CAVI: Unleashing the power of cavitation for a resilient future
CAVI, led by researchers from University of Ljubljana (Slovenia), National Technical University of Athens (Greece) and UBB-TechTransfer at Babeș-Bolyai University (Romania), is one of the supported research teams in the first S3E Start Programme.
The EU recognised biogas as a vital renewable energy source to achieve energy resilience and climate change mitigation goals. Biogas, derived from waste like agricultural & food waste, and sewage sludge through anaerobic digestion, offers applications as electricity and heat generation. By embracing biogas, the EU can significantly reduce its reliance on fossil fuels and energy imports.
Amidst soaring energy prices, the benefits of biogas become even more apparent. Presently, approximately 19,000 biogas plants operate within the EU, with this number expected to double by 2050 — a testament to the growing prominence of this sustainable energy source. Nonetheless, the optimization of waste-to-biogas conversion remains an ongoing challenge. Conventional anaerobic digesters are large and time-consuming. The state-of-the-art technology to enhance biogas production, thermal hydrolysis, is complex and expensive.
With their groundbreaking solution, scientists from Slovenia and Greece have harnessed the power of cavitation, a process that occurs when vapour bubbles form and collapse, generating extraordinary pressures and temperatures, comparable to the Sun's surface. Leveraging this incredible force, they have developed the revolutionary CAVI Ω reactor — an innovative, compact, and plug-and-play device that significantly reduces construction and operating expenses. The CAVI Ω reactor stands as a true innovation, poised to drive the biogas industry into a new era of sustainability and profitability.
Learn more about CAVI by watching the pitch done by researcher Jurij Gostisa during the Start Open Day on 20th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/Cs5wcwIgL8g
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Carbon^2: Brine utilisation for CO2 capture and repurposing
Carbon^2, led by researchers from Sapienza University of Rome (Italy), Queen Mary University London (UK) and Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (Bulgaria), is one of the supported research teams in the first S3E Start Programme.
The Carbon^2 group provides expertise in converting industrial emissions and wastes to value added essential minerals. Using a specialised carbon capture and utilisation (CCU) technology, they generate application specific mineralized-carbon for downstream use in the infrastructure, agriculture and pulp & paper industries.
Carbonated material can be used in novel construction materials, revenues of which are expected to reach $1 trillion USD per year by 2030 (Utilization Panel Report: CO2 Conversion to Solid Carbonates). Magnesium sources are widespread worldwide (silicate deposits, wastewater, brine) and plentiful enough to sequester all anthropogenic emissions during the next 1000 years.
CO2 mineralisation has also the potential to manufacture CO2-negative construction materials which, in certain applications, could mitigate or even replace conventional Portland cement in a wide-scope of applications. Their CCU solutions provide particular advantage to the cement industry, itself responsible for 8% of man-made CO2 equivalent emissions and holds the highest carbon intensity of any industry per unit of revenue. Carbon^2 modular mobile units allow this group of experts to provide custom designed and hazard-free water-based solutions for location and waste specific processing. ensuring a clean transition to sustainably square away carbon.
Learn more about Carbon^2 by watching the pitch done by researcher Dr Gregory Chass during the Start Open Day on 20th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/WSikRty3cMc
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Cancer Therapeutics: Targeting and destroying ovarian cancer cells
Cancer Therapeutics, led by researchers from Ca' Foscari University in Venezia and CRO Aviano (Italy), is one of the supported research teams in the first S3E Start Programme.
The team behind Cancer Therapeutics is introducing a revolutionary technology that presents a ground-breaking system designed for the treatment of solid tumour ovarian cancer, known as Copper Nitroprusside (CuNP).
Ovarian cancer ranks as the 7th most aggressive cancer in women globally, with a survival rate of less than 30%. In the year 2023, there were 314,959 newly diagnosed cases of ovarian cancer, resulting in 207,253 reported deaths. Among the various types of ovarian cancer, High Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer (HGSOC) is particularly aggressive, accounting for approximately 70% of ovarian carcinoma cases and exhibiting high mortality rates.
Traditionally, chemotherapy has been employed as the primary treatment for ovarian cancer. However, nearly 50% of patients develop resistance to the existing therapies, necessitating costly second-line treatments. This technology, named Copper Nitroprusside (CuNP), overcomes the limitations of current therapeutic approaches. It addresses issues such as cost reduction, biocompatibility, and the destruction of dense tumour matrices, which pose significant challenges in the field of cancer medicine. Moreover, this technology overcomes chemotherapy-related problems by simultaneously supplying multiple Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) without the need for external stimuli. This unique system initiates the Fenton reaction with exceptional efficiency. Notably, these CDT agents possess the ability to generate multiple ROS and nitrogen-based reactive species at the tumour site, further enhancing their therapeutic effectiveness.
This remarkable enhancement obviates the need for additional drugs, external stimuli, or delivery systems. Significantly, no comparable system capable of generating dual ROS in cancer therapy with such high therapeutic efficacy and minimal side effects has been developed until now. Cancer Therapeutics’ product offers an effective approach to combat and overcome ovarian cancer, providing hope for patients in need of a more advanced treatment option.
Learn more about Cancer Therapeutics by watching the pitch done by researcher Kanwal Asif during the Start Open Day on 20th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/oijNBV4Ip9A
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BioMEMs: Metallic implants that heal shockingly fast
BioMEMs, led by researchers from University of Aveiro (Portugal), is one of the supported research teams in the first S3E Start Programme.
An ageing population increases the incidence of orthopaedic injuries, affecting quality of life. Small bone lesions can often self-heal, but critical-sized defects require orthopaedic implants. Metallic materials like stainless steel and titanium alloys are the most used. These materials present great mechanical properties, load-bearing capabilities, and fatigue resistance, but lack in biological compatibility and suffer from corrosion and diminished cell adhesion.
When compared to titanium, 316L SS implants show inferior biological properties, but still present a big share of the market thanks to its lower cost. BioMEMs aims to solve the problem related to 316L SS, by depositing a bioactive PLLA based coating to establish a strong connection between bone tissue and the metallic implants. Their approach is inspired by the piezoelectric nature of bone and their research into PLLA bioactivity.
PLLA has been gaining attention due to its attractive properties such as biocompatibility, biodegradability, and piezoelectricity. Piezoelectricity plays an important role in the processes of regeneration and vascularization of the bone. BioMEMs have a bioactivated prosthesis that were characterised in vitro, assessing their cytocompatibility and osteogenic properties, and in vivo, by subcutaneous implantation in a rat animal model. Thus, their team expects that our technology can contribute to the development of the next generation bone implants that can simultaneously boost recovery speed and reduce rejection rate.
Learn more about BioMEMs by watching the pitch done by researcher Maxim Ivanov during the Start Open Day on 20th July 2023.
https://youtu.be/JnukeFh9dKg
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Press Release: S3E celebrates the Start Open Day to present the deep tech projects of the selected research teams
The EU-funded project S3E is hosting the Start Open Day on Thursday 20th July 2023, at 10.00 CET, where the participating South European research teams will pitch their deep tech projects.
The consortium of S3E–Southern European Entrepreneurship Engine is pleased to officially announce the celebration of the S3E Start Open Day. During the last months, the S3E project has deployed the S3E Start program: an 18-week hands-on training program on science-based entrepreneurship, designed for research teams that want to explore the path from the lab to the market. Paired with these teams were technology transfer offices (TTOs) that learned the methodology to foster science-based entrepreneurship and technology commercialisation within their organisations.
Read the official press release
On this virtual pitching day, the selected 18 research teams and 12 TTOs from all across Southern Europe (including Italy, Spain, Greece, Slovenia, Romania, Portugal and Turkey) will introduce their deep tech projects to the entire EU innovation ecosystem.
When and where
The event will take place virtually on Thursday 20th July 2023, at 10.00 CET
How to participate?
The S3E project kindly invites Investors, Business Angels, Business Support Organisations, Innovation Agencies, Accelerators and Innovation Hubs to register to the event via Eventbrite.
Programme
- 10:00 Opening session by Daniel Gassmann, Head of Sector Ecosystems and EIC Prizes at EISMEA - European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency
- 10:10 Welcome to S3E Deep Tech Revolution with Pedro Vilarinho, Managing Director at HiSeedTech
- 10:20 Deep tech projects presentation I
- 11:20 Industry talk: ‘Deep tech entrepreneurship’ by Roger Debo, former Director of the Collaborative for Technology Entrepreneurship and Commercialization (CTEC) at Rutgers University
- 12:30 Lunch break
- 14:00 Welcome back
- 14:05 Deep tech projects presentation II
- 15:15 Closing remarks by Mário Freire, President Board of Directors at HiSeedTech
Register now!
Research teams participating in S3E START test their business skills during the Value Proposition Pitch
On May 30, from 15:00 CET to 18:30 CET, the research teams participating in the S3E START programme had to present their deep tech projects value proposition in front of a panel composed of the HiSeedTech team - Cláudia Barbosa, Cristina Simões, Nuno Falcão e Cunha and Pedro Vilarinho. The event took place online with an audience of 50 people and was open to participating teams and the technology transfer officers, mentors, and S3E partners (AUSTRALO, EPLO, and IDI).
The session was held midway through the programme implementation and was intended to: (i) serve as a proxy for the Open Day that will take place on July 20; (ii) provide feedback to the teams and test the robustness of the work done to date; (iii) improve their business skills and familiarise them with the types of questions that might arise during real presentations to investors or other stakeholders.
Each research team had 5 minutes to present their value proposition, which included: defining the problem they are solving and the need behind it, defining the technology, the solution they have and identifying the market, the competition and the team behind it.
The pitches were made in the following order:
- BioMEMs: Júlio Rocha, Aveiro University (PT), , Portugal
- BUCKS: Kun V Tian, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
- Cancer Therapeutics: Kanwal Asif, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Italy
- CAVI: Jurij Gostisa, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia
- CE4Land: Ivana Pajčin, Faculty of Technology Novi Sad, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
- DVS: Rossela Zaffino, ICREA/ICMAB-CSIC, Spain
- EditUp: Davide Ederle, Fondazione Hub Innovazione Trentino (HIT), Italy
- HTS-INKS: Mar Tristany, Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC), Spain
- MARCIA: Clotilde Costa, Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
- MET LAB: Diogo Silva, ITQB NOVA - Instituto de Tecnologia Química e Biológica António Xavier, Portugal
- Nano-ink: Elif Begum Elcioglu, Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey
- Sumatrix Biotech: Semra Unal Yildirim, Sumatrix Biotech, Turkey
- Breast 4.0: Tiago Marques, Champalimaud Clinical, Portugal
The teams are doing great progress and they still have the following seven weeks to focus on improving their value proposition and presentation to have the business model ready for the S3E START Open Day!
Looking forward to exploring synergies and creating a long-lasting collaboration.
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S3E at WARM, the Worldwide Accelerators Rally at Matosinhos
WARM, the Worldwide Accelerators Rally at Matosinhos is an event that brings together innovation acceleration programs, incubators and TTOs with investors, companies, and startups.
This year edition was organized by RESOLVE-Health. RESOLVE-Health is a technology-based acceleration program designed to provide support and management tools to early-stage projects and start-ups in the health sector, focused on transforming innovative research into profitable ventures. The aim is to foster knowledge transfer, ultimately leading to licensing patents or launching start-ups. This is done by teams of researchers and entrepreneurs involved in this area. RESOLVE-Health is an initiative from I3S - Institute for Innovation and Research in Health in Porto.
WARM goal was to foster a collaborative movement in the health innovation ecosystem and took place on May 25, at Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões, in Matosinhos.
Our team member HiSeedTech had the opportunity to participate and present the S3E program with the focus on S3E Start and share some testimonials of researchers that have already been impacted by our methodology during the panel "Testimonials from Teams Supported by Acceleration Programs!". Claudia Barbosa, S3E Project Coordinator received valuable feedback from the audience and especially from researchers who have seen a change in their lives and the way they look at science, which was truly inspiring. Claudia invited the more than 100 participants to join the S3E community and to be alert for the upcoming Open Call after summer, which will bring new opportunities for researchers and startups from Southern Europe to bring their deep tech ideas into the market.
More info about the event: click here,