Planning the (Materials-)Revolution

BizBoosting, a start-up company from the French-speaking part of Switzerland, is working on improving the properties and competitiveness of products with the help of novel nanomaterials, offering potential customers its R&D know-how for the custom-made development of innovative products. Convinced that graphene nanoplatelets and nanocellulose in particular are capable of a real materials revolution, the company regrets that Switzerland – notwithstanding the excellent research record of its laboratories – is not following the example of other and in particular Asian governments who are resolutely pushing innovation through the tailored financing of cooperations between start-ups and research institutes. This, BizBoosting feels, puts Swiss start-ups with international target markets at a real disadvantage.

contactpointnano.ch cannot provide this kind of financing either: Its mission is to build bridges between the expert knowledge present in Swiss research and policy on one side and practical application on the other. It has thus helped BizBoosting get in touch with various laboratories at Empa capable of performing the sophisticated material experiments the company has been looking for. The cooperation with the Empa experts has proven fruitful: With the right funding, a series from outstanding innovations might even spring from it, BizBoosting says.

”contactpointnano.ch has put me in touch with several Empa laboratories and pointed me to other important contacts.”

Serge Rossel, founder and CEO of BizBoosting