Transfera Technology Day was won by a space pump project

The Neuron Endowment Fund has once again supported a competition of research projects. Transfera Technology Day helps bring academic ideas into practice, and an expert jury made up of investors and scientists selects on the basis of innovativeness and commercial potential. This year a space pump, milk from a test tube and a special gel for retaining water in the soil took the top places. The juror for the Neuron Endowment Fund was the fund's supporter Jaroslav Řasa.

"The Neuron Endowment Fund and Transfera Technology Day share a goal: to bring the findings of basic research into practice and so connect science with business," said Monika Vondráková, chair of the administrative board of the Neuron Endowment Fund, at the opening.

"We focus on whether an idea can help people and whether it has a chance of succeeding in competition. Without transfer it cannot be done," explained Eva Janouškovcová, chair of the Transfera association, which organises the competition.

Thirty projects entered the 3rd Transfera Technology Day and eleven of them went through to the final contest.

As the winner of the competition the jury chose a project for a special magnetic pump from the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen. Unlike conventional pumps it can work without rotating mechanical parts. Its weight and size can be many times smaller than those of ordinary pumps and it is therefore very attractive for space programmes. Thanks to its properties it will also find application in medicine, for instance in subcutaneous application for dosing insulin.

Second place went to an idea for producing milk without keeping cattle. Scientists from Masaryk University came up with a procedure to help address current food and environmental challenges. Using biotechnology they are able to produce nutritionally complete milk by cultivating animal cells.

Third place went to an innovative hydrogel for better retention of water in the landscape. Tomas Bata University in Zlín has developed a substance that is added to the soil in the form of granules or powder and thereby increases its retention properties by up to 40 %.

This year the jury also gave a special Sympathy award. It went to a project from the Transport Research Centre for the special protection of concrete and asphalt using linseed oil. Thanks to their emulsion, the surfaces of buildings, roads and other structures last up to three times longer.

Projects that qualified for the final may use the designation finalist of TRANSFERA TECHNOLOGY DAY 2022 and the winning project the designation WINNER OF TRANSFERA TECHNOLOGY DAY 2022. The certificate is a mark of quality and can help with securing financial support, visibility and application. The finalist projects have the best prospects of obtaining up to 5 million crowns within the Technology Incubation programme of the CzechInvest agency.

The competition has been organised since 2020 by the Transfera.cz association with the support of the Office of the Government of the Czech Republic, the Minister for Science, Research and Innovation Helena Langšádlová, the CzechInvest agency, the NEURON Endowment Fund, IOCB Tech, I&I Prague, the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic and the website vedavyzkum.cz.

TRANSFERA TECHNOLOGY DAY 2022:

1. place: A magnetically controlled microfluidic pump (University of West Bohemia in Pilsen)

2. place: Biotechnology for producing milk without keeping farm animals (Masaryk University)

3. place: An agrohydrogel from renewable raw materials for increasing water retention in soil (Tomas Bata University in Zlín)

Sympathy award: FLAX — A linseed oil emulsion (CDV — Transport Research Centre)