CAROTS Conference

Tuesday 15 Sept 2020, 10:00 → 12:00 Europe/Berlin

Online

Miriam Hufnagl (DESY ITT), Uwe Sassenberg (PT-DESY)

Bridging the gap between Science and Business: How to empower Intermediary Companies

A web conference organised by CAROTS in cooperation with Science|Business

15 September 2020, online, 10:00 - 12:00 CEST

 

Please follow this link https://vimeo.com/event/288129 to watch the CAROTS webcast conference “Bridging the gap between Science and Business: How to empower Intermediary Companies” live on Vimeo.

Interact with us on Twitter @carotseu and through #Empower_CAROTS and ask speakers questions in the Vimeo chat box.

 

There are high expectations by society and policy makers today, that science and research should expand and improve their interaction with industry to solve the grand challenges of our time, like fighting cancer, climate change or the current COVID-19 pandemic. To unlock the innovation potential of research infrastructures like particle accelerators or x-ray lasers we therefore need disruptive, faster and rearranged cooperation patterns with industry partners in order to work on solutions for these pressing societal problems.

A great way of bridging the world of science and industry is the creation of micro and small sized private companies acting as an intermediary between research infrastructures and industrial customers, providing targeted support and consultation based on analytical research and measurement services in a variety of fields on a contractual basis – so called Commercial Analytical Research Organisations (CAROs).

What to expect?
This conference aims at spreading the word on improving research-industry cooperation and showcasing these intermediary companies and how they work. 

The event will

• address the importance and conditions of this new type of enterprise acting as intermediary between industry and academic research
• showcase successful intermediary companies and the business models that made them excel
• show which public support programs for intermediary companies already exist within the Baltic Sea Region
• explore which additional examples of financing could help to support new intermediary companies and hence boost innovation and encourage entrepreneurship in the BSR

Conference speakers are:

• Caterina Biscari, Director ALBA Synchrotron
• Lizzy Harmstorf, Liasion Officer EU Projects, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY
• Bernhard Hesse, CEO of Xploraytion GmbH
• Simon Jacques, Managing Director of Finden Ltd
• Johannes Klumpers, Head of Research and Industrial Infrastructures Unit at European Commission
• Ernst Lutz, President of EIRMA (European Industrial Research Management Association)
• Anna Stenstam, CEO of CR Compentence AB

Who should attend?
This event is aimed at policy makers from the EU Commission, science ministries, science community, regional development agencies, representatives of CAROs, representatives of analytical research facilities, knowledge institutions, industry and business representatives and financial investors.

Minutes CAROTS_Midterm_Conference_Programme.pdf

10:00 → 10:05 Conference Introduction

10:05 → 10:45 Modul 1: A disruptive approach to industrial research: Explaining Commercial Analytical Research Organisations (CAROs)

Commercial analytical research organisations (CAROs) are profit-seeking micro and small sized private companies acting as an intermediary between research infrastructures and industrial customers, providing targeted support and consultation based on analytical research and measurement services in a variety of fields on a contractual basis. Due to their high degree of specialization they are internationally sought-after, as they act as absolute specialist experts in their area. However, there are still very few established businesses in this area of expertise in Europe so far. How do successful CAROs work, collaborate and excel? Meet their CEOs and find out.

The way we work: Impulse by Anna Stenstam, CEO of CR Compentence AB (Sweden)
o How do we work?
o How to start a CARO and run a successful business?
o What’s its USP?
o What are the major challenges for CAROs?

The way we solve challenges: Impulse by Bernhard Hesse, CEO of Xploraytion GmbH (Germany)
o Being empowered to start a business
o How to facilitate cooperation and solution seeking between different parties (CARO & Industry & RI)
o How to access an RI? Possible solutions & opportunities

The way we earn money: Impulse by Simon Jacques, Managing Director of Finden Ltd (UK)
o The startup story of Finden Ltd
o Talking about the “portfolio solution of gathering money”
o Knowledge loop back to RI (software development)

Followed by a short panel discussion with the 3 CEOs

10:45 → 10:55 Break

10:55 → 11:05 Modul 2 - Presentation: CAROTS – the project: Elizabeth Harmstorf (DESY)

The overall objective of the CAROTS project is regional development. It aims to boost innovation and encourage entrepreneurship in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), strengthen its competitiveness and co-operations between the countries bordering the Baltic Sea and thus reduce brain drain in the region. CAROTS has chosen materials research to be
the tool of its operation. The project aims to establish a new type of materials service provider in the BSR: Commercial Analytical Research Organisations (CAROs). In this modul the project’s findings of the past 20 months will be presented.

• Key aims and principles of the project
• Current findings:
- Business models & financing
- Networks of CAROs & visibility
- Support programs
- Pilot activities

11:05 → 11:45 Modul 3 - Panel Session: How to improve the industry-science cooperation? Solving challenges through collaboration

In this modul the speakers will discuss how pressing societal challenges can be tackled by an improved cooperation between industry and science. How can scientific advances or breakthroughs be translated faster into innovative remedies, products and processes? How can we strengthen the link between the creators of scientific insights and those actors that deliver a product to the market? And, how to foster collaboration and regional development at the same time?

Speakers:
- Caterina Biscari, Director ALBA Synchrotron
- Johannes Klumpers, Head of Research and Industrial Infrastructures Unit at European Commission (tbc)
- Ernst Lutz, President of EIRMA (European Industrial Research Management Association)
- Anna Stenstam, CEO of CR Compentence AB

11:45 → 12:00 Summary of panel discussion and Wrap up