Technology Transfer through Spin-Off Creation

(Bern University of Applied Sciences, August 14, 2020)

With the field of bio-based products strongly dominated by international companies, who respond to the market’s need for commercialized innovation using their own R&D, entrepreneurship remains largely underdeveloped in this sector. However, recognizing that public research organizations are generating many creative and disruptive ideas that could help our economy and society achieve global environmental objectives, the BFH Institute for Materials and Wood Technology recently decided to invest in this area. Success stories of this new commercialized innovation strategy include the spin-off Cocoboards, which develops technology to upcycle local agricultural waste into affordable, sustainable products for the furniture and construction industry, as well as WoDens technology, which modifies sustainable domestic wood to obtain a similar appearance and properties as tropical wood.