Accelerating Technology Readiness Program
What is ATR?
The BPI Accelerating Technology Readiness (ATR) program supports inventions/technologies to move to higher Technology Readiness Levels in a commercial context. Specific aspects of the program include:
- Supporting innovation ideation with industrial insights
- Understanding market technical needs (product & process)
- Innovation analysis and technical value proposition development
- Techno-economic analysis (TEA)
- Sustainability and climate optimization
- De-risking specific technology components and including pre-pilot scaling up
- Supporting investor-ready developments
=> Translate innovations into engineering processes by supporting technical de-risking in an economic context
What is ATR Not !
- Replication of other innovator/incubator/ accelerator programs: ATR is designed to be complementary and collaborative
- Controlling IP: The inventors and invested parties maintain full control over IP. Parties involved will need to sign NDAs on a project-by-project basis
- Technology push program: There needs to be economic potential / customer pull to move forward through the ATR process
- Financially restrictive for the inventors/founders: The ATR program needs to find a way to cover costs but not burden the projects
Value to Innovators / Technologist
- Hands on support on the pathway towards impact with actionable steps to de-risk the technology and create investor acceptance.
- Support in technical value proposition creation in a business opportunity context.
- Support to develop IP, return of investment (ROI) assessment and and scale-up requirements.
- Networking and connections to industry along the value chain partners and potential investors and as well as other innovators, technology entrepreneurs.
- Where available, access to pre-pilot scale equipment and expertise within BPI network.
- “CTO” training. Learning technical and scale up insights from seasoned industry experts.
- Project Specific Advisory of industry experts/consultants/BPI experts to work closely with you to de-risked and improve the scalability of your technology/investable IP for a targeted customer.
Value to ATR’s Industry Partners
- Early view and influence on innovations, project selection
- Participate in projects of interest
- Engage preferred value-chain partners early on for specific projects
- Introduce own projects to de-risk and accelerate
- Tap into the wealth of BPI researcher and graduate talent and associated international network:
- Lower start-up costs
- Acquisition strategy (build to own)
- Future employee scouting for technical and intrapreneurial skills
- Support building the eco-system & pipeline for future benefit:
- Leverage ATR & BPI team expertise and network to support technology and market assessments
- Leverage BPI State-of-the-art equipment for advanced materials development and testing
Examples of recent BPI/ PPC startups
- Bioform - Helping to resolve the plastic pollution challenge
- Simplyfyber - Wood fibres to textiles
Examples of ATR projects
- Wood Leather
- Bio-carbon-iron catalyst for water purification
- Cellulose-based ultra-thin insulation for outerwear and outdoor gear
- Formed 3D Sawdust and Mycelium for architectural furnishings
- Recycled Cardboard foam cushioning for packaging
- Lignin Carbon Supraparticles for energy applications
Industry Mentors Wanted
The ATR Program is looking for technical industry mentors to support projects developing their technology for sector specific applications. Examples include packaging, textiles, architecture furnishings and many others. Experience with product/process development, TEA, and scale-up would be super valuable. If you would like to learn more, please send an email to richard.sones@ubc.ca
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