GS Group declared the finalists of the international competition among nano-startups

GS Venture, GS Group corporate venture fund, together with Nanostructured Carbon Materials, OOO has arranged a competition among venture projects, research and business development teams applying nanostructured carbon materials (NCM). Participants were submitting entries from June 10 to September 1, 2014. The competition expert board declared five finalists.

Competition is conducted within the program on development of innovation infrastructure of the Technopolis GS cluster (the town of Gusev, Kaliningrad region) and commercialization of scientific developments and technologies. The competition is aimed at finding and attracting projects in the field of practical applications of carbon nanotubes. Ideas that caught the investors’ interest will gain not only financial support, but also the opportunity to manufacture the final product using the material and technical base of Nanostructured Carbon Materials, OOO, and other Technopolis GS enterprises. Entries were submitted on the following topics: composite materials, alloy materials and coatings produced using NCM, methods of dispergation, activation and addition of NCM to materials, promising areas of NCM application.

After elimination rounds five projects were shortlisted by the expert board:

1. The project on hydrochlorination hydrochlorination of acetylene using catalysts based on NCM by UNSIT, OOO, Moscow;
2. Development of catalysts for air-hydrogen fuel cells, by Glebova Nadezhda, Ioffe Physical-Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, laboratory of high-power semiconductor devices, St. Petersburg;
3. Production of nanostructured sorbents for gas separation and air purification, Sorbents of Kuzbass, OOO, Kemerovo;
4. Technology of carbon adsorbents application, modified with nanodispersed silicon dioxide, to create modern analytical systems, Federal State Budget Educational Institution of Higher Professional Education "Samara state aerospace university of academic S.P.Korolev – National Research University", research team of the chemistry department, Samara;
5. Development of new promising nanoscale hybrid materials for medical implants powered by biocompatible calcium phosphates, carbon nanomodified materials and biopolymers, Federal State Budget Institution of Science "N.S. Kurnakov Institute of General and Inorganic Chemistry RAS (IGIC RAS)", Zakharov Nikolay Alekseevich, PhD in physics and mathematics, Head of the sector, Moscow.

At the final stage of the competition, the finalists must submit their plans to implement the proposed projects to the contest committee and prepare the ROI analyses for the investors. Experts will opt for the teams that are not only ready to conduct R&D, but can also provide a business plan for commercialization of the claimed technology.

"Our main objective is to find commercially successful technology projects, which implementation will lead to merchantable products entering the market, and provide them with financial support, – commented Sergei Filimonov, Head of GS Venture corporate venture fund. – Today NCM is a promising niche of science and industry, employing a large number of professional teams and up-and-coming innovators, requiring investments for the full-scale development. Such projects are of our primary concern."

Development of nanostructured carbon materials, nanotubes in particular, and technologies of its application is one of the GS Group holding company major business areas evolving since 2013, when Nanostructured Carbon Materials, OOO was established as a separate enterprise within Technopolis GS.