EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Fraunhofer IMS, a research institute based in Duisburg, provides innovative solutions for Health, Industry, Mobility, as well as Space and Security applications. A current research focus are carbon nanotubes for use as biosensors. This biosensor technology allows to detect pathogens such as bacteria, viruses or even indicators of oxidative stress in plants. The main advantage of this optical sensor is that the read-out is contactless and non-invasive in real time. Therefore, there is no need for sample collection and time-consuming sample preparation. We as students acted in the role of external consultants to come up with fresh insights and innovative application fields.

Goal

Our main objective of the project was to identify new application fields for the CNT technology and provide the project partner with our results. On the one hand, we as students overcome the organization’s local search bias by looking at potential users from various domains. On the other hand, we tend to master the solution-based search specification by starting to focus on the benefits of the technology rather than putting the focal point on the technological aspects. This allows us to look outside of the box and discover completely new application fields. In a final step, we selected the four most promising fields to develop market strategies with tools such as Porter’s Five Forces and identified potential partners for our project partner.

Methodology

In order to identify new application fields for the CNT technology, we used the TCL (Technology Competence Leveraging) method. First, we analysed the user benefits of the technology which allowed us to overcome the functional fixedness of the organization. In the next step, we identified 26 new application fields by contacting more than 200 researchers and practitioners. In the last phase, we evaluated the application fields based on different criteria and further developed market strategies for the four most promising fields.

Results

We identified the fields Wearables & Textiles, Wastewater Analysis, Blood Sugar, and Insect Bites as the most promising ones out of the 26 fields. After discussing them with Fraunhofer, we assessed the market attractiveness and provided a market entry strategy for the most promising fields within pathogen detection: Snake Bite Detection, Food Industry, Waste Management and Wastewater Analysis. Out of those four, we found the wastewater industry to be the most promising one for the CNT technology in terms of both market size and market attractiveness.

Cooperation Partner

• Fraunhofer-Institute for Microelectronic Circuits and Systems
  Finkenstraße 61
  47057 Duisburg
  Deutschland
  www.ims.fraunhofer.de

Contact Person

• Svenja Herbertz - svenja.herbertz@ims.fraunhofer.de
   

Student Team

• Aiko Mirko Henry Di Meglio

• Dominik Fränzl

• Elia-Maria Grünwald

• Sophia Maria Habisreutinger

• Leon Kamil Janowski

• Julia Khabbaz

• Clemens Kuess

• Moritz Sager

• Leon Schobel

Project Manager

• Klaus Marhold, Ph.D.