Technology Transfer

Along 2021 several competitive public grants for tech transfer activities have been awarded to IFAE at the national and international domains, funding collaborative research initiatives related to COVID’19 virus diffusion modelling or advanced infrastructure and detector technologies development for future particle accelerators and industrial/medical applications. Also several technology valorisation & protection activities have been executed, one of them regarding a patented artificial vision system getting economic support from the Ginjol Patent Fund (I-CERCA, Generalitat de Catalunya). Additionally, a first investment round has been achieved by Deep Detection S.L., the newest IFAE’s spin-off dedicated to x-ray imaging for NDT industrial inspection, raising 0.6M€ from a Spanish-Polish matching fund led by 3 venture capital firms, IFAE contributing to this milestone by updating and negotiating the technology transfer agreement with the investors.

The IFAE’s KTT unit provided research support activities to 6 IFAE basic and applied research groups, as well as legal and innovation advice to the engineering workshop and to the PIC data centre, activities driven by the aim to get the research results on high energy physics, astrophysics, cosmology, quantum computing and medical physics closer to the society. About 57 research support actions were performed related to knowledge and technology transfer, giving support to 44 IFAE own/joint KTT initiatives, mainly in the field of medical devices, but also in microelectronics, communications, electronics, mechanics, control software, pixel detectors, quantum & classic computing and data science. The KTT unit contributed with advisory actions in 11 basic and applied research funded projects and generated a total of 0.9M€ incomes linked to innovation projects, coming from public funding agencies and the private sector for the IFAE’s ecosystem.

• AIDAInnova project funded. International public-private collaboration for the development of radiation detectors applied to the particle accelerators industry and beyond. H2020-EU.1.4. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Research Infrastructures (EC).
• R&D Project on stochastic tools for COVID19 assessment granted, participated by IFAE, CED and I2CAT. Pandèmies 2020 (AGAUR, GenCat).
• Industrial Doctorate 2021 grant (AGAUR, GenCat) awarded to IFAE and Deep Detection S.L. for the development of artificial intelligence solutions applied to the industrial NDT inspection market.
• PROBES collaboration agreement signed. International public collaboration dedicated to search for new physics and technological advancements from particle and gravitational wave physics experiments. A cooperative Europe - United States - Asia effort. H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions.
• IFAE-Cadence PoC supplement agreement signed for accessing microelectronics design tools.
• IFAE-Varpe agreement signed for the validation and testing of a novel x-ray camera.
• I-Vision consortium agreement signed. Health Research call (Fundació Bancaria La Caixa).
• IFAE-CNM CSIC collaboration agreement signed for joint R&D in quantum physics.

• 8 Technical Services on mechanics, electronics and computing executed for public and private entities.
• 2 R&D project on microelectronics performed for external entities.
• 2 CDA Agreements signed with public and private entities.
• 10 Customers (4 new).

• 1 patented technology financed by the Ginjol competitive Patent Fund (I-CERCA, GenCat). Artificial vision system for impaired eye patients.
• 3 international patents granted. Photon counting patent granted in Japan and USA. PSK communications modulation patent granted in EU. Compton imaging detector patent granted in US.
• 1 Patent license agreement signed between IFAE and Baretek Barcelona Detector Technologies spin-off related to an auxiliary mammography system patented technology.
• 1 Disclosure of invention evaluated.
• National/regional phase entry of the artificial vision system patent in the USA and the EU.
• New patent application in US based on the EU mammography auxiliary device patent.
• International patent application based on the event detection system national patent application.
• 3D biopsy European patent ceased due to proximity to patent expiry date.
• Broker agreement Lotus Partners-IFAE signed promoting out-licensing agreements.
• 2 IPR due diligence external assessments. Photon counting and Artificial Vision system patents were evaluated by 2 private corporates (Vigo Ventures and Fundació Bancària La Caixa).
• Portfolio of 8 patent families managed. Publication of the IFAE’s Technologies Official Portfolio on the website.
• Royalty revenues derived from the know-how license agreement IFAE-UB-BSC and Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech spin-off signed in 2019 for a quantum computing technology transfer action.

• Deep Detection’s spin-off signed an investment and new shareholders agreement (ISHA) with IFAE, mVentures and 3 Venture Capital investors: Vigo Ventures (Poland), Technology Transfer Agrifood (Spain) and Energy Services Operation and Maintenance (Spain). The pre-seed investment round was valued at 0.6M€.
• IFAE and Deep Detection signed an updated version of the Technology Transfer Agreement in force since 2020, agreement binded to the ISHA.
• IFAE and Deep Detection signed a collaboration agreement for the joint development of NDT inspection technologies.
• Co-organization of the Entrepreneurship course for researchers, “From Science to Business ‘21” (ESADE - BIST). 10% IFAE staff obtained an ESADE entrepreneurship and innovation degree in the last 5 years.
• Participation of 2 IFAE spin-offs in the Mobile World Congress and 4YFN event with a public presentation and stand attendance (Qilimanjaro Quantum Tech and Deep Detection).

• Institutional presentation about KTT IFAE activities. On-line Workshop on LHC Technologies (Red-LHC, Spain).
• KTT unit participation in SOMMA, BIST and UAB KTT Working Groups.
• Ascribed research staff IFAE-UAB agreement signed.