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  • 08 Apr
    HyperMemo successful with EIC Accelerator funding

    HyperMemo successful with EIC Accelerator funding

    Karostech’s customer HyperMemo Oy successfully attracted EIC funding in the last cut-off, which was exceptionally competitive with just 2.4% success rate. The funding was issued through the blended finance scheme and includes a €2.1 million grant part, which is already confirmed, and an additional equity part, which is currently under negotiation with the European Investment Bank.

    HyperMemo is a Finnish SME developing innovative laser based glass processing technology. The solution will disrupt the very traditional branch of industry making it cleaner and more sustainable. EIC funding will help HyperMemo to industrialize the technology, setup production facilities, and run trials with leading global glass and glass processing equipment manufacturers.

    We in Karostech are proud to be supporting the commercialization of such an impactful innovation.

    By admin News , , ,
  • 15 Nov
    Meta-ecosystem concept presented at National Technology Revolution 2035

    Meta-ecosystem concept presented at National Technology Revolution 2035

    Karostech’s Partner Erik Raita participated to National Technology Revolution 2035 event in Saint Petersburg, Russia, 7-8 November, 2019. He was invited by organizers to contribute the round table on export of EdTech.

    At the event we first time presented our Meta-ecosystem approach as a tool for innovation ecosystems development.

    By admin News , , , , ,
  • 27 Jun

    Karostech selected by Miksei to provide SME Instrument related consultancy

    Karostech was recently selected by the Mikkeli Region Development Company Miksei as an authorized service provider regarding EU funding related consultancy. Our company won the tendering procedure organized by Miksei within its initiative to support local SMEs with relevant knowledge related to the EU funding available for SMEs, particularly the SME Instrument.

    Within the agreed scope of services, Karostech will conduct several coaching sessions for local entrepreneurs interested in EU funding.

    By admin News ,
  • 07 May

    Everfill successful with SME Instrument funding

    Karostech’s customer Everfill Oy was granted SME Instrument Phase 1 funding by the European Commission. Everfill’s proposal Improving the Quality of Life of Millions through the Revolutionary Approach in Dermal Regeneration Care was selected among 274 companies from around Europe to receive this very much wanted funding out of 2822 proposals received by The European Commission in February 2019.

    The SME Instrument is part of the European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot that supports top-class innovators, entrepreneurs, small companies and scientists with funding opportunities and acceleration services. Companies can apply for two distinct phases under the SME Instrument, depending on the maturity of their innovation. Under Phase 1 of SME Instrument, each project will receive a lump-sum of €50.000 to carry out a feasibility study. Under Phase 2, each project will receive from €0.5 to €2.5 million to finance innovation activities such as demonstration, testing, piloting and scaling up. In addition, companies under both phases can benefit from free coaching and business acceleration services.

     

    By admin News ,
  • 07 Nov

    Erik Raita to provide innovation expertise for European Commission Research Executive Agency

    European Commission Research Executive Agency REA invited Karostech’s Senior Consultant Erik Raita to participate the evaluation of two EU funded research projects in Innovation Expert role. Project meetings took place in Paris and Brussels and the task of Innovation Expert is to assess project outcomes from the innovation potential perspective. Both projects were funded under Horizon 2020 Fostering Novel Ideas: FET-Open program and involved multiple participants from the leading European research organizations and universities, including Oxford University and Sorbonne University.


    By Erik Raita News , , , ,
  • 13 Sep

    Karostech selected to conduct two innovation strategy projects funded by Business Finland

    Karostech was selected as a service provider in two innovation strategy projects funded within the Innovation Voucher instrument by Business Finland. Within the scope of these projects we help two innovative start-ups, ILEDea Oy and Everfill Oy, developing their commercialization strategy. According to rules of the Innovation Voucher, the funding is issued to the applicant company (an innovative start-up). The service provider is then approved by Business Finland and the funding is used directly to purchase advisory services of the selected service provider.

    Everfill is a biomedical spin-off from the University of Tampere. It has utilized its unique know-how in human tissue engineering to develop a revolutionary wound and scar care product, which can also be used for wrinkle filling.

    ILEDea designs and manufactures highly energy efficient LED luminaries for street and industrial lighting. These luminaries are equipped with an embedded IoT gateway, which turns the lighting into the easy-to-implement, highly robust and cost-effective IoT infrastructure for smart buildings or smart cities.

    By Erik Raita News , , , , ,
  • 11 Jun

    Process Genius successful with Horizon 2020 SME Instrument funding

    Karostech gained another success story with funding from European Commission as our customer Process Genius received SME Instrument Phase 1 funding. Process Genius has developed a revolutionary 3D user interface of the Industrial Internet of Things. It turns any physical environment (production plant, utility, etc.) into its virtual model, a digital twin, utilizing the cutting edge 3D graphics.

    SME Instrument is intended for commercialization of disruptive innovations and thus very much wanted among European SME’s. With this new successful reference Karostech strengthened its position among the most successful SME Instrument consultants in Finland.

    By Erik Raita News , , ,
  • 06 Jan

    Karostech’s customers successful with SME Instrument funding from European Commission

    In December 2017, Karostech’s customers Physilect and Angular Velocity (via our collaboration partner Inspiralia) were selected among six other Finnish companies to receive funding from highly competitive Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. H2020 SME Instrument is intended for commercialization of disruptive innovations and thus very much wanted among European SME’s. The competition for grants is extremely hard and requires passing through very tight evaluation procedure. Only 193 companies out of 2.600 applicants were funded at November cut-off.

    In addition, four other applications during two last cut-offs in 2017 (two Phase 1 and two Phase 2) received a Seal of Excellence from European Commission. The Seal of Excellence is the high-quality label awarded to projects which were deemed to deserve funding but did not receive it due to budget limits. It recognises the value of the proposal and supports the search for alternative funding.

    With these success stories Karostech strengthened its position as one of the most successful SME Instrument consulting partner. So far we helped four SME”s from Finland and The Netherlands to gain more than EUR 2 million funding from H2020 SME Instrument. There”s more to come in 2018 as Seals of Excellence will be turned into grants in upcoming funding rounds and new proposals will be submitted for new customers.

    Contact our experts to learn more about our services.

    By admin News
  • 16 Sep
    Kirsi Mononen joined Karostech

    Kirsi Mononen joined Karostech

    Karostech got a strong boost as Kirsi Mononen joined our team in August. Kirsi is a seasoned expert in science and project management with 20 years background in education, research, development and innovation in universities, research institutes and in private sector. She holds Ph.D. in chemistry and she is a qualified vocational teacher and a qualified member of board, too. Her main areas of expertise are materials chemistry, wood chemistry, bio economy as well as training and RDI funding.

    In her field of expertise, Kirsi is a member of expert community extending from SME’s to research organisations and academic institutes. During her career, she has helped projects, businesses and individuals to grow. Kirsi lives in Eastern Finland. She is fluent in Finnish, English and German.

    With Kirsi onboard Karostech’s core expertise has widened to bioeconomy and forestry sectors.

    By Erik Raita News ,
  • 25 Dec

    Karostech’s Dutch customer gets funding from Horizon 2020 SME Instrument

    We are glad to announce that Karostech’s customer Part-up BV from the Netherlands has been granted with Horizon 2020 SME Instrument Phase 1 funding. Part-up has developed a competence platform –  partup.com , which is used for building effective teams by the help of a sophisticated skill matching algorithm. The platform can be implemented by large corporations, universities, start-up accelerators, etc. in order to facilitate more powerful teams and thus boost the innovation potential.

    Two other applications assisted by Karostech have received Seal of Excellence given by the European Commission to those companies, whose applications have been evaluated above the qualification threshold, but haven’t got funding due to budgetary restrictions of the specific call or topic. See more information about the Seal of Excellence on the official website of the European Commission:

    https://ec.europa.eu/research/regions/pdf/seal_of_excellence_flyer_2015.pdf

    Karostech is dedicated to work with these customers in order to achieve funding in the upcoming rounds.

    By Erik Raita News ,
  • 15 Nov

    Karostech invites top European H2020 SME Instrument experts to Helsinki

    Karostech and the leading European SME Instrument fundraiser Inspiralia (Spain) invite you to the Horizon 2020 – SME Instrument event that will take place on Tuesday Nov. 29 at 18:00–21:00 in the Radisson Blue Royal Hotel, Runeberginkatu 2, Helsinki downtown.

    Registration to the event: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/H5BY5LS.

    The SME Instrument is a funding tool under the Horizon 2020 program from the European Commission. Its main target is to make the European Union more competitive and innovative by funding European Innovative SMEs with grants from 0,5 M€ up to 2,5 M€ to help them developing new products and launching them successfully to the market. See more detailed information: http://ec.europa.eu/easme/en/horizons-2020-sme-instrument

    In this informative workshop experts from Inspiralia will introduce the funding opportunities from the EC to Finnish Innovative SMEs. The event is co-organized by: Oy Karostech Ltd, Lähienergialiitto (Finnish Clean Energy Association), Urban Mill, ReWork of Work Facebook community, and Kasvusaari Oy. There will be also an opportunity to have a face to face meeting with Inspiralia’s SME Instrument experts on 30.11. at the same venue. Optionally, tue 29.11. before the event is also possible to meet Inspiralia’s expert Guillermo Palacios. Contact Ilkka Kakko ilkka.kakko (at) karostech.fi to book your time.

    The Agenda:

    • Welcome and introduction
      • Ilkka Kakko, Karostech
      • Pilar Cocera, Inspiralia
    • Inspiralia : What we do?
    • What is the SME Instrument?
      • Structure Phase1-Phase2
      • Topics and typical funded projects
      • Next opportunity and timeline
    • How to know if you are a winner?
      • Excellence in the technology
      • Market impact
      • Implementation
    • Inspiralia’s Key Differentiator
      • Validation
      • Rigorous Process
      • Dedicated teams of experts
    • Q&As
    • Coctails and snacks

     

    About Inspiralia

    Inspiralia is an international New Product Development Company which helps SMEs bring their innovative products and solutions to the market. Inspiralia offers a 360º innovative development process from validating the idea, finding financing, developing the project into a product within our technical facilities and laboratories as well as launching it to the market. You can have an overview of what we do best in the attached video link: Clip Inspiralia.

    At Inspiralia, we are always on the search for innovative ideas that will change tomorrow´s society and the necessary funding to bring these to market.  Our results have enabled us to become European Leaders within Horizon 2020’s SME Instrument funding programme:

    • Inspiralia has an accumulated success rate for Phase 1 financed proposals of 80%, compared with a 6% European average. Currently we are supporting 182 happy clients with their applications for Phase 2.
    • Inspiralia won the 10% of all available SME Instrument Phase 2 funding EU wide for their clients so far, with 33 delighted clients currently executing Phase 2 projects.

     

    By Erik Raita News , , , ,
  • 06 Oct

    Two new customers to cooperate with us regarding their Horizon 2020 SME Instrument applications

    We have signed cooperation agreements with two new customers regarding the advisory services. Erik Raita and Ilkka Kakko will be assisting Solixi Oy and Coctio Oy with their Horizon 2020 SME Instrument applications.

    Solixi develops innovative solutions in the area of renewable energy, see www.solixi.com.

    Coctio is a global pioneer in the industrial bone broth and sauce manufacturing equipment, see www.coctio.com.

     

    By Erik Raita News , ,
  • 24 Sep

    Karostech’s Vucability Assessment tool introduced at Global Innovation Forum

    Karostech has worked intensively together with some of the new experts in its partner network in order to conceptualize and design the first version of Vucability Assessment tool. The first version of the tool has been launched September 21st in Indonesia at Tangeran Selatan Innovation Forum with vast international audience.
    VUCA is a term originally created within US Army to describe the volatile (V), uncertain (U), complex (C) and ambiguous (A) times we are facing today. Vucability assessment tool, named as the evaluation and mapping system of the VUCA approach (EMS-VUCA 1.0) is a three dimensional model, where the vucability level of a company/ecosystem/region can be evaluated and improved based on the evaluation results.

    By Ilkka Kakko News , ,
  • 08 Sep

    Four H2020 SME Instrument applications submitted by our customers to Sep. 7 cut-off

    We have been again actively helping SME’s to attract Horizon 2020 SME Instrument funding from European Commission. Four applications, three from Finland and one from The Netherlands, have been submitted by our customers to the recent Phase 1 cut-off date. Two of them belong to Accelerating market introduction of ICT solutions for Health, Well-Being and Ageing Well topic (SMEInst-06) and two were submitted to Open Disruptive Innovation Scheme topic (SMEInst-01). All four applicants have very good potential to get approved to Phase 1. We’ll publish results by the end of October, so stay tuned!

    By Erik Raita News , ,
  • 29 May

    Ilkka Kakko speaking about engagement platforms at Open Innovation 2.0 conference

    Ilkka Kakko was invited to have an introductory speech in panel session “Open Engagement Platforms as Value Enabler” at Open Innovation 2.0 conference in Amsterdam. His novel approach comparing pipeline-thinking with platform-thinking gave the audience some new insights which were further elaborated in Challenge Cafe discussions on the following day.
    The presentation can be viewed and downloaded here.

    open-innovation-2-0-conf-amsterdam

    By Ilkka Kakko News , ,
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