That ideas are developed that later remain in a drawer, that science does not leave the laboratories or that the universities do not transfer the knowledge they generate to society, with whose taxes their jobs are paid, because the processes are very complex and expensive. These are some of the most common complaints in the scientific world that the regional government, through the Seneca Foundation-Science and Technology Agency of the Region of Murcia, has decided to put an end to.
The University of Murcia, the Polytechnic University of Cartagena, CEBAS, IMIB and La Arrixaca share the 17 selected projects
It does so by launching the second edition of the ‘Proof of Concept’ programme: an initiative aimed at helping researchers transform research results into new products and companies.
The aid is promoted by the Ministry of Employment, Research and Universities, through the Regional Program to Support the Transfer and Valorization of Knowledge and Scientific Entrepreneurship of the Seneca Foundation.
The objective of this initiative is to verify if the results already obtained from investigations would work in a real environment in the company
The first call, held in 2018, supported 25 projects, currently under development, for the commercialization and exploitation of ideas and research results obtained by research teams from universities and research organizations. Among others, projects for intelligent irrigation systems were financed, an electronic nose capable of reducing the analysis to establish the useful life and the possible contamination of sauces or other packaged foods by yeast from one week to one day, intelligent systems for self-regulation of traffic, new techniques for the discovery and optimization of drugs, the commercialization of an intelligent medicine ball, the evaluation of fifth generation wireless terminals (5G) or an electronic device for controlling the transmission of sunlight in automobiles, a platform to promote reading or a model of a microwave clothes dryer with high energy efficiency for the domestic environment.
While these projects are in their final phase and their results will be known in the coming months, the second call has already started, which this year has selected 17 research projects (which have obtained in the evaluation process a score equal to or higher than 85 points).
The new proofs of concept, financed with a total of 424,500 euros (€25,000 per project) and with a one-year action plan (2020), will be carried out by researchers from the University of Murcia (7), the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (5), CEBAS-CSIC (2), the Murcian Institute for Biosanitary Research (2) and the Virgen de la Arrixaca University Hospital (1), the latter two through the Foundation for Health Training and Research of the Region of Murcia (FFIS).
