KT gets even closer to CERN people

For several years, the Knowledge Transfer (KT) group has been helping CERN people to disseminate their results, know-how and technologies to new fields of application. This may be anything from working with a school, hospital or a company through a licence or collaboration agreement, to securing CERN’s intellectual property rights or even starting a company. In order to maximise the impact of CERN’s work and to provide a service adapted to its users’ needs, the KT group has launched a survey.

 

Assessing the needs and wishes of the CERN personnel with regard to knowledge transfer activities: this is the goal of the survey that the KT group has launched this week. “Science and engineering are key disciplines in tackling the fundamental challenges facing the planet, such as energy, security, climate change, the sustainability of natural resources and economic resilience,” says Thierry Lagrange, head of the Finance, Procurement and Knowledge Transfer Department. “CERN has a huge role to play as it generates fundamental knowledge and high-quality training for skilled people who then go on to contribute to business, governments and other organisations across its Member States and beyond.”

CERN’s potential to develop technology as part of its scientific progress has been proven and applied in many diverse fields beyond high-energy physics. “With this newly launched survey,” explains Lagrange, “we hope to improve further the knowledge transfer process by better understanding the needs of the CERN community. The idea is to start a virtuous circle that ultimately will lead to an increased outflow of CERN knowledge, raising CERN’s profile and delivering positive impacts upon society.”

You are invited to participate and share your opinions and experiences. It should take no longer than 5 minutes and your feedback is greatly appreciated. The survey will run until 31 July and can be found here (CERN login required).

KT Group
 

Bearing fruits: the Innogex business incubator welcomes its first companies

Among the tools developed by CERN’s Knowledge Transfer group is a network of business incubators that provide logistical, financial and administrative support as well as advice on how to create a company. Innogex, the new business incubator in the Pays de Gex, created in partnership with CERN, has selected its first start-up company: Terabee.

Co-founded by a former CERN employee, Terabee is a company offering aerial inspection and imaging services involving the use of drones. The company has started to develop distance sensors for robots and drones. Machines equipped with these sensors will be able to carry out automatic inspections of industrial sites. The sensors make use of technology that measures flight time with infrared rays. Infrared technology is cheaper and lighter than lasers and performs better than ultrasound, the two other technologies that are normally used. The sensors were developed in collaboration with CERN and the read-out electronics were based on CERN technology.

Corinne Pralavorio