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Ateknea and LEDMOTIVE work on the final development of ELLIOT

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After being approved for Phase 2 SME instrument funding last January 2017, the LEDMOTIVE team has been working with Ateknea’s engineering team to develop the final stage of the ELLIOT project. Last week, both teams took part in a demonstration session to improve the design of the communications unit and the cloud software development of the EU funded project.

ELLIOT is an EU funded technology that is being developed to be able to reproduce any light spectrum for the professional lighting industry (research, art, and health) based on LED luminaires. The objective of the project is to develop an ecosystem of interconnected and standardized products for the mass market that allows outstanding lighting quality while minimizing energy consumption.

The system consists of a family of products that include:

  • A light source able to record, process, and playback light spectral fingerprints in real-time, regardless of whether they are natural, artificial, or custom-made for different applications.
  • A web-based system that allows the interaction between end-users and light sources.

Our team is participating in two main elements:

  • Design of the communications units: Ateknea is designing and developing a set of communication options in separate small modules connected to the LED modules.
  • Cloud Software Development: Ateknea is developing the cloud platform that allows users to join the LEDMOTIVE community, remotely control the LED lamps, and manage all possible configurations related to them.

With these improvements of the ELLIOT project, LEDMOTIVE has been working on a solution that meets the needs it set out to achieve, allowing an increase in energy efficiency in the lighting industry. With Ateknea’s support, the project is set to reach its final stage very soon!

 

Ateknea helps Is It Fresh to revolutionise the food logistics sector with EU funding

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Did you know that an average of 180kg of food is wasted per person per year in the EU? Or that a third of the food produced globally goes to waste? A large part of this figure can be attributed to the misconception that food is spoiled when it reaches its expiration date. Since 2011, Is It Fresh has been working to create wireless sensor technology that can measure actual product freshness in real time. With Ateknea’s help, they have been approved for Phase 2 level EU funding from the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme.

The start-up has developed technology that combines the methods of printed electronics, functional inks, and roll-to-roll manufacturing to come up with a sophisticated tag for a cost of less than 1 cent. It is cheap enough to be integrated into every type of food packaging and can wirelessly deliver information about the origin, freshness, and remaining life of the product inside. Thanks to the EU funding, this could allow the whole food supply chain to both track products with a unique ID and measure their actual freshness in real time, making informed decisions at every stage and vastly reducing food waste.

The technology will allow for more efficient – and more environmentally friendly – processing at every stage of the food value chain, from manufacturing to logistics, to retail, to consumer, with the potential for wide-ranging and significant improvements to the way in which we produce, distribute, and effectively manage food at a global scale.

EU funding for Is It Fresh

 Ateknea worked with Is It Fresh to:

  • Prepare the documentation that helped Is It Fresh to achieve approval for Phase 2 EU funding from the EU’s Horizon 2020 SME Instrument programme.

And will now focus on the technological development of the project:

  • Delivering the source code and deploying a working system for the monitoring tool.
  • Providing an integrated and working Visual Inspection Tool able to detect any defects in the printed tags that could exclude them from being functional. This can include holes in a layer, dust particles, discontinuities, etc. The Visual Inspection Tool will be able to decide whether the tags must be discarded due to detected errors or, if the errors affect a non-critical area, they can still be used.

Ateknea and Is It Fresh will now work together on the development of the tool as well as its journey to market.

Ateknea to collaborate with Amazon Web Services as a ‘Startup-enabling organization’

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We are happy to announce that Ateknea Solutions will collaborate as a start-up enabling organization with Activate for Startups, a programme powered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that supports innovative start-ups.

Amazon Web Services provides start-ups with the low cost, easy-to-use infrastructure that is needed to scale and grow businesses of all sizes. AWS Activate is a programme with resources designed to help startups get started on AWS.

As a “Startup-enabling organization” of Activate for Startups, Ateknea will be able to offer access to the AWS infrastructure to the qualifying start-ups in its portfolio.

A selected start-up will access one of the following packages for free:

  • The Portfolio package is designed for startups in select accelerators, incubators, Seed/VC Funds, and other startup-enabling organizations. Qualifying startups receive up to €15,000 in AWS promotional credit and other benefits.
  • The Portfolio Plus package is designed for startups in select accelerators, incubators, Seed/VC Funds, and other startup-enabling organizations. Qualifying startups can choose to receive up to €15,000 in AWS Promotional Credit for 2 years or €100,000 in AWS Promotional Credit for 1 year, along with other benefits.

Ateknea helps Widget 3.0 to make charity donations easy and safe

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We are happy to announce that our participation in the project Widget 3.0 is coming to a successful close. Within the framework of this project, the Barcelona-based company, Worldcoo, has developed a new generation of their system which allows e-commerce users to easily and safely donate to charities and non-profits anytime they buy something online.

As part of this project, our Software Department developed three modules:

  • A Data Warehouse system that captures, pre-processes, and stores all the activity of the platform.
  • A Business Intelligence system that optimizes the ratio of transactions that end in donation, recommending projects, amounts, and visualizations based on the buyer profile.
  • An SDK that allows a third party to integrate the Widget 3.0 system into their mobile applications.

 

Ateknea Solutions, partner of clean energy ideas

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Ateknea Solutions will collaborate in #CleanTechCamp2018 as a Knowledge Partner. #CleanTechCamp2018 is an Innoenergy programme that supports sustainable projects with the potential to impact the global energy field by creating smarter and more sustainable cities.

As a Knowledge Partner of the #CleanTechCamp2018 Program, our goal is to help companies develop their innovation projects, creating solutions that will lead to a fully sustainable energy industry and create better lives for everyone, by offering them our extensive experience in helping companies to transform their ideas into valuable, profitable and feasible market solutions.

As part of the programme, we will participate as speakers in the fundraising field. We aim to use our strategic experience in gathering financial contributions for new projects in order to guide participants in seeking funding to commercialize their environmentally friendly products and technologies.

The programme will start on March 13th with training sessions and workshops, with the final event taking place at the end of June 2018.

If you are a potential start-up or unincorporated company with a business project in the clean energy sector based in Spain and Portugal, this is your big opportunity! Find out more about the #CleanTechCamp2018 programme at http://www.cleantechcamp.com and join us in creating a better quality of life for us all.

TU Wien Phenolive

Olives to heat rooms

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Ateknea’s experts have visited the facilities of the Vienna University of Technology and Repotec –a leading company specialised in gasification– to see the advancements on the production of thermal energy and electricity from biomass.

Engineers in Austrian capital have been testing the suitability of exhausted olive pomace as fuel for gasification under the Phenolive initiative coordinated by Ateknea. At this stage the research is focused on the gasification of residues from the olive-pressing to be recovered and converted into electricity and heat.

This environmental friendly way to use natural waste has been studied by Dr. Hofbauer from the Vienna University of Technology and his team. The institution has developed a successful gasification process, which has been tested both in the University facilities as well as further improved in the large pilot plants located in Oberwart and Güssing.

Ateknea’s Dr. Montras, added that “eight millions tonnes of pomace by-product are generated every year by the olive oil industry in Europe”. Through Phenolive –a European partnership– academic research and private companies get together again to make the olive sector more competitive through technological innovation.

The Phenolive reseach will be runnig until 2016 with the aim of the fully revalorisation of the olive waste from the oil industry by obtaining high added-value products –antioxidants mainly–, heat and electricity. This will not be possible without the support and involvement of other four participating organisations; Amarante Process, Effitech, Hakki Usta, Laboratoire Phenobio and Mora Industrial.

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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.