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Story 20 June 2022
Public

Stories – EIC Procurers Day with RUAG AG: Successfully being a driving force for innovative approaches

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Oriana Baptista

On 10 & 11 May 2022, the European Innovation Council (EIC) partnered up with RUAG AG for a Procurers Day to conduct a dedicated matchmaking event between EIC beneficiaries and the corporate. Seven EIC-backed SMEs presented their promising technologies and innovative solutions to address the corporate’s needs related to their Ammotec business area. 

 

After the event, we sat down with two representatives from the Swiss-based company, Henning Rost and Christian Leibold, to ask them some questions about the EIC’s Procurers Day event. Here’s what they had to say. 

 

Can you briefly describe your role within RUAG AG and explain the motivations behind joining forces with the EIC for this Procurers Day? 

Henning Rost: I'm the head of R&D of the business unit industry at the RUAG AG’s Ammotec business sector. Our motivations for joining forces with the EIC for the Procurers Day are related to having an exciting R&D landscape all over Europe and given we’re not able to know all the companies that relate to our business we did not doubt that this was the best approach. We’re always searching for hidden champions and staying in this state-of-the-art network and collaborating with the EIC directly helps us build upon our approach to open innovation and know companies that are exciting and can help us solve our problems. Therefore, these types of events are an excellent opportunity to do just that. 

 

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Christian Leibold: I'm the product manager for the business unit industry – that means we’re able to work together with other business partners and not end customers. I'm more in an administrative role that is between the R&D and our procurement. The EIC’s Procurers Day was a great opportunity to know the hidden champs (as Henning already mentioned) and we’re looking forward to further dealing with the open innovation spectrum they offer. We were able to share our needs with other companies, and the EIC was pivotal in this regard – whether in helping us to get to know the participants and other key players, or even assisting us in finding a good solution for our proposed problem. 

 

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What mindset and skills do you look for in companies (startups and scale-ups) to bring to your ecosystem? 

Henning Rost: We look for companies that are open to different versions of cooperation – it can be an R&D contract, R&D cooperation, etc. If both parties agree on a good solution, what we expect is that these companies have skills and efficient problem solving now while knowing what our needs are and that they need to provide interesting solutions for what’s required. 

 

Christian Leibold: We are looking for disruptive and efficient solutions for both sides. This means that our potential supplier or startup must have the same participation as we have. We’re not looking for one-sided cooperation with fruitful ends just for us, but we also want to share our knowledge and information with the startups to enable them to create new and more opportunities for themselves. 

 

Could you explain what areas you are currently looking into? 

Henning Rost: Currently, we’re interested in a topic that’s very urgent for us: the substitution of Chromium 6. This is a kind of surface treatment that works well but the European Commission decided to ban it, and we need an alternative. So, presently, our big topic is related to surface treatment. 

 

What are the benefits/advantage of working with the EIC and its portfolio of SMEs? 

Henning Rost: The EIC allows us to access a wide range of relevant startups and also small companies that are unknown to us. Europe is big, with many different countries, and the EIC is an excellent way for us to access these companies. 

 

Christian Leibold: Our joint efforts with the EIC provided us with good channels to look or search for companies to work together. As Henning said, there are so many companies in Europe and EIC-funded SMEs that when we share the exact problem solving that we need, having a platform such as the EIC that grants us a way to get the right ones is a big help. 

 

What are your views on the online event and the quality of the companies pitching? 

Henning Rost: We were delighted to be part of the online event; it was the first time for us. The experience was great, and it was well organised, so we benefitted hugely from it. The preselection was remarkably done, and we had high-quality companies attending with innovative problem-solving solutions and different approaches to what we were asking. 

 

Christian Leibold: The quality of the companies pitching was high. The pitching part of the event was well organised and well prepared for the proposed challenges and types of solutions we were looking for. 

 

Have you found any interesting opportunities in companies funded by the European Innovation Council? 

Henning Rost: The answer is yes. We’re still in contact with several companies that were focused on our needs and provided interesting solutions for our problem. Also, we’re currently setting up the needed efforts to pursue further collaboration with them (and NDA) and afterwards we’ll exchange samples and do a joint evaluation. Hopefully, we can find at least one good solution to solve our problem. 

 

Christian Leibold: Yes, so, the NDA is in full motion, also because of our technology transfer here in Germany to other countries. We’re not only looking for solutions related to the topic of surface treatments but also for other types of surface treatments as well. We have an existing NDA that is prepared with all the selected companies or pitching companies that ensures that. We might have an upcoming partnership in other surface treatments that we’ll need too. In sum, this is the first step toward good cooperation. 

 

EIC Business Acceleration Services 

This opportunity is brought to you by the EIC Business Acceleration Services. If you’re looking for opportunities to connect with some of the largest public and private procurers of innovation in Europe make sure to check our events calendar often to grab the best opportunity to take your business to the next level.

DISCLAIMER: This information is provided in the interest of knowledge sharing and should not be interpreted as the official view of the European Commission, or any other organisation.

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