Innovation: ENEA, 1 million euro for development projects in partnership with companies

Genetic vaccines, advanced solutions for green building and energy efficiency, hi-tech sensors and a hydrogen engine for boats: these are some of the 21 projects approved by ENEA to develop innovative technologies, which will be able to access the funds available on the Internal investment fund of the so-called Proof of Concept. Overall, the projects will be allocated 1 million euro, doubling the 500 thousand euro which were destined to 16 projects last year.

The projects are developed in collaboration with one or more companies and are selected, following an expression of interest, by a special commission made up of ENEA and IBAN experts, the Italian Association of Business Angels. The ENEA investment fund was established in 2018 and, to date, has helped finance 37 projects with approximately 1.67 million euro, compared to the over 170 submitted.

"The Fund was created to support the development of innovative ENEA technologies, in partnership with companies interested in sharing the investment risk; we do not provide loans to companies, but we invest in specific projects to bring our technologies closer to the market, in partnership with companies that have expressed an interest in collaborating with us ", Federico Testa, President of ENEA, pointed out.

In detail, the project on genetic vaccines provides for the creation of a platform against infectious agents, enhanced by sequences of plant DNA on the basis of a patent developed by ENEA with IFO / IRE (Hospital Physiotherapeutic Institutes / National Cancer Institute Regina Elena of Rome) to be developed with Takis srl, an Italian biotech company specialized in genetic vaccines at the Tecnopolo of Rome. ENEA will invest 50 thousand euro and the approach followed could be used in the future to quickly respond to possible epidemics caused by viral pathogens, even unknown.

Another project concerns a low cost system for monitoring the composting process at home. It's called 'Compostino' and it was developed at the ENEA Casaccia Research Center.  It uses a network of sensors to control and monitor the compost parameters, a system of probes built with 3D printers and a wireless data transmission network. Through the sensors, Compostino acquires data such as temperature, emissions (CO2 and ammonia), humidity and PH of the compost and transmits them via bluetooth to a remote database.

The project envisages a partnership with Acea, the Roman multiutility that has already developed 'SmartComp', an initiative in partnership with ENEA and the University of Tuscia, for the development of widespread composting among large users (shopping centers , canteens, airports and stations) that manage large quantities of organic waste.

The ENEA Fund for the Proof of Concept is one of the three 'pillars' of the Knowledge Exchange Strategy, launched by ENEA in the 2018-2020 Three-Year Plan to strengthen technology transfer to businesses. The other two are agreements with venture capital Funds, such as the one signed recently with MITO Technology, and the Knowledge Exchange Program (KEP), created in collaboration with the trade associations CNA, Confapi, Confartigianato, Confindustria and Unioncamere.

The KEP gives companies the opportunity to register for free on the portal kep.enea.it which comprises ENEA technologies, skills and infrastructures divided into thematic areas: energy, cultural heritage, advanced diagnostics, medical instruments, biotechnology and agro-industry and critical infrastructure security.

The companies participating in the program are contacted by a Knowledge Exchange Officer (KEO), an ENEA researcher expert in technology transfer, capable of identifying innovative solutions "tailored" for the company that has joined, and organizing visits to laboratories and meetings with the researchers of the Agency. In five months, approximately 100 companies have joined the program - which follows the model of successful experiences such as the Industrial Liaison Program of MIT in Boston - mainly for the energy and advanced diagnostics sectors, and the first partnerships for the development of projects are being finalized.