Newsletter
Our highlight this month certainly was the contract extension for ESA BIC CH for the next 5 years! We are delighted to announce that we will support and boost another 50 start-ups with a space connection.
The official celebration for this milestone took place virtually on March 2nd and the enthusiasm was shared by all parties involved, from ESA, ETH Zurich and the Swiss Space Office. Even ESA's new Director General, Josef Aschbacher, joined the meeting on his second working day, which was much appreciated.
The next jury session is coming up on March 16th. We received a good amount of high quality applications and are looking forward to having the candidates present virtually in front of our jury.
On February 11th the next Community Building Event took place on the topic of "Working with space companies and other big partners". ESA BIC CH Michael Gschweitl gave an overview about how to get ESA projects and our alumnus Menhir Photonics and incubatee Cysec spoke about their experiences with launching space products and working together with private space companies. With small discussion groups following the presentations now the online events become a much appreciated and interactive format as well.
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ESA BIC CH start-up: CondenZero
Making metallic additively manufactured parts ultra-high vacuum leak tight for space applications.
CondenZero is a spin-off of the University of Zurich and work in the development and production of scientific instruments and components for research applications in ultra-high vacuum and cryogenic conditions.
The three products developed by CondenZero are:
- GLADIUS is a cryogenic liquid helium TEM sample holder with capabilities for in-situ electronic transport experiments. Base temperature is reached swiftly and stabilized over long periods of time.
- Sample Receiver uses 6 electrical contacts for variable temperature control and six further contacts for transport experiments. A standard 3mm TEM grid can be inserted into a chip and then clipped into the receiver.
- CORVUS is a crucial tool to make the cryo sample holders fully operational. It suppresses vibrations originating from the building floor, helium transfer and helium boiling.
CondenZero just finished the assembly of their third generation prototype and secured a 150'000 CHF funding from Venture Kick by winning the final stage 3.
Learn more about CondenZero on their website.
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Start-up highlights:
- Bota Systems launched a new generation of force-torque solutions that simplify force-sensing.
- Cysec is organizing CYSAT this month from March 17-19 fully virtual, in cooperation with our partner program AP-Swiss. For tickets and further info see here.
- EH Group finalized the production of fuel cell stacks for customers in France, Germany and the Netherlands.
- Inergio presented at an ESA fuel cell workshop.
- MicroR has been accepted to an EU optical packaging pilot production line.
- Neural Concept are finalizing the discussion for two additional projects in the automotive industry and received additional funding.
- Rigi Technologies performed a 4-day training with their first customer.
- Voliro received several orders for their innovative drones for R&D platforms from a major oil&gas company and the Swiss association for technical inspections.
- XR Nanotech participated in the 16th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference and started networking with space experts.
- Alumnus Fixposition partners with PIX Moving to expand the reach of autonomous ground vehicles.
- Alumnus Klepsydra and incubatee Miraex will participate in the virtual Paris Space Week from 9-10 March.
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