniquely accurate microscope combining a classic two-dimensional image from an electron microscope and a three-dimensional image from an atomic force microscope.
"The management of CEITEC BUT strives to support scientists in their possible business activities. And also to provide them with a network of existing contacts, pass on experience and enable the use of the immediate vicinity of Czech and foreign companies in the Technology Park, which is known as a business incubator," said Vojtěch Helikar, CEITEC BUT Business Manager for Industry Cooperation.
As part of the historically first year of the Innovation Entrepreneurship Award, the commission evaluated a total of four projects, and decided to financially support two of them. The first project is a unique motorized manipulator for X-ray computed tomography specially designed for the analysis of industrial parts. Tomáš Zikmund's "XY Translation Stage" should be of interest to research institutions or industrial companies that use their own CT systems for non-destructive testing. "Thanks to the innovative design and control concept, the manipulator speeds up and refines the CT measurement process and is able to save up to 1 hour of work in a one-shift operation," describes Tomáš Zikmund, from the research group Material Characterization and Advanced Coatings.
The project of the research group Advanced Ceramic Materials will look for its customers in the defense industry. This is a method of preparing ceramic-metal composite armor. The research team dealing with ballistic resistant materials has long cooperated with companies in the field, such as Excalibur Army, CoorsTek, Bodges or Prototypa, for example, and performs ballistic tests on this new and patent-protected material.
“Compared to the additional armor available on the market, our solution does not contain any adhesives or polymer fibers, and its biggest advantage is its unlimited service life. An undeniable advantage is also the wide range of temperatures in which the material can be used. Military vehicles protected by this armor can thus be deployed in both subarctic and desert areas, " said Martin Kachlík, representative of the second awarded project, explaining the most significant contribution of the new armor.
"The handover of the award and financial support to Tomáš Zikmund and Martin Kachlík ended the introductory round of the Innovation Entrepreneurship Award 2020. At the same time, it is the beginning of a period when CEITEC BUT begins to support researchers seeking to put into practice the innovations they invented. I believe that these two projects will build on the success of NenoVision, " summarizes the first year of the competition explains Radimír Vrba, director of the CEITEC BUT research center, summarizing the first year of the competition.
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