Imperial Innovations offering £100K for recycling ingenuity

Funding Opportunity

Imperial Innovations Group plc, the technology commercialisation and investment company (AIM: IVO) launches a nationwide call for recycling propositions which have the potential to make a significant difference in reducing the amount of waste going to landfill in the UK.

Up to £100,000 worth of commercial support is being offered to successful applicants by the Imperial Innovations Recycling Commercialisation Centre (IIRCC) to bring their ideas, technologies or products to market.

The Centre will help successful applicants by:

• providing market intelligence on the technology or product;
• identifying and securing Intellectual Property;
• building the business case;
• funding product demonstration and proof of concept; and
• identifying and securing seed finance.

As Government, companies, and individuals move steadily towards materials reuse and recycling, waste is increasingly being seen as a resource. The entire UK recycled product industry is already a £12 billion market. The specialist non-metal recyclate reprocessing sector, a segment particularly attractive to new technologies, is currently worth £1.2 billion/year and will need to increase in size by 60% by 2020 if the UK is to meet its obligations under the European legislation on recycling. Local authorities are working to reduce waste generation and better handle existing waste as they strive to comply with government legislation.  Waste issues have also leapt to the top of the agenda for businesses as they attempt to address how operations can be transformed to eliminate waste.  A burgeoning market is emerging for new technologies addressing waste issues.

To date Imperial Innovations has engaged an array of ideas from sectors such as construction, retail manufacturing and local authority services.  Examples include technologies to devulcanise end of use tyres for reuse in new tyre manufacture; to use waste glass in the manufacture of building products with greater than 97% recycled content; and to develop value added products from paper sludges and aggregates. 

Propositions must relate to the recycling of one or more of the following waste streams:

plastics, glass, paper, aggregates, wood, aggregates, organic waste, gypsum board, tyres, batteries, waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) and end of life vehicles (ELV). The Centre will assess the propositions and decide whether the recycling invention is suitable and work with the candidate to complete an application form.

 Glenn Janes, Recycling Commercialisation Centre Manager, said,

“Technologies that challenge how we use or reuse resources are critical in the drive towards a sustainable economy.  The Recycling Commercialisation Centre provides the support to make these resource efficient technologies a reality.”

Susan Searle, CEO, Imperial Innovations, said,

“We urge inventors, entrepreneurs or individuals to make contact with the Recycling Commercialisation Centre if they have a waste recycling proposition. The Centre has the resources and funds to accelerate the development of suitable opportunities.”

Imperial Innovations

Imperial Innovations is one of the UK's leading technology transfer and commercialisation companies. The company was founded in 1986 and its ordinary shares admitted to trading on the AIM Market of London Stock Exchange plc in July 2006, raising £26 million. The company’s integrated approach encompasses the identification of ideas, protection of intellectual property, development and licensing of technology and formation, incubation and investment in technology businesses. A wide range of technologies are commercialised within the areas of healthcare, energy, environment and emerging technology trends.

Based at Imperial College London, the company has established equity holdings in 70 technology businesses and has completed 116 commercial agreements. Imperial Innovations also commercialises technologies originating from outside Imperial College through incubation contracts with the Carbon Trust and WRAP and has relationships with a number of multinational corporations including BAE Systems.

Imperial Innovations has invested in a range of spin-out companies, including The Acrobot Company Limited, BioCeramic Therapeutics Limited, Cardiak Limited, Circassia Holdings Limited, deltaDOT Limited, Equinox Pharma Limited, Future Waves PTE Limited, HeliSwirl Technologies Limited, InforSense Limited, IXICO Limited, Lontra Limited, Midaz Lasers Limited, NanoBioDesign Limited, Nexeon Limited, NovaThera Limited, Thiakis Limited and Veryan Medical Limited.

Imperial Innovations currently holds shares in four technology businesses now listed on AIM including the fuel cell company, Ceres Power plc.

Recycling Commercialisation Centre

The Recycling Commercialisation Centre was launched in 2006 by Imperial Innovations and WRAP to support early stage businesses and bring new and innovative recycled products, recycling technologies and business models to market.

The Centre will assist individual entrepreneurs, university and corporate spin-outs and start-up businesses to find and exploit the best routes to market such as, new business development, strategic partnering and licensing.

WRAP

WRAP works in partnership to encourage and enable businesses and consumers to be more efficient in their use of materials and recycle more things more often. This helps to minimise landfill, reduce carbon emissions and improve our environment. Established as a not-for-profit company in 2000, WRAP is backed by Government funding from Defra and the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Working in seven key areas (Construction, Retail, Manufacturing, Organics, Business Growth, Behavioural Change, and Local Authority Support), WRAP’s work focuses on market development and support to drive forward recycling and materials resource efficiency within these sectors, as well as wider communications and awareness activities including the multi-media national Recycle Now campaign for England.