Technology Scanning and Screening

The early identification of new, marketable product ideas that are promising to be commercially successful is of critical importance in the Innovation Management Process. Therefore, the INI-GraphicsNet Stiftung has developed and implemented an integrated process which helps to identify, initiate, and promote marketable research projects. The process starts with the continuous technology scanning at the member institutes to identify promising ideas and developments for commercialization at an early stage. At this stage the Foundation also gets involved in ongoing projects to support and strengthen the dissemination and exploitation efforts. The technologies and projects are analyzed, registered, and categorized in consecutive steps. After the evaluation in regard of market opportunities, utility, and potential according to feasibility and marketability, there is a pool of exploitable ideas left. The Technology Scanning and Screening usually concludes with a Technology Assessment.

The Foundation is supported in this process by marketing agencies and local universities such as the Technische Universität Darmstadt, the University of Applied Sciences of Aschaffenburg, and the European Business School (EBS) Oestrich-Winkel, among others.

In order to exploit the results from research and development projects at an early stage of the technology development, the INI-GraphicsNet Stiftung is continuously engaged in a variety of national and international projects as a competent partner. Covering issues relating to the search for exploitable project results such as infrastructure, documents, products, knowledge or expertise of the employees, methods and the choice of the potential method of exploitation, it is the primary aim of these activities to ensure the respective project‘s sustainability.