Horizon 2020 Innovation Action brings smart tech to SMEs

A UK university is benefitting from Horizon 2020 funding with the aim of equipping SMEs with smart technologies as well as bringing new products to market.

The Gateone Innovation Action project brings together renowned research and technology organisations to offer a selection of new, innovative product concepts to SMEs across Europe and includes the participation of Teesside University. The project is being led by Yole Développement in France and new innovations offered by the project address business opportunities in the areas of energy management, connected devices, smart cities, mobility, assisted living, security and safety.

Commenting on the project, Javier Bonal from the European Commission said: “Initiatives like Gateone are sponsored by the Commission to provide relevant support to European SMEs. Gateone is considered as an attractive approach to meet with SMEs requirements for agile and reactive processes. We are strongly encouraging European SMEs to take advantage of the benefits of this new initiative that can make a big difference in Europe.”

Undertaking research as part of the project consortium, Professor Zulf Ali, dean of the university’s Graduate Research School, is focusing his research on micro and nanofabrication approaches for creating high-density functional devices that have little environmental impact. Much of this work has been on microfluidics for point-of-care diagnostic devices and for complex chemical and biological processing on a chip. Demonstrators of the product concepts will be made available to SMEs for testing and validation, helping them to bring their product to market in an easier and faster way.

The project consortium also includes the participation of CEA-LETI; CSEM; Fraunhofer IPMS; VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd; IK4-Ikerlan; Tyndall National Institute; and LAAS CNRS.