Nano-Tera.

ch
Engineering Complex Systems
April 25th, 2016

Nano-Tera.ch
A very successful Swiss research program
funding large collaborative multi-disciplinary projects
aiming at the engineering of complex systems
for applications in the domains of Health
and the Environment

arch, Design & Engineering of complex tera-scale sys

using nano-scale devices and technologies

www.nano-tera.ch

Nano-Tera.ch: Key figures

140 Projects funded overall

50 Swiss Research institutions (involved with PIs or
CoPIs)

1200 Researchers

310 PhD students involved overall (> 240 funded by NT)

Most RTD projects receive support from various industrial

partners and hospital end-users
Number of
Contribution
Number of RTD
industrial/ hospital
projects
s (CHF)
partners
Phase I
Phase II

27
25

30
59

6649574
8965813

52

89

15615387

38 Swiss institutions
SUK / CUS

Hospitals

OPET

ETH-Board

currently involved

Federal Institute of Metrology METAS

Distribution of research groups

currently involved

Distribution of research
160 research groups
groups
38 institutions

Node size ~ Nb. of involved research groups

Line size ~ Nb. of collaborations

Dissemination statistics

857 Papers published overall

Journals, books
Conf.
proceedings

Phase I

Phase II

Total

(completed)

(as of 2014)

(as of 2014)

324

111

435

413

204

617

737

315

1052

~1500 Presentations in conference and workshops

Phase I
Phase II
Total
worldwide
1265

1839

Phaseby
I Nano-Tera
Phase II researchers
Total
43 Awards received
37

574

17

Phase I filed
Phase II
32 Patents applications
24

19

54
Total
43

Main research directions

Environmen
t

Health

Health
Monitoring
FlusiTe
x
ISyPeM
II
NewbornC
are
ObeSen
se
WearMeS
oC

Smart
Prosthetics
& Body
HearResto
Repair

Medical
Platforms

BodyPoweredSe
nSE
re
MagnetoTheranos MIXSEL
II
tics
SmartSphinc
PATLiSci
ter
II
SpineRep
UtraSoundTo
air
Go
WiseSki
WearableMRI
n

Environme
ntal
Monitoring
Envirob
ot
IrSens
II
OpenSense
II
X-Sense
II

Energy

Smart
Energy
HeatReser
ves
IcySo
C
SHIN
E
SmartGr
id
Syner
gy
YIN
S

call 2011 call 2012 call 2013

Video

Bridge Program

Bridge
Nano-Tera.ch strives to enable mechanisms that can
map the high productivity of research ideas,
publications and patents of the Swiss community into
a significant momentum in terms of industrial growth
as well as job and enterprise creation.
In this perspective, Nano-Tera.ch first strongly
contributed to the design of the Bridge, a special
program the Swiss Confederation is planning for the
2017-2020 budgetary cycle to accelerate the transfer
of research results and their applications.

Bridge
As indicated in the draft Federal message for the
promotion of Education, Research and Innovation, the
Bridge program:
shall support researchers who identify the potential
for applications in the form of a product or a service,
but still need to carry out further work in order to
make their idea more precise and prove its
potential.

will be piloted jointly by SNF and CTI.

Bridge
The Federal Council is planning a total budget of 70
MCHF for the Bridge program, equally distributed
between SNF and CTI.
Two types of activities should be funded:
Proof of concept support for young researchers
who wish to exploit the economic potential of their
scientific results and pursue their career outside of
academia.
Pre-competitive projects combining research
excellence with a clear technological innovation
perspective within smaller size consortia.

Gateway Program

Gateway
Nano-Tera.ch also joined efforts with CSEM and EMPA
to embody several of the core ideas developed during
the design of Bridge into a specific pilot program:

Gateway
Intrinsically positioned at the frontier between
research and innovation, it aims at the translation of
research results obtained within Nano-Tera.ch projects
into industrial demonstrators directly exploitable by
the involved industrial partners.

Gateway
Value

Ignorance
Research

Valorization

TRL2: Knowledge creation

(publications)
TRL3: Technological components
TRL4: Laboratory prototype

TRL7: Validated demonstrator

TRL8: System & Business Model
TRL9: Economic value creation
(profit)

GATEWAY

TRL5: Functional
demonstrator
TRL6: Operational
demonstrator

TRL

Reasoning

Explorato
External
Weakly
ry
constraints
considered
erformance metricScientific
excellence

Causal
Involvement of
indus. partners Strongly considered
(confidence)

Profitability

Gateway
The Gateway program has been concretely set up as
follows:
Selection of the NT projects involving an industrial
partner able to efficiently support translation of
research results into activities with high economic
potential and corresponding to the best compromise
between economic potential and industrial risk.
Set up a specific monitoring mechanism under the
supervision of a dedicated innovation manager.

Gateway
The deployment of the Gateway program resulted in
the selection of 4 proposals with high potential for
industrial impact for a total Nano-Tera.ch funding of
946000 CHF.
These projects, which all started in October 2015 and
will last 18 months, involve laboratories, institutions
specialized in technology transfer (EMPA and CSEM) as
well as industrial partners.
The goal of these projects is to convert laboratory
prototypes resulting from Nano-Tera.ch research
projects (Technology Readiness Level 4) into industrial
demonstrators (TRL 6-7) with high economic potential.

Gateway
Gateway
proposal

Related NT
project

Partners

Aim

SYNGATE

Synergy

CSEM, EMPA
Meyer Burger
Solaronix
Flisom

High-performance/flexible
perovskite tandem solar
cells

FLUSIGATE

FlusiTex

EMPA, CSEM
Flawa, Kenzen
Schller Textil,
Theranoptics

Fluorescence based PH
sensing wound monitoring
pad

HEARGATE

HearRestore

CSEM
Atracsys

Metrology module for a

surgical navigation system

PARAGATE

ParaTex

EMPA
Forster Rohner
Meister & Cie
Art of
Technology

Pressure/oxygenation/perfusi
on monitoring textile sensor
for pressure ulcer detection

Focus on PhD students:

the Nano-Tera NextStep Program

NextStep Program
How do PhD students benefit from the program?
Track 1 Scientific
Collaboration
They
can get together with other PhD
students to develop a collaborative
research project

Track 2 Entrepreneurship
They can learn how to exploit the
economic potential of their research
and how to present business ideas

Track 3 Scientific
Dissemination
They can learn to present their
scientific achievements to a general
audience

Receive
funding for
their proposal
Coaching
program &
Entrepreneuri
al pitches
My Thesis in
180 Seconds
contest

NextStep program:
Collaborative research track
The objective of the Collaborative research track of
the NextStep action is to give Nano-Tera.ch PhD
students the opportunity to consider the development
of a collaborative work, within the framework of their
thesis.
Concretely, this track gives the students the
opportunity to learn the full procedure of submitting
proposals to get concrete funding: from building a
consortium, picking the research challenges, writing
the scientific proposal, and building a reasonable
budget.
These efforts results in the funding of 7 ED projects

NextStep program:
Collaborative research track
Name

NT Project

Acrony
m

Title

BAFIARS

Assessment of anatomic,
physiologic & biomechanical
characteristics of the anal canal
& pelvic floor: an observational
study in patients

BodyPoweredSen
SE

BioFlex

Soft dry Biopotential Electrodes

for Long-Term EEG recording

HearRestore

BonePro

HearRestore: Bone Impedance

modelling

UltraSoundToGo

LightProb
e

Digital UltraSound Head

HearRestore

NerveSafe Facial nerve monitoring during

Synergy

SolCelMea Analyzing of optical and

electrical measurements of
s

T. Brusa, UniBE SmartSphincter

PI: P. Bchler

M. Thielen,
ETHZ
PI: C. Hierold

T. Wyss, UniBE
PI: P. Bchler

P. A. Hager,
ETHZ
PI: L. Benini

J. Ans, UniBE
PI: S. Weber

D. Mikulik,
EPFL
PI: A. Fontcuberta

robotic cochlear implantation

GaAs nanowire solar cells

NextStep program:
Entrepreneurship track
The objective is to develop an early-stage
entrepreneurial mindset for the Nano-Tera.ch PhD
students.
Activities include:
Extended support for the 4 entrepreneurial
projects selected by the Nano-Tera Executive
Committee during the Annual Meeting 2015
(Business coaching and participation to adequate
high impact events)
Setup of a Nano-Tera.ch entrepreneurial
pitch contest including individual coaching for
the involved PhD students.

MT180 action
Apart from performing excellent science, it is important for
junior researchers to communicate their work and results in
a clear and appealing way, easily understandable outside
their field of specialization.

To this end, Nano-Tera has organized an MT180 (My Thesis

in 180 Seconds) contest, where NT PhD students have 3
minutes to present the content of their research to a wide
audience, with the support of only one static slide.
This contest:
gave 6 of the PhD students the opportunity to benefit
from personal coaching under the supervision of 6
members of the Swiss Association of Science Journalists
built a bridge toward the Swiss media

MT180 action
The results of these efforts is the selection of the 3 best
presentations for the MT180 final which will take place this
afternoon at 18:10.

The attribution of the best Nano-Tera MT180 presentation

will be the result of a vote by the whole Nano-Tera audience
present this afternoon.

Statistics on former
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

To industry or to academia?
(of 156 NT graduates)
Academia; 40%
Unemployed / Unknown; 5%

Industry; 55%

If in academia, where?

Other; 11%
United States; 21%
Switzerland; 52%

Europe; 16%

If in industry, where?

Switzerland; 61; 72%

Other; 2; 2%

United States; 9; 11%

Europe; 13; 15%

Industry size
Large 200+; 66%

Medium 50-200; 11%

Small 10-50; 9%
Micro 1-10; 14%

Examples of Nano-Tera.ch PhD

involvement in industry

Micro: 1-10 Employees

Giulia Cappi ISyPeM > Lunaphore (Start-Up)
The multi-disciplinary, industry oriented approach
enabled by her NanoTera project proved
fundamental to her new job as a Project Manager in
a promising young EPFL start-up.

Andrea Cavallini IronIC > Qloudlab (StartUp)

Multidiscipilanry project, especially related to
health monitoring and biosensing. This gave him
the bases for his current job, where we design and
test a novel connected mobile health device.

Examples of Nano-Tera.ch PhD

involvement in industry

Small/Medium: 11-250
Employees
Armin Tajalli ULP-Logic > Kandou Bus (StartUp)
Working on low power electronics taught him a
number of skills now applied to his new job. These
include circuit design tool expertise, instrumentation
as well as practical circuit efficiency trade-offs and
properties.

Wenqi You ISyPeM > Sophia Genetics (StartUp)

Her NanoTera project provided the skills in Big Data
analysis and the programming skills she is currently
applying in her position as a Senior Data Analyst.

Examples of Nano-Tera.ch PhD

involvement in industry

Large industries 250+

Employees
Aravind Heragu ISyPeM > Semtech Neuchtel
(CH)
I worked on designing a 2.4GHz low power radio for the
biotelemetry application targeted in the ISyPeM project.
This was indeed a major requirement to become a RF
engineer, and my PhD work helped in a great deal.

Yuksel Temiz CMOSAIC > IBM Research Zurich (CH)

He was involved in 3 different NanoTera projects. This
gave him the chance to work in a multi-disciplinary
research environment with people from different fields.
His position as a Post-Doc at IBM stems from this
experience.

Start-ups involving
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

NT PhD students
active in startups (21 cases)
Surname

First name

Locatio Start-up
n
size

Job function

Current employer
TissUse Berlin
Lunaphore
Qloudlab
ACP Advanced Circuit Pursuit
FemtoTools
Technis
Avails Medical
OncoEffective
Nanolive
FemtoTools
Elevence Digital Finance
Virtual Open Systems
Iprova Sarl
Anokion
Nanograde
Theranoptics
Dolphin Engineering
Kandou Bus

Accastelli
Enrico
Cappi
Giulia
Cavallini
Andrea
Fateh
Schekeb
Henriksson Jonas
Hoffmann
Martin
Knopfmacher Oren
Meissner
Robert
Merulla
Davide
Nagy
Zoltan
Peikert
Vincent
Pinto
Christian
Raghav
Shivani
Rentero
Inmaculada
Rossier
Michael
Schyrr
Bastien
Taddeo
Antonio
Tajalli
Armin

DE
CH
CH
CH
CH
CH
US
CH
CH
CH
CH
FR
CH
CH
CH
CH
CH
CH

11-50
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
11-50
11-50
11-50
11-50
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
1-10
11-50

Wojtas

Nina

CH

1-10

You

Wenqi

CH

51-250

R&D engineer
R&D engineer
R&D engineer
R&D engineer
R&D engineer
Co-founder
Co-founder and CEO
Founder
R&D engineer
Co-founder
Co-founder
R&D engineer
R&D engineer for 4 months
R&D engineer
R&D engineer for 3 years
Co-founder
Founder
R&D engineer
Co-founder and technical
director
R&D engineer

Zagolla

Volker

CH

11-50

R&D engineer

EMFab
Sophia Genetics
Lemoptix, acquired by Intel
2015

Examples of
Start-ups created by Nano-Tera.ch
PhD students

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis, Lausanne

Martin Hoffmann - MIXSEL

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis,
Lausanne
FemtoTools,
Buchs

Martin
- MIXSEL
ZoltanHoffmann
Nagy - SelfSys

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis,
Lausanne
FemtoTools,
Buchs
Elevence Digital
Finance, Zurich

Martin
Hoffmann
- MIXSEL
Zoltan
Nagy
SelfSys
Vincent Peikert - Enabler

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis,
Lausanne
FemtoTools,
Buchs
Elevence
Digital
Finance,
Zurich
Dophin Enginering,
Lugano

Martin
Hoffmann
- MIXSEL
Zoltan
Nagy
SelfSys
Vincent
- Enabler
AntonioPeikert
Taddeo
- SecWear

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis,
Lausanne
FemtoTools,
Buchs
Elevence
Digital
Finance,
Zurich
Dophin
Enginering,
Lugano
EMFab, Schlieren

Martin
Hoffmann
- MIXSEL
Zoltan
Nagy
SelfSys
Vincent
Peikert
- Enabler
Antonio
Taddeo
- SecWear
Nina Wojtas - BodyPoweredSenSE

Start-ups created by
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Technis,
Lausanne
FemtoTools,
Buchs
Elevence
Digital
Finance,
Zurich
Dophin
Enginering,
Lugano
EMFab,
Schlieren
Avails
Medical,
Palo Alto, USA

Martin
Hoffmann
- MIXSEL
Zoltan
Nagy
SelfSys
Vincent
Peikert
- Enabler
Antonio
Taddeo
- SecWear
Nina
Wojtas
BodyPoweredSenSE
Oren Knopfmacher - NanowireSensor

Examples of
successful start-ups involving
Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

Successful start-ups involving

Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

naphore, Lausanne

Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM

(2 MCHF Series A funding)

Successful start-ups involving

Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

unaphore, Lausanne
nokion, Prverenges

(37 MCHF Series A funding

Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM

Inmaculada Rentero - ISyPeM

Successful start-ups involving

Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

unaphore, Lausanne
Anokion, Prverenges (VD)
Sophia Genetics, LS (31.5 MCHF Series A/B/C fundin

Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM

Inmaculada Rentero - ISyPeM
Wenqi You- ISyPeM

Successful start-ups involving

Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

unaphore, Lausanne
Anokion, Prverenges (VD)
Sophia Genetics, Lausanne
Lemoptix, Lausanne

e
r
i
u
q
c
A

y
b
d

l
e
t
In

Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM

Inmaculada Rentero - ISyPeM
Wenqi You- ISyPeM
Volker Zagolla- SHINE

Successful start-ups involving

Nano-Tera.ch PhD students

unaphore, Lausanne
Anokion, Prverenges (VD)
Sophia Genetics, Lausanne
Lemoptix, Lausanne
SmartCardia, Lausanne
e
r
i
u
q
c
A

y
b
d

l
e
t
In

Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM

Inmaculada Rentero - ISyPeM
Wenqi You- ISyPeM
Volker Zagolla- SHINE
Srinivasan Murali BioCS-Node

Project involving undergraduates

beMap project

Benjamin, Chloe, Yoann and Micha

beMap project
Team
Benjamin, Chloe, Yoann and Micha, EPFL 3rd year Bachelor
microengineering students

Objective of the project

Bicycle Environmental Mapping (beMap): a bike lamp featuring
GPS tracking and sensors measuring air pollution along a cycling
route.
Cyclists can gather pollution data about the air they breathe on
their way to work in order to choose their route accordingly.

History
Project developed for iCan contest 2015
Awarded 2nd price at the international final at IEEE transducers
Anchorage 2015

Future steps

Thanks for your attention!

www.nano-tera.ch

Visit us at www.nano-tera.ch

Technis, Lausanne

Technis, Lausanne
Develops a new generation of tennis courts, which is touch
sensitive and understands what is happening on the surface.
Using these new tech-enabled courts as a platform, they
combine technology and sports in an integrated and seamless
way.
Start-up founded in 2014
Fundraising: CHF 50000 (2015) from Swiss Startups.ch
Awards:
Swiss startups.ch award 2015
Venture kick I and II
Start Lausanne

Website: www.mytechnis.ch
Involved person: Martin Hoffmann (PhD ETHZ 2011), Co-founder
Further info:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/chmhofmann
https://startupmonitor.ch/startups/2213/technis/
http://startupticker.ch/en/news/october-2015/swiss-startups-awards-2-des-4prix-sont-remportes-par-des-projets-provenant-de-suisse-romande

FemtoTools, Buchs

FemtoTools, Buchs
FemtoTools is a Swiss high-tech company that offers award-winning, ultra
high-precision instruments for mechanical testing and robotic handling in
the micro- and nanodomains.
Start-up founded in 2007
Funding: Capital CHF 900000
Awards:
Swiss Technology Award 2009
CTI
Venture Leader
RBR50 - Top 50 most Influental Robotics Companies Worldwide in 2014

Website: www.femtotools.ch
Involved persons:
Nagy Zoltan (PhD ETHZ 2011), Co-founder
Jonas Henriksson (PhD EPFL 2014), Employee

Further info:
www.linkedin.com/in/zoltan-nagy-45605114 http://www.zoltan-nagy.net/
http://www.swissventureguide.ch/2012/Start-Ups-on-the-Way-to-Success/FemtoToo
ls
http://www.roboticsbusinessreview.com/rbr50/companies/Private

Elevence Digital Finance, Zurich

Elevence Digital Finance, Zurich

Elevence develops and commercializes a scalable distributed

digital ledger system to exchange, administrate and audit
financial contracts.
Start-up founded in 2015
Funding: Capital CHF 300000
Website: www.elevence.com
Involved person: Vincent Peikert (PhD ETHZ 2013), Co-founder
Further info:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vincent-peikert-81079098
https://www.xing.com/news/klartext/elevence-sind-junge-revolution
are-240

Dolphin Engineering, Lugano

Dolphin Engineering, Lugano

Provides a service able to monitor the micro-climate

conditions of cultivated fields in order to prevent plant
diseases.
Start-up founded in 2007
Funding: CHF 7500 (InnovationsCheck 2009), CHF
30000 (Microcredito citt di Lugano 2012)
Awards:
CTI
Microcredito citt di Lugano

Website: www.dolphin-engineering.ch
Involved person: Antonio Taddeo (PhD USI, 2011), Cofounder
Further info:
www.linkedin.com/in/antonio-vincenzo-taddeo-7110257
http://www.dolphin-engineering.ch/CdT-SchedaDolphin.pdf

EMFab, Schlieren

EMFab, Schlieren

The core businesses of EMFab include three main fields:

design and engineering services, mechanical machining,
and PCB (printed circuit board) manufacturing.
Start-up founded in 2014
Funding: CHF 20000 (2014)
Website: www.emfab.ch
Involved person: Nina Wojtas (PhD ETHZ, 2014), Cofounder
Further info:
www.linkedin.com/in/nina-wojtas-170a8289
http://www.moneyhouse.ch/en/u/emfab_gmbh_CH-020.4.053.204-4.
htm

Avails Medical, Palo Alto, USA

Avails Medical, Palo Alto, USA

Avails Medical is revolutionizing the current diagnostics

market with a unique platform that transforms
biochemical reactions to electrical signals.
Start-up founded in 2013
Funding: $ 1'250'000 (2014)
Website: www.availsmedical.com
Involved person: Oren Knopfmacher (PhD UniBAS 2011),
Co-founder and CEO
Further info:
http://www.linkedin.com/in/knopfmacher
https://angel.co/avails-medical
http://form-d.findthecompany.com/l/164607/Avails-Medical-Inc

Lunaphore, Lausanne

Lunaphore, Lausanne
Lunaphore has developed an innovative tissue diagnostics
platform, primarily for analysis and classification of tumors. The
platform is based on a microfluidic chip technology that allows
fine-tuning of such diagnostic assays and increases their speed
and accuracy.
Start-up founded in 2014
Size: 1-10 employees
Fundraising: CHF 130'000 Venture Kick final (2015),
CHF 2'000'000 Series A funding (2015)
Awards:
TOP100 Swiss startups (top 10)
Venture kick
Sanofi-Aventis Science4Life

Website: www.lunaphore.ch
Involved person:
Giulia Cappi - ISyPeM (employee)
Prof. Martin Gjis (advisor)

Anokion, Prverenges (VD)

Anokion, Prverenges (VD)

Anokion, a spin-off from the Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de

Lausanne (EPFL), is focused on applying the companys
antigen-specific immune tolerance technology to reduce the
immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to treat
autoimmune and allergic diseases. As a platform technology,
Anokions approach to antigen-specific tolerance can be
translated to virtually any protein in numerous clinical
indications.
Start-up founded in 2010
Size 1-10 employees
Funding: $ 37000000 Series A funding
Website: www.anokion.com
Involved person: Inmaculada Rentero, Employee
Further info:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-vincent-peikert-81079098
https://www.xing.com/news/klartext/elevence-sind-junge-revolution
are-240

Sophia Genetics, Lausanne

Sophia Genetics, Lausanne

Sophia Genetics is the Global Leader in Data Driven

Medicine. Our team of talented experts in Clinical
Genomics, Machine Learning and Bioinformatics built
Sophia DDM, the most advanced genomics data
analytics platform.Over 150 leading hospitals use Sophia
DDMto diagnose thousands of patients each week in
the fastest, most accuratepossible way.
Start-up founded in 2011
Size: 51+
Funding: $ 2'800'000 Series A funding,
$ 13'750'000 Series B funding (2014),
$ 15'000'000 Series C funding (2015)
Website: www.sophiagenetics.com
Involved person: Wenqi You (employee)

Lemoptix, Lausanne

Lemoptix is a leading developer of laser microprojection

technology for next generation mobile augmented reality
and human/machine interaction. The company develops
and commercializes advanced microprojection
technology, integrating proprietary micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)-, driving electronics and
optics sub-systems.
Start-up founded in 2008
Funding: Four funding rounds of undisclosed amounts
(2011-2014). Acquired by Intel for an undisclosed
amount in 2015
Website: not active after the acquisition by Intel
Involved person: Volker Zagolla (employee)