Ateknea participates in the first FTTI call

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Today, Ateknea is pleased to announce its participation in the first call of the EU’s Fast Track to Innovation Pilot (FTTI) scheme for disruptive innovation and close-to-market products, services or processes.

The FTTI Pilot is a new initiative under Horizon 2020 – the EU’s biggest ever framework programme for research, development and innovation (R&D&I) – will be trialled throughout 2015/16 and is expected to be rolled out beyond 2016.

The aim of the Pilot is to drastically reduce a technology’s time to market by giving a “last push” to businesses that have a business-driven and market-mature innovation with high commercial potential.

Funding from the Pilot has also been streamlined to ensure a quick time-to-grant (maximum 6 months) of €1 to €3 million per project (70% of funding, 100 of funding for non-profit entities).

The next FTTI call is 1st September 2015. If your product, service or process is looking to get into the fast lane to market launch then Ateknea could be the partner you need to close the innovation cycle, secure an EU non-refundable grant and head onto the market.

For more info on the FTTI Pilot or on Ateknea, write us to contact@ateknea.com or get in contact with one of our Ateknea Offices.

Ateknea BTA 2015

Vinbot wows BTA visitors

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Ateknea Solutions recently took part in the 2015 Barcelona Food Technologies (BTA), now in its 15th edition. The Fair brought together more than 35,000 visitors at Fira Barcelona to discover the latest trends and developments in technology, machinery and ingredients for the food industry.

Throughout the 4-day event, our PhD engineers involved in Encork, Ovoshine, Phenolive and Vinbot attended our stand to present these ongoing projects and their future commercialisation to the general public, business and representatives from across the food sector.

Watch our video

Ateknea’s Dr. Montràs was on hand to inform BTA attendees about Encork – an innovative solution to detect potentially contaminated corks in bottling plants – and Phenolive – an innovative solution to extract the non-chemical polyphenolic compounds from leftover wet olive pomace in post olive oil production. Their respective prototypes, currently in production chains, were explained in detail to all interested companies.

Ateknea’s Dr. Yáñez presented Ovoshine – a low cost technology which, to date, is presented as the best non-invasive solution to sterilise eggs for human consumption. Yáñez and his team of engineers explained the technology’s developments and as well as the state-of-the-art electronic “noses” that aim to detect diseases such as salmonella without affecting the natural quality and freshness of eggs.

Finally, Dr. Verges-Llahí’s team including PhD student Jordi Bautista together with our Valencian partners Robotnik, showed the BTA crowds the prototype of an autonomous mobile robot capable of measuring the state of the vineyards, Vinbot.  Vinbot sends data to an intelligent central system that helps the winemaker to make decisions based on the land potential and quality for wine production. Indeed, the robot attracted a great deal of attention from curious passers-by to interested parties in in the commercialization of Vinbot for the wine industry following full validation testing.

Our finance experts were also present at BTA to advise visitors interested in European funding to help launch new products, processes or services. Visitors to our stand were treated to a complementary vermouth and olives courtesy of our European partners Encork, Phenolive and Vinbot.

See our photos

BTA 2015

Ateknea to showcase food tech innovation at BTA

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Ateknea’s Barcelona Office will be taking part at the Barcelona Food Technologies trade fair (BTA) and showcasing examples of innovation in food technology.

The BTA will run from 21-24 April 2015 at Fira Barcelona in the Catalan capital and was last held in 2012, attracting over 35,000 food industry visitors from 85 countries.

The 2015 edition of BTA has become a key date in the agendas of food and drink manufacturers, importers and exporters, engineering firms, and the retail trade who will attend the 3-day event to exhibit and discover the latest technology in the food sector.

Having a successful track record over the past 18 years of developing technologies for the food sector,  Ateknea will be showcasing at the BTA, four examples of its innovative solutions that have been co-financed with European funding.

  • Encork: A solution for the wine industry. Encork is an odour-based detection technology applied to electric noses in bottling plants to stop the potential damage caused by contaminated cork stoppers.
  • Ovoshine: A low-cost solution for the egg industry. A secure and fast UV system in combination with hot air sterilises eggs without altering their fresh and natural attributes, reducing the risk of diseases such as salmonella.
  • Phenolive: An innovative solution for the olive oil industry. Phenolive extracts non-chemical polyphenolic compounds from wet olive pomace left after olives are squeezed to produce olive oil, producing a high-value byproduct for the food sector.
  • Vinbot: A novel solution for viticulture. Vinbot is an independent and all-terrain mobile robot capable of capturing and analyzing vineyards images and 3D data to determine wine production suitability.

Ateknea’s business managers and engineers will also be on hand at the BTA to advise SMEs that are in the process of commercially developing their ideas, products of services for the food industry but seek engineering and financial initiatives to carry out their technological innovation for  market launch and uptake.

Come along and meet us at Stand E-151, Pavilion 5, Fira Barcelona Gran Via. You can also stay updated on our social media.

Ateknea continues strong record in 2014

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Ateknea Solutions has strengthened its position as a leading European technology centre specialising in engineering and innovation for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

The December 2014 call of the SME Instrument (SME-I) showed positive results for Ateknea´s clients, with a number of Phase 1 and Phase 2 innovation projects successfully funded thanks to Ateknea´s business development services for innovation.

Having surpassed high EU evaluation criteria thanks to Ateknea´s expertise, these newly-funded projects will help our clients to accelerate their growth and propel their innovation to new markets.

With these new statistics from the last Call, Ateknea´s success rate now ranges from 40% to 100. Our main Offices in based in Barcelona, Budapest and Krakow managed to get the majority of funds allocated to SMEs in their respective regions through our tailor-made business development and innovation services.

The figures show a very positive and encouraging set of results for Ateknea and are in contrast to Science Business´s estimations that “90% [of SME-I] projects do not make the grade” with average success rates “ranging 6 to 10%”.

The global results so far for the SME-I show that €30 million euro has been awarded to 655 SMEs across Europe (Phase 1 funding for feasibility studies,). Regarding larger sums of funding (Phase 2 funding for innovation activities and business plans), €225 million has been pumped into 172 European SMEs with outstanding business potential.

Fast forward to the first cut-off for 2015 (March 18) and a total of 2,183 new proposals (1,569 Phase 1 and 614 Phase 2) were submitted to the EU’s executive body in charge of SMEs, the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME). Results are expected in June.

The SME Instrument is fast becoming the key financial tool for SMEs get their ideas from lab to market and to unlock their business potential. The calls are competitive. According to Business Science, around 90% of proposals are not funded due to a lack of quality.

Ateknea looks forward to helping more innovative SMEs pass the quality thresholds to secure funding in the June 2015 or September 2015 calls. Contact your nearest Ateknea office for more information.

Sources: EASME and Science Business.

Welcome to the new Ateknea web portal!

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Ateknea Solutions is happy to announce the launch of its new web portal!

After our expansion throughout 2013-2014, today we have now consolidated our company as a leading European engineering centre, providing technological innovation to SMEs and driving businesses forward. And today, to celebrate that achievement, we have given our main web portal in English a fresh new look.

‘Bookmark’ our web portal on your computer for all the developments at Ateknea and weekly updated news on innovation, R&D, SMEs,  funding, events and much more!

A big thank you to everyone at our 6 offices (updated addresses below) for supporting the portal! Remember our website is also available in Catalan, Hungarian, Polish, Portuguese, and Spanish with more regional-specific content.

www.ateknea.com

contact@ateknea.com
Barcelona
Carrer de Víctor Pradera, 45
ES-08940 CORNELLÀ DE LLOBREGAT
+34 932049922
info.barcelona@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/es		 Krakow
ul. Wielicka, 50/2
PL-30552 KRAKÓW
+48 122967576
info.krakow@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/pl
Brussels
Rue des Colonies / Koloniënstraat, 11
BE-1000 BRUXELLES / BRUSSEL
+32 25880052
info.brussels@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/fr		 Lisbon
Praça Duque da Terceira, 24 – 4º andar
PT-1200161 LISBOA
+351 213471376
info.lisbon@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/pt
Budapest
Tétényi út, 84-86
HU-1119 BUDAPEST
+36 17874024
info.budapest@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/hu		 Valletta
Triq Ħal-Dwin, Cobalt Court – Apt. 3
MT-ZBG3061 ĦAŻ-ŻEBBUĠ
+356 21482144
info.valletta@ateknea.com
ateknea.com/en