Swiss Confederation promotes two more technology centers
The Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) and the "AM-TTC Alliance", the umbrella organization of technology transfer centers in the field of advanced manufacturing technologies, decided in November to fund two additional centers in the fields of collaborative robotics and photonics with 6.5 million Swiss francs until the end of 2024.
Swiss universities and research institutions are world leaders in many fields. Switzerland is also among the leading nations in terms of research results and the resulting patents. However, new manufacturing technologies often do not find their way out of the research laboratories here and into industrial application. Their path then ends in the "valley of death" for innovations.
Maintaining Switzerland as a high-quality production location
This is where the initiative to establish a network of Swiss technology transfer centers, the "Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centers" (AM-TTC for short), comes in. The initiative is part of the federal government's "Digitization" action plan and aims to maintain Switzerland as a modern and high-quality production location in the long term. The AM-TTC initiative aims to establish and make accessible infrastructures that enable Swiss industry - especially local SMEs - to learn about, try out and transfer new manufacturing technologies into their production.
The individual technology centers are founded and financed in a partnership between the public sector and industry ("public-private partnership"). The sponsors and consortia of the centers are made up of Swiss research institutions and industrial companies. Thus, these centers are also places where the partners from science and industry can jointly develop new manufacturing technologies and make them suitable for industrial use.
First centers established in 2019
In 2019, two technology centers have already been established: the "ANAXAM" center, which makes it easier for industrial companies to use the beam lines of the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) to study their materials and products; and the "Swiss m4m Center", which gives MedTech companies access to an ISO 13485-certified pilot production line for 3D-printed medical implants. In the start-up phase until the end of 2020, these two centers were supported with funding from the ETH Board; since the beginning of 2021, they have been supported with funding from the federal government as research institutions of national importance (in accordance with Art. 15 of the Law on the Promotion of Research and Innovation (FIFG)).
Funding for two additional technology centers
At the end of November this year, the Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Education and Research (EAER) and the "AM-TTC Alliance", the umbrella organization of the AM-TTC initiative, decided after a comprehensive selection process to support two additional technology centers in the fields of collaborative robotics and photonics until the end of 2024 with funds totaling 6.5 million Swiss francs. On the one hand, the funding comes from the ETH Board, which has defined the development of AM-TTC in Switzerland as a measure of its strategic planning 2021-2024. On the other hand, the centers also receive funding from the federal government according to Art. 15 FIFG.
The "Swiss Cobotics Competence Center" (S3C) in Biel aims to highlight the opportunities for collaboration between humans and robots. Its goal is to close the gap between the theoretical capabilities of robots and industrial reality and thus bring collaborative robots more strongly into industrial application. With the S3C, Swiss companies gain access to know-how and a demonstration and test platform for innovative cobotic solutions. In addition to the Swiss Innovation Park Biel/Bienne and the "Swiss Smart Factory" located there, the Bern University of Applied Sciences is one of the founding members of the S3C. And since its foundation in November 2022, many more partners from industry and science have already joined as members.
The second newly established AM-TTC, the "Swiss Photonics Integration Center" ("Swiss PIC"), is located in the Swiss Innovation Park "InnovAare"is located here. The focus of this center is on optical components and systems that transport and process light particles, so-called photons. The "Swiss PITC" will set up facilities that will make it possible to integrate even the smallest optical components into larger systems or devices and to test them. In Switzerland, there are many companies and research groups that develop and manufacture new innovative photonic components. Often they do not have access to such facilities. The "Swiss PITC" aims to close this gap by making such facilities accessible and helping companies to build their own integration and packaging solutions in their production.
Source: Empa
The "AM-TTC Alliance
On February 4, 2019, 22 Swiss research institutions and industrial companies founded the "AM-TTC Alliance" association, the umbrella organization of these technology transfer centers, at Empa in Dübendorf. Members include institutions of the ETH Domain, universities of applied sciences and other research institutions, industrial companies such as ABB, BASF, Bühler, Hilti, Oerlikon, Rolex and Siemens, as well as the industrial association Swissmem. The current managing director is Empa researcher Lars Sommerhäuser.
