Summary:
A Dutch multinational is leading supplier of nano-sized particles designed to enhance product or process performance in a wide range of applications. The company is looking for new materials, technologies, functionalities, and/or hybrids which can make their customers’ products more sustainable, durable, and/or functional. Cooperation with partners would be in the frame of a research or technical cooperation agreement. This technology request is part of an open innovation challenge.
Description:
The Dutch company is a leading supplier of nano-sized particles designed to enhance product or process performance in a wide range of applications. For example by making paints and coatings dirt-repellent, enhancing the properties of concrete, providing carriers for catalysts that clean car exhaust, or preparing ultrasmooth surfaces of chips used in modern electronics equipment. These nano particles are marketed as an environmentally friendly, non-hazardous waterborne colloidal solution. As a leading supplier of colloidal silica the Dutch company continuously strives to develop new products to meet the needs of its customers and the market. The company grew the colloidal silica brand from a niche business to being a global actor, so the company has both the knowledge and resources to help responding startups or scaleups to this profile, fast and bring their cutting edge technology successful to market together.
The company’s colloidal silica brand provides a versatile
platform that allows them to fulfill many of their customers’ needs. However, the company wants to expand their portfolio to provide new functionalities for next generation applications with increasingly high performance demands.
The company is not focused on trying to find new ways of producing their current products, but partners are free to submit ideas of this kind to the company’s open challenge. For this challenge area, they will focus on ideas from startups and scaleups which already have a proof of concept and production at kg scale, so that a new product can be launched within three to five years. Small companies that have already commercialized a niche product and are looking for a partner to help them broaden their applications are especially welcome to join.
Cooperation with partners would be in the frame of a research or a technical cooperation agreement.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This technology request is an innovation challenge and is published on an open innovation platform from the 8th of January until the 8th of March 2019. If an organisation 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:
Startups and scaleups active in the field of small particle technology which already have a proof of concept and production at kg scale, so that a new product can be launched within three to five years.
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:
Technical cooperation agreement or Research agreement
Or any other kind of agreement that suits the purpose.
Technical Specification or Expertise Sought:
The Dutch company is looking for new materials, technologies, functionalities, and/or hybrids not currently in their portfolio which can make their customers’ products more sustainable, durable, and/or functional. Solutions need to either have a clear competitive advantage over currently available products in terms of performance in main application areas or complement or improve current technologies. New particle technologies need to fit current colloidal products, so they should be nano scale and waterborne. The particles should be inorganic, e.g. titania, alumina, ceria, magnetite, or hybrids thereof – either core-shell particles or particles with a functionalized surface. Particles with unique properties (e.g. surface roughness or hardness) and unique shapes are also of interest. Like the company’s current products they should not carry any health, safety, or environmental concerns; toxic elements are out of consideration and particles should degrade if they end up in nature. The Dutch company is not looking for particles for medical applications.
Criteria
• Enhance or comply with the sustainability
profile of the Dutch company’s small particles portfolio
• Fit to the company’s current technologies and
markets
• Commercialization in three to five years
(there needs to be a proof of concept at
least)
• Quality and maturity of the team expressing its interest
Stage of Development:
Available for demonstration
Comments Regarding Stage of Development:
The company is open to many stages of development, but focus is on implementation within 5 years or less.
IPR Status:
Other
Comments Regarding IPR Status:
Since, this technology request is an innovation challenge and is published on an open innovation platform all types of IPR Status can be considered.
External code:
TRNL20181219001
