The following is an excerpt.
The report shows a realized economic impact of + 150 MNOK, and hundreds of millions of euro saved when industry implements CASA’s technologies and methods.
A fresh report made by the strategic and financial advisory firm Impello Management shows the facts and figures on the Centre’s innovations and technological advances.
made by the strategic and financial advisory firm Impello Management shows the facts and figures on the Centre’s innovations and technological advances.
«The report visualizes the importance and potential value of research. I will recommend everyone that has an interest for industry-related research and commercialization to read it», states author Frode Iglebæk.
He is managing partner in Impello Management and has broad experience from commercialization of R&D and technology-based business concepts.
Could easily have made 30 use cases
Iglebæk has identified 15 different use cases. For each of these the research challenge, the innovation and potential impact on the economy, safety, technology, societal and commercialization is described.
«With all the innovative research at SFI CASA, we could easily have made 30 use cases if required. Since each research result may have multiple future application areas, it is really up to the partners to explore how they can utilize these and make their use cases», he states.
Since SFI CASA is financed by the centre partners, by the Research Council, and indirectly by the Ministry of Education and Research and Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries, the report also gives some answers to the question «what results are we getting for the money invested?»
Frode Iglebæk
Iglebæk says the use cases are of high quality, both in terms of realized impact and future potential.
«From other studies, we have seen that the really large impact numbers do not appear until at least ten or twenty years in the future».
Huge savings offshore
There are four use cases on onshore and offshore structures. «Optimized Pipeline Routing at Åsgard A» is one of them. The energy company Equinor has taken advantage of CASA’s know-how, material models and test facilities when planning a new pipeline route. The realized impact of this is +150 MNOK.
Seven of the use cases in the Impello report on innovations come from the automotive industry. Improved material and joint models enable full vehicle car crash simulations and reduce the need for physical prototypes. SFI CASA has developed new material models implemented in PAM-CRASH and LS-DYNA. These are the leading software tools for crash simulations.
… and for the automotive industry
Large car manufacturers typically run 500-1000 tests per year -each. CASA is contributing to the industry´s objective of a 50 per cent reduction in physical car crash testing. The report estimates that there is potential for more than 100 million euro in annual cost savings -per carmaker.
When it comes to protective structures, Impello identifies four use cases: Blast proof facade products in aluminium, Safety In submerged floating tunnels, Protection and physical security, and 3D printing of metallic materials.
Internal and commercial innovations
The Centre has three internal innovations, namely the Virtual Lab, Physical Lab, and the SIMLab Toolbox.
It has two business innovations:
eCorr is a commercial tool for digital image correlation used in materials specimen testing. It has been licenced to the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro State University. Equinor, Renault, SINTEF, Hydro, NTNU, and the Norwegian Defence Estates Agency also use the tool.
Enodo develops technology and systems to provide material data for use in advanced numerical structural simulations. The objective is to be a significant provider of validated material cards and material card management systems. Through the ongoing verification project Matcards, supported by the Research Council´s FORNY2020 scheme, the company collaborates with Audi, Hydro and Dynamore.
Frode Iglebæk admits there are challenges connected to documenting the impact and innovation from research-driven centres like SFI CASA.
He states:
«Research results are in their nature not commercial. The application areas are not fully explored, the business model is not settled, and in some cases, it is not always obvious who the customer is. For results that have been applied in an industrial context, it is challenging to isolate and measure the actual contribution of the given research result. As an example, a new multi-material joining method is not a product of one single invention – it is a result of many improvements».
Cutting edge research versus value creation
«What about the challenge to work with cutting edge research on the one hand and on the other – innovation, impact and value creation?»
«You cannot expect a lot of new spin-off companies, commercial software tools and license agreements from a centre that does basic research, especially within an 8-year timeframe. A majority of the CASA innovations must be further developed before they appear as products, software or services that the customers need and are willing to pay for».
Iglebæk says he understands that the Research Council is expecting more commercial results and justification of ‘return on investment’. He says that in real life it is possible to fast-track a few of the most promising innovations. These are the – easy wins – but you cannot expect this for the average SFI project.
«Someone has to do the ‘hard tech’, and it would be unfair to expect such technology to be ready for commercialization».
Want to see the full report? Do it here.
