Technology transfer centers receive funding

October 18, 2019

Dübendorf ZH – Twelve new technology transfer centers will open in Switzerland in the medium term, two of which have now received funding for close to 5 million Swiss francs. One of them, which will focus on 3D printing in the medtech industry, will be located in the Greater Zurich Area.

Swiss universities and research institutes regularly occupy top positions in international research rankings. In an effort to bring technologies developed in the laboratory faster into industrial applications, the Swiss federal government plans to establish a network of twelve technology transfer centers called Advanced Manufacturing Technology Transfer Centers (AM-TTC). Each will focus on different areas.

AM-TTC Alliance, which is located in Dübendorf in the canton of Zurich, is the umbrella association of the technology transfer centers. Based on a comprehensive evaluation and selection process, it has now decided in a first step to support two of the technology transfer centers with a total of 4.8 million Swiss francs over the next two years. They are the Swiss m4m Center in Bettlach in the canton of Solothurn and the ANAXAM center in the canton of Aargau.

The mission of the Swiss m4m Center is to establish 3D printing for manufacturing metal medical implants in Switzerland and to give small and medium-sized companies in the Swiss medtech industry access to this innovative technology. It is a public-private partnership structure founded by the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa), the University of Applied Sciences Southern Switzerland (SUPSI) and the industrial companies 41medical and Precipart.

The ANAXAM center is being realized by the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), the University of Applied Sciences Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW), the Swiss Nanoscience Institute (SNI) and the canton of Aargau together with 14 industrial partners. It will focus on offering Swiss industrial companies access to state-of-the-art technologies for the analysis and characterization of materials. The center will build on “PSI’s globally recognized expertise in neutron and X-ray analysis”.