Transfer Highlights and Spin-Offs

Technology Transfer ─ Innovations for Industry

The aim of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf is to conduct world-class research in the fields of energy, matter, and health. In order to address topical issues of the modern industrialised society, we work together in strategic cooperations with partners from research and industry.

We transfer our scientific potential into society in many ways, e.g. through contract research, licensing and founding new companies. We also offer our high-tech research facilities for collaborative use. Here you will see a number of selected transfer highlights. For even more examples, take a look at the technology transfer broschure "Ideas at Work", which you will find in the top-right corner of this page.

Current transfer highlights:

On the road to success with the right wavelength: Dr. Richard Gloaguen awarded with Saxon Transfer Prize 2023

Bringing promising research results into application is what distinguishes successful transfer. Dr Richard Gloaguen, a scientist at the Helmholtz Institute Freiberg for Resource Technology (HIF), an institution of the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), and his team have succeeded in doing just that. The researchers developed novel, digital mapping methods for sustainable resource exploration and extraction. With their spin-off company TheiaX, they have been offering the technologies on the market for almost two years with steadily increasing demand. The start-up is now the leading innovation driver in the field of spectral exploration. The French researcher was awarded second place in the Saxon Transfer Prize for the successful transfer process. As an outstanding technology mediator, TheiaX managing director Christian Christesen received a special transfer prize.

TECHiFAB: game changer to enable neuromorphic computing

For decades researchers and engineers all over the world have been looking for a memristor device where data can be stored AND processed. The memristor device that the HZDR spin-off TECHiFAB is developing has the one unique feature: It does analog data processing AND storage and will be used as core hardware in neuromorphic computers. To the website: www.techifab.com.

Happy winners at the Saxon Transfer Award 2021

Award for Prof. (em.) Dr. Jörg Steinbach from HZDR and ROTOP for joint production of radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease

The first place of the Saxon Transfer Prize, awarded every two years, honours Prof. (em.) Dr. Jörg Steinbach, long-time director of the Institute for Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research, for his exemplary transfer performance in the project "GMP production for iodine-123 labelled radiopharmaceuticals for the diagnosis of Parkinson's disease" (see also the HZDR press release of 05.01.2021). The jury decided in favour of the HZDR project because the establishment of a public-private partnership at a research institute was a special, creative way of transfer. It was proposed by ROTOP Radiopharmacy GmbH from Dresden.

Jens Junker, Managing Director of ROTOP, explains in the futureSAX nominee film how he was convinced by the award winner to invest in a radiopharmaceutical production. Jörg Steinbach in turn tells what motivated him to push ahead with the transfer from basic research to clinical application. Watch the film on the HZDR YouTube channel.

Current spin-off projects

• Tensor Instruments - The new dimension of resistance measurements

Spin-Offs

Portal nur mit GRID

Our Spin-Offs

To get their ideas into use in the business world, researchers become entrepreneurs. The HZDR supports its scientists in their spin-off projects in a variety of ways. In addition to HZDR Innovation GmbH as a subsidiary for technology transfer, the HZDR has already been able to realise a number of successful spin-offs. Spin-offs are a good way to make research results and scientific knowledge commercially usable through new products and services.

More

Cooperation with Industry

HZDR and SICK: Strategic partnership in process measurement technology and personnel issues

Portal nur mit GRID

PRIMETALS Techno­logies

The HZDR is developing integrated measurement technology on hot melts on behalf of Primetals Techno­logies, a plant construction company.

The measurement of flow rates in hot melts is an issue of major interest for the steel industry. Such measurements are indispensable when it comes to optimizing the casting process. With Contactless Inductive Flow Tomography (CIFT), researchers at the HZDR have invented a method for obtaining the desired ­information. Primetals, a leading manufacturer of plants for the continuous casting of steel, aims to incorporate this technology into its products. Since 2016, the researchers at the HZDR have been commissioned by Primetals to work on the adaptation of these ­techno­logies to their specific industrial requirements.

External link

Succesful Transfer

Portal nur mit GRID

Bet­ter Cancer Diagnostics with ROVER

The software ROVER enables quantitative analysis of PET data and is used throughout the world.

Positron emission ­tomo­graphy (PET) makes metabolic processes visible. Researchers at the HZDR developed the powerful compu­ter program ROVER to enable easy and fast processing of PET data. The program is mainly used for quantitative evaluation of PET images, but it also allows the combining of PET images with data from ­magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed ­tomo­graphy (CT). The program is constantly being updated to adjust it to ongoing developments. The program, which is distributed by ABX Advanced Biochemical Compounds, is used in hospitals and clinical research worldwide.

DYN3D - Software for More Safety

The DYN3D simulation program is used to analyze nuclear power plants.

Already in the 1980s, the researchers in Rossendorf developed the software DYN3D, which enables three-dimensional simulation of malfunctions in nuclear reactors. Together with partners from all o­ver the Europe, the HZDR researchers have continued to work on the further development of the code e­ver since, adjusting it to suit the latest developments in research and technology. Given that Germany's neighbouring countries are planning to construct new nuclear power plants, the topic of reactor safety will continue to be relevant - although the use of nuclear energy is to be phased out in Germany.

Knowledge Transfer

Portal nur mit GRID

THEREDA - Database for Nuclear Repository Research

The HZDR researchers collaborate with partners to compile the central database THEREDA. It contains important ­information for geochemical modelling, carried out in quest for nuclear waste repositories. The freely accessible database is also a valuable resource for landfill design and the remediation of contaminated sites.

Not only ­information from the academic literature, but also findings from the research conducted at the HZDR and partner institutitions are collected into the database. Anyone, whether they are a member of a federal authority, scientific organisation, engineering office, environmental association or simply a private individual, can access THEREDA free of charge, upon completion of a simple registration process.

DeltaX Student Laboratory

In order to inspire the next generation for science, the HZDR runs the DeltaX School Lab. It offers various activities for young people from grade five to secondary school levels. Furthermore, we offer trainings for teachers.

More