Innovation core technologies

Catalysis is a core technology of the current fossil fuel based economy. Over 90% of industrial chemical processes involve catalytic steps and, also, several processes in current refineries are catalytic ones. Without continuous progress and innovation in catalysis, the current pervasive oil-based economy is not possible. Similarly, catalysis technology will also have a key role in the transition to a biobased economy. The possibility of realizing this transition and to develop effective bio-refineries will depend on the progress made in developing new catalytic processes and concepts. 

While the reactor core technology is proven, the heat transport and plant layout selected for these concepts are quite innovative. The concepts have neither completed final design nor been submitted for licensing they are up to a decade into the future before prototype construction and subsequent commercialization. 

Polarizers thus had already a long history when they were reborn as the core technology to support the liquid crystal display industry when the twisted nematic liquid crystal display (TN-LCD) watch was released in 1975, along with the commercialization of the calculator. LCDs are now used in various kinds of electronic home appliances, such as calculators, mobile phones, notebook computers, and car navigation systems. In the last 10 years the boom in the development of innovative input and output information devices, for example, large LCD TVs and smartphones, has totally wiped out the cathode-ray tube and has become the symbol of industrial structure innovation in the twenty-first century. 

Fig. 7.8 The core technologies of Toptec s Nano-MPI (Nano-Mass Production Innovation)...

The ATP is a government program that was created, in part, to promote collaboration and partnership. And I believe that it is this core characteristic that has led to our success. As to why we are achieving big benefits, I think it is attributable to our focus on the potential economic benefit and understanding why these people need the ATP. We only fund the development of new technologies that are expected to have widespread beneficial effects extending well beyond the innovators. And we only fund where the ATP can be expected to make a big difference. We recently restructured our selection criteria to clarily that. 

While the book portends to introduce transformative concepts, capable of broadening the technological base of the pharmaceutical industry, we are acutely aware that a sobering note is in order. Wrapping designs are physically sound and seem to withstand the test of academic scrutiny and, yet, ultimately, only clinical trials can fully assess their therapeutic value and safety. In this regard, and from a practical perspective, current business models in the pharmaceutical R D may not be sufficiently resilient to accommodate this type of core innovation. 

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