Two new technology transfer centres
The "AM-TTC Alliance", the umbrella organisation for the development of technology transfer centres in the field of advanced manufacturing technologies - the "Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centres" (AM-TTC), decided at the end of September to fund two centres with almost five million Swiss francs for the next two years.
Swiss universities and research institutions regularly occupy top positions in international research rankings. Switzerland is also among the leading nations in terms of research results and the resulting patents. And yet only a few new technologies find their way from the local research laboratories into industrial application. There is a gap here.
This is where the initiative to establish a network of Swiss technology transfer centres, the so-called "Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centres" (AM-TTC for short), comes in. The initiative is part of the federal government's "Digitisation" action plan and aims to maintain Switzerland as a modern and high-quality production location in the long term.
It is being supported in the start-up phase with funding from the ETH Board. The initiative aims to establish infrastructures in Switzerland that will help to make technologies developed in the laboratory suitable for industrial use more quickly. The centres give companies - especially Swiss SMEs - better access to new technologies. Companies can test the technologies in the centres and then transfer them to their own production with the help of the centres.
Funding for two technology centres in the start-up phase 2019/2020
At the end of September, the Board of the AM-TTC Alliance, the umbrella organisation of the initiative, decided in a comprehensive selection process to initially fund two technology transfer centres with a total of CHF 4.8 million in the start-up phase 2019 / 2020 from the nine centres that applied for funding in April 2019. In addition, the Board will recommend to SERI that these two centres be funded as research institutions of national importance from 2021 to 2024.
The center ANAXAMwhich is being realised by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the University of Applied Sciences of Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) and the Canton of Aargau together with 14 industrial partners to date, will in future offer Swiss industrial companies access to state-of-the-art technologies for the analysis and characterisation of materials. In doing so, the centre builds on the PSI's globally recognised expertise in neutron and X-ray analytics.
Access to these technologies will help Swiss companies to develop novel, highly innovative and competitive products and processes. ANAXAM is not only of great importance for Switzerland as a business location, but also for the canton of Aargau with its distinctive industrial sector.
The second center funded in the start-up phase is the Swiss m4m Center. The mission of this center is to establish 3D printing for the production of metal medical implants in Switzerland and also to give SMEs in the Swiss medtech industry access to this innovative technology.
The Swiss m4m Center, which was founded in a "public-private partnership structure" by Empa and the University of Applied Sciences of Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) as well as the industrial companies 41medical and Precipart, will start operations in the heart of the Swiss medtech industry in Bettlach, Solothurn. Through close cooperation with partners from various cantons, however, the centre will have an impact far beyond this location throughout Switzerland.
Umbrella organization "AM-TTC-Alliance
On 4 February 2019, 22 Swiss research institutions and industrial companies founded the "AM-TTC Alliance", the umbrella association of these technology transfer centres, at Empa in Dübendorf. Members include institutions of the ETH Domain, the universities of applied sciences and other research institutions, industrial companies such as ABB, BASF, Bühler, Georg Fischer, Hilti, Oerlikon, Rolex, Richemont and Siemens, as well as the industry association Swissmem.
