Summary:
A Dutch company is a major producer of paints and coatings. They deliver a world class portfolio of brands and want to explore new fields of innovation and expand their products’ abilities with new and vastly improved functionalities. They are looking for technologies and solutions which significantly impact performance of their paints and coatings. They are seeking companies (e.g. university start-ups) to foster and co-develop new technologies via a research or technical cooperation agreement.
Description:
A Dutch multinational is an expert in the craft of making paints and coatings, setting the standard in colour and protection since centuries. Their world class portfolio of brands is trusted by customers around the globe.
The company’s paints and coatings can be regarded as the highest quality since they are based on centuries of research and experience, largely in traditional chemistry. Their paints and coatings keep materials colourful and protected, whether it’s the walls inside homes, the outside of airplanes or the hull of a ship
Coatings can also add functionalities to help materials do their jobs better. Examples are the ability to resist heat and radiation, to reduce heat absorption and energy consumption in buildings by reflective coatings or to repel bacteria by anti-microbial coatings.
Now, the company is looking around for inspiration in the world and wants to explore new fields of innovation and is looking for collaboration with partners to build out from the traditional space. Hence, the company is looking to expand their products’ abilities with new and vastly improved functionalities that solve specific customer problems or respond to needs they’re not even aware of yet.
The company hopes to inspire their partners to think way “outside the can” on this specific subject. They are eager to find truly innovative coating solutions that enable materials to extend their use and act in new and unique ways.
In particular, the company is looking for enhanced functionalities in two specific areas:
i. Cleaner surfaces – think about properties like stain repellent, self-cleaning, non-stick, anti-fingerprint, anti-microbial, etc..
ii. Smart coatings that interact with their environment, respond to external stimuli and adapt their properties to provide a performance benefit – think about areas like sensing, detection, self-healing, etc..
The company is looking for cooperation with partners that can supply and help develop solutions and clear proof of concept and which help bring better performance or innovative features to their coatings. Cooperation with partners such as institutes, university start-ups and companies would be in the frame of a research or a technical cooperation agreement.
For the company it is a new territory but they are eager to explore the unknown together with their foreseen partners.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This technology request is an innovation challenge and is published on an open innovation platform until the 1th of March 2019. If an organization does express interest in cooperation with this firm before closing date, it will be guided towards this open innovation platform on which one can get in touch with the company experts. Mind that posts on this platform are not confidential.
Beside open discussions on the platform, sharing of confidential information will be made possible on demand. After that, the firm will select the SME's with whom they would like to cooperate in the development of a solution. Once the challenge is closed, EOI's for this technology request will be treated in the traditional way.
Type (e.g. company, R&D institution…), field of industry and Role of Partner Sought:
Type of partners:
The company is especially looking for global innovators, start-ups, scale-ups, early stage tech companies and institutes:
i. that want to grow by jointly developing their products into the companies markets
ii. with a focus on the research & development of technologies enabling i. cleaner surfaces or ii. smart coatings.
Type of partner collaboration:
The Dutch multinational wants to work together as equal partners, under shared-IP conditions, this could be in the form of i. a technical cooperation agreement or ii. research agreement, iii. or any other kind of agreement that suits the purpose.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought:
The company is looking for technologies and solutions which significantly impact performance of their paints and coatings through partnership.
Ultimately, their aim is to deliver desired functionalities with new and vastly improved functionalities that solve specific customer problems or respond to needs they’re not even aware of yet.
• The company is especially looking for global innovators, start-ups, scale-ups, early stage tech companies and institutes that want to grow by jointly developing their products into our markets
• The solution is not just an idea. There is a clear proof of concept which is ready to be further developed for this purpose.
• Scalability and affordability: it is preferred to launch a product within 2-4 years
• Quality and experience of the partner in the field of interest here described. And with the ambition to change the world of paints and coatings and elevating this to a next level.
Stage of Development:
Available for demonstration
Comments Regarding Stage of Development:
Since this request is subject of an open innovation challenge various stages of development are possible. However, the solution is not just an idea. There should a clear proof of concept which is ready to be further developed for this purpose.
IPR Status:
Other
Comments Regarding IPR Status:
Since this request is subject of an open innovation challenge the IPR status will be taken into account and be discussed.
The technology could be patented in a wide range of possible countries/regions, with their eligibility for this call available for discussion
External code:
TRNL20190204001
