Innovation Platform

Hi-Acts

Accelerator-based technologies for innovations in hospitals and industrial companies

The innovation platform Hi-Acts - Helmholtz Innovation Platform for Accelerator-Based Technologies & Solutions - pursues the mission of making accelerator-based technologies specifically accessible for industrial and medical applications. Helmholtz research centers have unique large-scale research facilities that industrial companies and research-based hospitals can use. In addition, new, small-scale variants of this technology are being developed together specifically for laboratory applications in medicine, product development, or industrial quality assurance. To this end, Hi-Acts brings all the players together to integrate deeptech solutions more quickly into industrial value chains in close partnership and to bring innovations to society.

Harnessing the potential of accelerators for research and development

Whether in medical technology, the development of new smart materials, the production of high-performance semiconductors or energy technology - accelerator-based technologies offer enormous advantages in all these business areas that are highly relevant for the future of our society. Microscopy with brilliant X-ray light sources, for example, provides atomically precise insights into how materials or processes should be designed to function optimally. However, these advantages have hardly been utilized outside the scientific community. Yet there is an enormous need in the industry to examine its own materials, products, and production processes with similar precision and thus to be able to design, manufacture or test them for quality more quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively.

For the Hi-Acts innovation platform DESY as coordinator, the Helmholtz Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB), and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, have joined forces to network research centers and the researching industry, among themselves. Together, the participants want to use the existing accelerator infrastructures more effectively, while developing new facilities more adapted to industrial needs. As an example, establishing compact accelerators that can be used in a decentralized manner to significantly accelerate the development of drugs and make them more cost-effective, or to use them for modern cancer therapies. In collaboration with industrial partners, they want to tackle projects that individual companies cannot handle or are too risky for private investment.

Overall, the Hi-Acts platform aims to strengthen Germany as a business location and accelerate innovation breakthroughs. Its development is being funded within the framework of the Helmholtz Association's "Innovation Platforms" funding line, with a total of 13.2 million Euros over a period of three years. However, it will also operate beyond this period and grow sustainably through the commitment of companies in the network.

Innovation Activities

Cooperation with industry & medicine

In order to transfer innovations from research successfully to industry and society, market acceptance and scalability are crucial. To ensure these, it is critical to have close collaboration with the industry from the early stages of a new technology's development. HI-ACTS networks stakeholders closely and early on to building trust, and sharing knowledge and competencies - which include market needs, technical performance parameters, and user interface. Through joint engagement, HI-ACTS aims to influence the shortening of "time-to-market" visibly. Many companies are already on board and the platform is open to the inclusion of other interested companies, experts or intermediaries.

Technology Labs

Integrated "labs" - the combined expertise of all partners on a specific topic - develop processes to increase the "Technology Readiness Level" of an innovation, shorten "time-to-market" cycles, and thus close the gap between industrial implementation or participation and private investment. Focusing to work on technological and analytical solutions should facilitate the use of accelerators for industrial needs. In this case, the focus is cross-cutting fields, such as machine learning and the development of compact accelerators for industrial or clinical needs.

Services, quality management, and certification

Accelerator technologies are used in industrial research (for example, drug development), in quality management (for example, microelectronics), or as a separate product (for example, in medicine or radionuclide production). Meeting the industrial quality and certification standards is a must for routine usage. HI-ACTS will develop a concept of what such standards should look like, and how they can be established. The platform will implement concrete activities in this field. Another goal is to build up knowledge on both sides about the highly complex systems and industrial needs and to establish a visible Helmholtz "single-access-point" for requests and services coming from outside of science.

Knowledge & Capacity Building

HI-ACTS is to become the national "single entry point" for all inquiries from outside the scientific community. The Helmholtz partners are joining forces to bundle such requests, and find quick and suitable solutions. Commercial services for accelerator facilities will be jointly professionalized and further developed. These developments will also include training, to reduce barriers of information and knowledge.

Communication

A common brand-core, a strong and target-group oriented Internet presence, and further professional activities in marketing and communication support the presence and relevance of the national accelerator facilities in the industrial context. It is necessary to have contemporary human resources management that meets the increased demands of activities to develop and retain highly qualified talents. The platform will initiate a structured exchange between the HR departments of the corporate and Helmholtz partners to jointly develop and design contemporary career paths at the interface between science, industry, and medicine.

Partner

1/4 — DESY

DESY is one of the world's leading accelerator centers. Its successes in complex facility construction and sustainable operation of high-tech instruments (e.g. European X-FEL, PETRA III) attract a broad user community of more than 3000 international researchers from over 40 nations each year. As part of an ambitious innovation strategy, DESY has built up extensive experience and expertise in implementing collaborations with the industry. Pioneering work and academic records in the field of laser-plasma acceleration are the starting point for a holistic transfer project around the development of small compact solutions for future applications in medicine and industry.

Besides having expertise in compact particle accelerators and routinely operated accelerators for research and commercial projects, the HZDR foremostly carries a strong, interdisciplinary profile in the areas of health, materials and energy. The center can draw on experience from a large number of transfer projects and was awarded the Saxon Transfer Prize in 2021 for producing an accelerator-based radiopharmaceutical in ppp with a company. In addition, the HZDR Innovation GmbH offers a variety of innovations in the high-tech environment as a transfer company and spin-off of the HZDR.

The GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt operates one of the world's leading particle accelerator facilities for research. Researchers from all over the world use accelerated ions at GSI for experiments in a variety of research fields, from particle, nuclear, and atomic physics to plasma physics, materials research, biophysics, and tumor therapy. Within the framework of its transfer strategy, GSI particularly promotes cooperation with partners from industry and applied research for cooperative research and development projects, infrastructure use, contract research, and services. For networking with relevant partners for transfer, GSI has established a proactive innovation ecosystem and sees the innovation platform HI-ACTS as an ideal partner for the further expansion and professionalization of the areas of infrastructure use and services around its accelerator facilities.

The Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB) develops and optimizes energy and quantum materials for solar cells, catalysts, batteries, solar fuels, and the production of microelectronic devices. Strategic partners, such as the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) or the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing) (BAM), use their own facilities at the BESSY II synchrotron for various standardization processes. For example, BAMline specializes in the non-destructive characterization of materials using various BAM methods. PTB uses the Metrology Light Source to develop national standards for radiation in the spectral range from ultraviolet (UV) to hard X-rays. HZB uses the platform to promote the increased use of accelerator-based facilities by industry, taking standardization and certification into account.

As part of its Institute for Materials Research, Hereon operates a central access platform, the German Engineering Materials Science Centre (GEMS). GEMS provides a globally unique infrastructure for complementary research with photons and neutrons. Especially the diffraction and tomography beamlines at the PETRA III, which Hereon operates will play a vital role within the HI-ACTS platform. With HI-ACTS, Hereon will be able to develop its services further for industrial users in the field of materials analysis and development. This will be done in close exchange with current and future users. Hereon is establishing new measures to standardize its commercial service portfolio within the platform.

Questions about Hi-Acts?

Christine Leue will be happy to answer any questions you may have about the Hi-Acts innovation platform.

E-Mail

christine.leue@desy.de

Telefon

+49 (0)40 8998 4934

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