The five challenges in the call seek to develop innovations for the cleaning products company that protect the environment and people’s health. Winners will receive up to CLP 5 million and technical support. Applications for Excell Connect are open until October 22.
Dishwasher detergent, waterless car shampoo, packaging, a line of cleaning products for people with allergies, and products to disinfect and eliminate pet odors, all 100% biodegradable: these are the five challenges of Excell Connect, an open innovation call developed by Know Hub Chile and the cleaning products company Excell.
The challenges share common goals: to develop innovative products that reduce water use, cut waste generation and protect consumers’ health. The call is open to entrepreneurs, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students from universities and technical training centers.
Excell and Know Hub Chile combined their areas of expertise to carry out this initiative. Winners will receive funding of up to CLP 5 million to develop a minimum viable product (better known as an MVP), a kind of small-scale prototype. In this process, they will have access to Excell’s facilities to carry out validation and scale-up activities, as well as support in developing and marketing the new product for a fast market launch under its brand.
Know Hub, for its part, is a nonprofit organization that seeks to support Chile’s development toward a knowledge-based society and economy, working with universities, research centers and the ecosystem to turn science and technology into innovation. To this end, it runs a series of programs, such as Know Hub Connect, which matches the needs of industry (especially SMEs such as Excell) with research and development initiatives or results (solutions) that Know Hub can capture from the national ecosystem.
“Science creates value and new productive opportunities and provides appropriate answers to society’s demands. In Chile, public investment in science remains at around 0.4% of GDP, while the OECD average is 2.4%. We have to understand that the only way to move toward development is through a real commitment to science,” said Marcial Fernández, commercial director of Excell Chile.
Fernando Venegas, technology transfer manager at Know Hub Chile, added:
“As its name says, with the Know Hub Connect program we seek to connect companies with research results from universities and science-based entrepreneurs. Our goal is to support the competitiveness of small and medium-sized companies in the market, while also enabling them to position themselves as relevant players in the national research, development, innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem.”
Applications are open from Thursday, September 2, to Friday, October 22. More information at www.excellchile.cl/connect or www.knowhub.cl/excell-connect and on Know Hub’s social media: @KnowHubChile on Twitter and LinkedIn.
