accent is your partner in exploring what CERN could hold for your business idea.
As the official Austrian Business Incubation Center (BIC) of CERN Technologies it is our mission to foster the knowledge transfer between Austrian startups and CERN. Based on technologies developed in high energy physics, innovative products and services emerge and bring new facets of impact to society.
Founded in 1954, CERN has its home in Geneva, Switzerland, and is currently run by 23 Member States. CERN is the European Council for Nuclear Research (in French short for “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”). It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and has become the epitome of a peace project.
Credits: J. Uhlik
When it comes to CERN, it is indeed most known for its significant breakthroughs in particle physics such as the early discovery of neutral currents. Nevertheless, its measures of outreach and impact on society go far beyond, as the invention of the World Wide Web sustainably shows. Through the BIC’s services, existing CERN technologies may be picked up by Austrian startups to be innovatively applied in new areas, unleashing their broad economical and societal potential to their fullest.
Together with the respective startup, it is the BIC’s task to look into the matching options between entrepreneurs(-to-be) and CERN technologies. These technologies are related to the following range of expertise fields.
Credits: CERN
“… I have no pre-existing relationship with CERN or the BIC, nor an idea which CERN technology exactly could help me tackle my business (related research) challenge?”
To enter the incubation programme, no connection whatsoever to CERN nor the BIC is necessary. It is upon your request that the BIC triggers a thorough evaluation process on the cooperation potential together with the knowledge transfer partners at CERN.
Austrian startups that seek to accelerate their innovative, tech driven business ideas can benefit from the freshly launched CERN Venture Connect Programme (CVC Programme).
It provides applicants access to pre-selected CERN technologies and connects them with profound deep tech investors and other entities interested in fostering entrepreneurship.
accent is proud to support CVC as an active partner and to build up a solid framework for scaling through VCs, business angels and universities that will add up to an efficient support ecosystem for CERN interested start-ups and scale-ups from Austria.
So what could be the immediate inducement for you as a startup founder? The basis of your action could be the lack of an appropriate technology to bring your business idea to life – or your need of additional technologies to accelerate your products, respectively the appropriate testing facilities to do so.
With our support we also address academic spinoffs and research-driven personalities who are ambitious to launch a company and bring cutting-edge research to the market. Also established companies developing technologies that could be of interest to CERN are highly encouraged to get in touch.
Credits: CERN
The BIC has set up a multilevel incubation programme to support entrepreneurs individually. After having expressed your business challenge we follow up with finding the according experts. Upon an individual agreement CERN grants the incubatee 40 hours scientific support at no cost. This support is very likely linked to travel and housing costs for CERN visits – which the BIC covers fully.
Our support is not limited to facilitating discussions with CERN experts – overall, it is an extensive incubation programme that involves individual coaching by your personal BIC project manager and the whole BIC team for a period of 18 months. Within this time window, you may retrieve intense advice on business planning, team building, additional governmental funds, private equity like VC and business angels as well as finding collaborative partners in science and industry. The BIC also facilitates access to funding agencies such as the Austrian Promotional Bank (aws) and the Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
The goal of the incubation programme is to create exclusive benefits from a knowledge transfer that exactly addresses your company’s needs. This improves the high standards of your product or service, its credibility to customers, funding agencies and investors as well as the outreach and attractiveness to international partners.
As a startup new to the market, the incubation helps you strengthen your position working side by side with a well established and already renowned research innovation driver. To disseminate this partnership, each incubatee is endowed to use the CERN technology logo for its marketing purposes.
You are free to (re-)locate your business activities to one of the BIC’s Co-Working Spaces which are currently situated in Wiener Neustadt and Tulln,
These are situated right in the landscapes of the Lower Austrian Technopol Centers with their vibrant research and technology environment, representing companies of a broad range of economic branches, interdisciplinary cooperation and educational offers on university level. You can also work at facilities offered by our partners at the Airport Schwechat as well as in Krems at no cost – including meeting rooms, technical equipment and the exchange with your startup peers.
Once you have entered the BIC you gain access to a network of international business incubators in Greece, Italy, France, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Switzerland, Lithuania and Spain for expanding your business activities and placing your products on new markets.
Send your informal request to cern.bic@accent.at. Alternatively, contact the Project Manager Julia Uhlik at +43 676 88 326 1313. Indicate your technological challenge and / or the CERN field of expertise you would assess as relevant. CERN offers a preselected portfolio of technologies to get support upon within the CERN Centure Connect Programme (CVC Programme).
The wide exhibition landscape at CERN displays some of the fundamental questions that have been stimulating researchers’ curiosity.
Credits: J. Uhlik