Geneva, 23 April 2012. CERN1 and the UK's Science and Technology Facilities Council announce the launch of a new Business Incubation Centre (BIC) at the STFC's Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus. The centre will provide a new technology transfer opportunity to bridge the gap between basic science and industry, supporting businesses and entrepreneurs in taking innovative technologies related to high energy physics from technical concept to market reality.

"CERN is committed to maximizing the benefit to society of CERN technology through the development and exploitation of innovative ideas in all CERN's areas of expertise," explained Steve Myers, CERN's Director of Accelerators and Technology. "Our technologies are already available through schemes ranging from R&D partnerships to licences and consultancy. The CERN-STFC BIC provides a new route to market, and I hope it will be the first of many in our Member States."

The Business Incubation Centre will nurture innovative ideas based on technologies developed at CERN, with a direct contribution from CERN and in which CERN expertise could be brought to bear. The collaboration between CERN and STFC follows the success of the STFC Business Incubation Centre located at STFC's Harwell campus and run with the support of the European Space Agency. The centre supports entrepreneurs and high tech start-up companies to translate space technologies, applications and services into viable non-space business ideas.

The CERN BIC will be managed by STFC Innovations Limited, the technology transfer office of STFC, which will provide benefits to the successful applicants such as accompanied 2-day technical visits to CERN, and access to scientific, technical and business expertise provided by STFC and CERN. In terms of financial support, successful applicants will receive a total funding of up to ￡40k (per company, conditional on SME status), provided by STFC.

The entrepreneurial support provided by STFC includes a dedicated business champion from STFC to help with business planning and provide guidance towards access to STFC's facilities and expertise (which include access to world leading expertise and facilities in accelerator technology; an International Centre of Excellence in Computational Science and Engineering (ICE-CSE) as well as to STFC's Innovations Technology Access Centre (I-TAC).