NELUMBOX – the awards winner. Use Case from LILA Labs session

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NELUMBOX pro is a cold chain solution with only battery-operated long-term controlled temperature device, which is one of its unique features. NELUMBOX is patented technology and is created by Martin Voigt – an entrepreneur from Darmstadt (Germany). Based on this technology, he developed four different types of solutions for four different use cases: personal medication and traveling, for baby care, for professional use and leisure. Martin Voigt still do not have his own company but all his products are ready for testing by different users.

The General Manager of INI-Novation GmbH Wolfgang Kniejski met Martin Voigt on one of the seminars, organized by INI-Novation about IPR management. After the seminar, they had long conversation about the market and different ways for market entrance. Both agreed that the users’ needs and preferences are important for the market entrance strategy. For this reason, Martin Voigt was introduced to the process of LILA Labs. It was decided a LILA lab to be organized during a special pitching competition “UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS”. It was good opportunity for Martin, because he could easily receive feedback from people working in hospices, care homes and from frequent travellers.

The idea of this participation was good, because the NELUMBOX creator Martin Voigt received a lot of feedbac
k from the users during the LILA lab session. The discussion during the LILA lab made clearer the benefits and the challenges of NELUMBOX for the users, that participated in the lab.

The inclusion of a LILA lab session during another event with the same-targeted focus groups was helpful in two directions: Martin Voigt discussed issues of NELUMBOX with highly competent people in the Health Care and Home Care sector; and secondly, the responsible people from the Innovation Management Teamof UNCAP had the opportunity to know in details the new invention.

As a result, NELUMBOX won the second place in the “UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARD“ competition. Martin Voigt was invited as an associated partner in the UNCAP EU project which means that he could test in a real field his invention. He also was invited to participate in Nottingham in the UNCAP conference on eCare and to exhibit his technology.

Next steps are preparation to take NELUMBOX to the international market and again the first step will be LILA lab, organized by our LILA partners in France and England.

Internationally with LILA Labs. Use case: “Testfabrik AG”

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Testfabrik AG is a German start-up company, established in 2013. The team was striving to enter the German market and to provide Internet Technologies based services, as webmate. “Webmate” is a groundbreaking tool for the automatic testing of web applications, with a focus on cross-browser compatibility. Until their entrance in the LILA Labs program, they had no clients.

Testfabrik AG is one of the best cases for LILA Lab session because they have a prototype of their future product, tested among other their colleagues, with very high appreciation but without any client’s interest. Their main questions were “Why?” and “What?” – why they don’t clients and what they have to improve.

Their first LILA Lab was in November 2014 in Darmstadt. INI-Novation invited the main target group that can turn into potential customers – web designers from the region. During the session, Testfabrik AG was interested to get information about the following questions:

Where do the users see webmate fitting in their work?
What does the user see as the major issue for the acceptance of webmate?
What do the users think about the pricing model – does it encourage or discourage the usage of webmate?
Do the users need more features to be implemented in webmate?

The LILA Lab session was organized as a free discussion between the users and the creators of webmate. A lot of recommendations and useful tips were put on the table, and after the session all were satisfied with the results of the meeting.

After the local lab, Testfabrik AG decided to continue their experience in the LILA Lab process but this time on international level. A road show in Netherlands and Belgium was organized by one of the contracted mentors in the LILA project,Mr. Filip Coenen. This road show actually was set up as a “multiplied LILA Lab”. Instead of getting together users in a meeting room, the company went to the users in their offices. The company received valuable feedback to adapt product’s features to the specific needs of those markets. As a result, Testfabrik AG found beta testers from Belgium and Netherlands, and committed proof of concept cooperation. This was a real success and added value for the company.

At the end, Testfabrik AG realized that they have to accompany their final product activities with more marketing support. INI-Novation’s marketing and PR specialists were also participants in the LILA Lab sessions. Knowing the users’ preferences, they developed the marketing and communication strategy for Testfabrik.

The goal of Testfabrik AG is in 5 years’ time to become a European leader in software quality tools for web applications with near view to the global market leadership. LILA Labs were one of the first steps toward the goal.

“Einkorn – Ancient Innovation” Conference in Darmstadt

Posted on September 10, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Food innovation | Leave a comment

Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski talks about the beer market in Germany

On behalf of the consortium of partners in the EU project “Einkorn – Ancient Innovation”, INI-Novation GmbH organized the official Project Conference in Darmstadt, Germany, on September 10^th, 2015.

The purpose of the event was to bring together mainly beer brewing but also food experts, and stakeholders, who are interested in exploring new products of a higher quality with multiple benefits. The innovation of the project is a specific malting process, suitable for less widespread culture “Einkorn”, which has proven qualities superior to other varieties.

The conference was opened by Boyan Milushev, representative of the project coordinator and Dr. Wolfgang Kniejski – an international consultant in the field of innovation management with more than 20 years of international experience as a business development manager.
The conference was focused on topics such as “Einkorn –origin, spread, composition”, “Malting and brewing of Einkorn”, “Bread and pastry with Einkorn”, market opportunities and niches. Lectors were Professor Valentin Batchvarov, Professor Gabriela Marinova – both from Agricultural Academy in Bulgaria, and Lenka Sachambula from the Research Institute of Brewing and Malt in Czech Republic.

Prof. Valentin Batchvarov )Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Prof. Gabriela Marinova (Agricultural Academy, Bulgaria), Lenka SachambulaResearch (Institute of Brewing
and Malt, Czech Republic)

Dean Gerasimov, owner of a company, growing einkorn in Bulgaria

Einkorn Beer and Einkorn Pastry Testing

Dean Gerasimov, owner of a company, growing einkorn and producing einkorn products from Bulgaria, shared his practical experience on the market.

Samples of einkorn based beer, homemade einkorn bread and pastry were reached out for testing.

At the end, many participants had the opportunity to exchange ideas and more experience on a get together and networking event with glass of beer in hand.

Enkorn pastry

Einkorn beer

UNCAP Innovation management team was constituted in Darmstadt

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to establish and constitute the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT). The IMT will serve as a forum to discuss topics, priorities and issues of concern of the project’s stakeholders. It will encourage the information exchange and discussion among the stakeholders, inform about the project’s activities, provide ideas and recommendations to the members of the project consortium, and promote and lobby the project’s interests. The INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT) shall supervise the installation and market uptake of the targeted UNCAP Box and UNCAP Cloud services towards sustainable operations and its further expansion into other European regions.

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Members of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team and members of the UNCAP consortium after the official constitution of the IMT.

The INNOVATION MANANGEMENT TEAM is recruited by representatives from scientific organisations, innovative SMEs, and a diverse group of eCare stakeholders, such as potential investors or health insurance organisations. In its constitutional meeting the IMT accepted unanimously its “Rules of Procedure” and appointed Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital) as its Chairman and Prof. Panagiotis D. Bamidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) as its Vice Chairman.

Furthermore, the members of the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM acted as international jury in an eCare technology pitching and matchmaking event. Requirements of care homes and hospitals were analysed and discussed as well as the needs of care takers and care givers. The four best technology pitches were awarded with vouchers to participate in the UNCAP eCare conference in September 2015 in Nottingham(UK).

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Angela Ivanova with entrepreneurs, innovators and experts discussing eCare paradigm and trends

THE UNCAP project
UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maxim ises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

PST Start-up CHINO.IO wins the UNCAP Award in Darmstadt

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to grant the four best start-up companies of an international eCare innovations pitching event the UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS.

UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

UNCAP targets the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale. In this context, the first UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD event was organised to provide eCare innovators and entrepreneurs the floor to introduce their technologies underlining future eCare solutions. An international jury recruited of market and technology experts evaluated the presentations, ranked them and selected the four best pitches for the UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD. The first price was awarded to “CHINO.IO” (Italy), providing secure API and storage for health data according to EU laws and regulations. The winner, Jovan Stevovic, received the award from the UNCAP co-ordinator, Dr. Giuseppe Conti (Trilogis) and from Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital Business development Acclerator), Chairman of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team.

The UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 grants a free participation in the UNCAP Conference in Nottingham (UK) in September 2015 (including travel and all related costs) as well as a free booth at the conference exhibition and promotions support. Impressed by the vast knowledge that CHINO’s Managing Director proved during his presentation, the UNCAP management team decided spontaneously to accept CHINO as an associated partner and to grant a subcontract for consulting services in the area of regulations and requirements in commercialisation of eHealth and eCare applications. “I am proud and happy that the winner of our UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 will play a significant role in the project activities”, the leader of the business modelling work package, Ms. Angela Ivanova, stated during the award ceremony.

INI-Novation presents 4 innovative technologies

Posted on July 20, 2015 by itengine in Living Labs, Living Labs, Living Labs, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects | Leave a comment

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Four innovative web solutions were presented on LILA lab sessions on December 3th in Darmstadt. Most of them are not on the market yet. These technologies of the future need to be further developed and turned into successful products for the market with the potential customers’ and users’ help. The users’ feedback is very important on the early stage of development, that’s why the inventors had a lot of questions to discuss with the invited users who were active and creative in sharing their opinion.

At the end, all participants left satisfied with what they have learned and richer with the shared knowledge. The sessions were organised by INI-Novation GmbH, the German partner in the LILA Project.

Information about the presented web solutions:

YoStar App is the first of its kind Android application, which main purpose is to navigate the position of a telescope towards a space object and to facilitate its adjustment. NaviScope will enter the German market now. INFOZONE App is an innovative mobile application that will be launched on the German market soon. The goal of INFOZONE is to provide easy and time saving life for the tourists and people living in the cities. The application can show you the nearest points of interest with promotion discounts, or according your preferences. DeeD Platform is a new web platform for fun and team-building, allowing different organizations and teams to bond their members via small but regular challenges.It iis going to be launched in the German market. Searching engine “Cognica” – a fuzzy search engine. Еxamples will be presented for use of fuzzy search engines for fast and authentic language translation and fast semantic search in web pages.

December 9, 2014 1:56 PM,

For more information click here

How to Finance your start-up business?

Posted on June 2, 2015 by itengine in Financing, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Training, Training | Leave a comment

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You’re a start-up, and you’re looking for investors to support your business. This seminar is for you!

INI-Novation organises on 2 December 2014 in Darmstadt (Germany) a seminar targeted at young entrepreneurs and start-ups who are looking for financing sources in the pre-Seed, the seed, the start-up and the expansion phases.

Besides providing theoretical knowledge regarding financing models, concrete real-life scenario examples will also be used to illustrate strategic financing and the different alternative action steps. Current challenges faced by the participants will also be taken into consideration for the analysis of different financing possibilities. Practitioners will give insides to support entrepreneurs accessing proper financing models. At the end of the seminar 5 start-up concepts will be pitched, reviewed, commented by experts and presented in front of users on a LILA Lab on 3.12.2014 .

November 28, 2014

For more information click here