DESY and IFB Hamburg join forces for more innovation

"The targeted promotion of new ideas is crucial in order to develop Hamburg as a location for innovation. The focus is also on helping to transfer forward-looking research results into the economy. Therefore, the IFB Hamburg supports spin-offs of technology-based start-ups as well as research projects of established companies in cooperation with universities and research institutions „explains Martin Jung, Head of the Innovation Agency of IFB Hamburg. IFB Hamburg, In addition to the InnoRampUp (subsidy) and Innovation starter fund (participation) programmed, which specifically target start-ups, offers financial incentives for innovative projects in existing companies with the PROFI Transfer Plus (subsidy) programmed and the Hamburg Innovation Loan. More than 13 million euros in 2017 flowed into innovation funding. Around 50 start-ups and existing companies from the region made use of the various offers.

Top-class technology for progress
DESY is committed to have a better networking high level research, technology and industrial experimentation. It is already that the Research Center provides industrial companies easy access to its worldwide unique research infrastructure. In the future, Start-ups and young companies should also increasingly benefit from this opportunity. „Technological progress and digitization establish a high dynamic, new alliances between research, the public and private sector" explains Dr. Arik Willner, chief technology officer at DESY, the commitment of the research Centre. Along with innovation services and the industrial utilization of technologies developed at DESY, DESY sees itself as part of the start-up scene too. The Research Centre with its incubator under construction promotes business start-ups and spin-offs for products and services and, endeavors to offer an attractive environment for start-ups and high-tech companies. The business incubator, has financed by the City of Hamburg and set up in cooperation with the University of Hamburg, is contemplated to provide offices and laboratory area for more precisely those companies which implement knowledge and technology transfer. This should result in medium- and long-term further cooperation projects between DESY and IFB.

Initial success
The decision to place the previous work of DESY and IFB Hamburg in the field of knowledge transfer on a partnership basis is not surprising. Both institutions have already achieved successes together. That becomes apparent for example in the DESY spin-off class 5 Photonics GmbH. The company produces ultra-short pulse lasers which can be used in many industries from the automotive industry to medical technology.

Engineers and physicists from DESY developed the research foundations and the patent at DESY and the Helmholtz Institute Jena .Then, in 2014, with the help of grants from the city's InnoRampUp program of the IFB, became self-employed. Then, in 2014 with the help of grants from IFB’s municipal InnoRampUp program they become self-employed. The successful knowledge transfer in the case of Class 5 Photonics is confirmed once again with the triumph at the Prism Awards 2018. The Hamburg-based laser specialist received the award, which was presented, for its product "SuperNova OPCPA" in the laser category at the leading trade fair SPIE Photonics West Tradeshow in San Francisco in January. "Class 5 Photonics is a good example to manifest how we can use joint forces to bringing forward Hamburg companies. This is why innovation and technology transfer will continue to be high on DESY's agenda in the future," said Willner.

X-Spectrum, one of the other DESY spin-off, also received IFB funding as part of the InnoRampUp program, specializes in the production and sale of X-ray cameras. High-tech detectors are used in experiments at synchrotrons such as DESY and other research and development institutes. X-Spectrum used the funding to advance product development and bring its cadmium telluride-based LAMBDA sensor model to market-ready products. New applications can be exploiting, with the help of these handy detectors, particularly in the field of materials research or medical technology. They can be used for very high X-ray energy, which leads to an improved penetration capacity of the X-rays. DESY and IFB Hamburg have shown that high-tech start-ups would be successful if research, consulting and funding complement each other in a purposeful way.