Presans is mandated by a chemical company to identify new markets for catechol. The company is interested in new applications with a potential of at least 1000 tons over a 0-5-year horizon.

We are looking for experts who are able to give to our client ideas of potential applications that could require a significant tonnage of catechol in a medium term. The information will be delivered in a short proposal that will describe the application as well as its expected market.

Presans is mandated jointly by three of its clients for this study on the Future of Food. The clients are 3 major international companies in the food sector and kitchen home appliance sector. The main objective of our clients is to feed their Research & Innovation (R&I) roadmaps in order to shape the Future of Food on a time horizon of 5+ years.
We are looking for at least 5 complementary experts to guide our clients in the following fields: food experience / social science, digital for food (tracing, user interface etc.) and food science and technologies. The information expected from the experts will be delivered in a written report that will review in an objective way the innovations to expect in this field.

1. OVERALL SCOPE & OBJECTIVES: SHAPING THE FUTURE OF FOOD
The overall scope covered by the Future of Food is broad: food communities, that are replacing traditional market segmentations, have specific food experiences with specific ingredients & products, relying more and more on trust. Tracing is more and more necessary to deliver the best possible experience and ensure trust. The main questions are therefore : how could the consumer eating behavior, food experience and social communities look like in 2030 from a global perspective? How can this Future of Food be shaped or sped up in particular thanks to enabling technologies and new forms of supply?

In order to feed their long-term Research & Innovation (R&I) roadmaps as well as to make sound investments and set up relevant collaborations, our clients, who are 3 major international industrial companies, want a review of the observed and anticipated usage scenarios in the context of the whole value chain, as well as a review of enabling technologies.

2. DELIVERABLES EXPECTED FROM THE SELECTED EXPERTS
We are aiming at selecting at least 5 complementary experts, with a good balance between usage scenarios and enabling technologies. Thanks to this panel of experts, we will generate a good coverage of the overall scope, rich enough to feed the 5+ years R&I roadmaps of our clients. The end result for each expert will be an expert report presenting a set of likely, as well as surprising usage scenarios and their associated enabling technologies. These 5 reports will be compiled by Presans into one single overall report.

3. OUR PROCESS TO FAVOR SYNERGIES BETWEEN 5 COMPLEMENTARY EXPERTS
In order to cover as much as possible of the overall scope and to favor synergies and collaborative work between the experts, Presans will organize 2 online workshops between Presans and the selected experts.

4. WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU AND HOW DO YOU GET SELECTED?
Presans has secured a total budget of € 40 000 for the selected experts (€ 8 000 per selected expert). Presans has pre-selected a few dozens of potential experts (and you are one of them!). In order to be selected by our client, we are asking you to submit a short proposal.

Our client is a major player in the cosmetics field. The arrival of new ingredients to further improve the effectiveness of its products, coupled with advances in scientific and industrial methods lead him to want to acquire knowledge in the pursuit of excellence. The specific problem addressed in the project in development is that of the homogenization and the dispersion (suspension) of non-homogeneous and particulate solutions. The company wishes to obtain a state of the art in this field with a very broad vision including at first sight distant materials, in order to estimate the relevance and the feasibility of cosmetic applications. Scientific or technical innovation is obviously desired. The world major players (academic, companies, startups,…) and the potential partners for practical developments must also be specified.

Presans is mandated jointly by two of his client companies for this study on metals self-healing. They are international companies of the energy sector which design their own industrial equipment, using in particular various metal alloys (steel, inconel, zirconium alloys…). In use, these materials are submitted to severe strain and tend to damage. These companies want to explore the potential of self-healing metals for their next generation facilities and need in a first time to understand what have been done and what is known in this domain at a global level for any kind of metals.

We are therefore looking for experts who can provide a list of publications (scientific articles + patents) in the field. The list should be as exhaustive as possible.

Our clients are a consortium of international companies (the “Partners”) developing, selling, or using human operator-controlled systems. These systems are currently fitted with Human – Machine Interface (HMI) units, partly using Artificial Intelligence (AI) features.

The Partners seek to improve their ability to assess the domain of Brain – Computer Interactions (BCI): technologies, potential performance, implementation trends, obstacles (…). BCI are identified as a new possibility for HMI design and functionalities of communication between the human operator and the machine, in addition to “current” HMI technologies.

We are seeking through this call for expertise to find expert(s) or teams who would be able to help our clients to dig into the potential of direct brain-to-machine interactions: a) state-of-the-art on the technology and on relevant technological trends b) applications in real use, c) principal players in the domain: laboratories, start-ups, innovative SMEs…

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our clients to evaluate the potential of these approaches.

Our client is an international company which designs and manufactures special vehicles. For a next generation of product, this company develops an electrically propelled vehicle that will need an electrically rechargeable source of energy of high power density and high energy density.

We are looking for an expert who guides our customer in choosing the energy source that will be used industrially in 5 years.

The information will be delivered in a written report.

Our client is an international company developing hi-tech systems. He wants to launch a thorough study of state-of-the-art of metal surface texturization and its influence over some physical properties.

The priority is to understand and characterize a potential tailoring of thermal emissivity of the surface in the IR range.

Our clients are a consortium of international companies (the “Partners”) developing, selling, or using human operator-controlled systems which are equipped with Artificial Intelligence (AI) functions or features.

The Partners need improving their capacity to design, install and implement Human-Machine Interface (HMI) units on their systems, with strong focus on how the human operator may and will understand, master, control and use the system fitted with its interacting AI.

The human operator may be facing the whole diversity of situations concerning tasks, working load or conditions. He needs to keep full control of the system whatever the mission needs. The HMI must involve and integrate the most advanced technologies making it possible to minimize operator’s workload, providing support in decision making, and maximizing operator’s capacity to fulfill his mission, with AI improving, interfering with, influencing or damaging the operator’s performance.

We are seeking through this call to expertise to find expert(s) or teams who would be able to help our clients to integrate state-of-the-art, knowledge and trends regarding advanced suitable technologies, methods, models, tools or data to master integration of HMIs into operator-system interactions where IA is involved.

The information will be delivered in written reports, which will help our clients to evaluate the potential of these approaches.

Our client is an important player in the cosmetic fields, developing and selling products with a promise to improve the skin in appearance. They wants to explore future advances allowing to go further in achieving skin perfection, meaning to look for the technologies that have the potential to disrupt their company. Facing several possibilities, they decided to focus for this project on deep exploration of the Big Data approach… taking account of the major problem in the skin evaluation : the gap between the scientific scoring of the skin characteristics by experts or measurements and the personal evaluation (perception) by the consumer herself – sometimes in full contradiction, meaning that psychological aspects must not be avoided. The question of individualized answers is a key one.

Our client is an international company selling natural gas who wants to provide an improved gas product for use in combustion engines. Natural gas does not bring lubrication to engines; this may cause problems at different sites. Therefore, our client wants to explore ways to lubricate engines using the gas as a vector.

We are seeking through this call to expertise to find an expert who would be able to assess the feasibility of dissolving small amounts of potential lubricating molecules in the gas.

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our client to evaluate the potential of these approaches.

Our client is an international company selling natural gas who wants to provide an improved gas for combustion engines. Focus is on automotive applications: cars and LCVs, plus HD trucks and buses using CNG or LNG [1].

Our client wants to clarify problems and opportunities raised by gas characteristics and quality regarding optimized gas and engine pairing technologies, such as lubrication, performance, reliability, maintenance…

We are seeking through this call to expertise to find one expert who would be able to help our client identify suitable gas-engine pairing technologies. The final deliverable will be one written report, which will help our client to evaluate the potential of these approaches.

[1] LCVs = Light Commercial Vehicles; HD = Heavy Duty

Our client is an international company that produces sports equipment. In particular, this company manufactures team sports balls. The company wants to innovate in this field with the objective of introducing balls to the market whose deflating time is much longer than the current standard. An important cause of deflation is air leakage through the walls of the rubber bladder which is inside the ball. It is therefore necessary to drastically improve the formulation and/or processing of the material used to make the bladder.

We are seeking to find an expert who could propose a significant improvement of the current means of manufacturing rubber bladders, or to find an expert who could propose a disruptive solution.

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our client evaluate the potential and the maturity of the solution under discussion.

Our client is an international company that wants to develop additives to be used for cleaning up specific deposits on metallic surfaces. These deposits are mainly made of carbonaceous solids including pyrolytic carbon, filamentous carbon, spherulitic and carbonaceous mesophase deposits. In order to select new clean-up additives, our client is willing to assess the clean-up performance capabilities of new compounds using a low-throughput screening process on deposit models.

We are seeking through this call to expertise to find an expert who would be able to help our client with the preparation and the formatting of these deposit models on metallic surfaces in a reproducible manner. These deposit models will be used to develop a low-throughput screening test to assess the clean-up performance of new compounds.

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our client to evaluate the potential and the robustness of the proposed solution.

Our client is a major player in the food industry, developing and selling agricultural products with a promise of quality and safety. For obvious reasons the detection of pathogenic bacteria is crucial for such a company. Rapid alerts and an accurate quantification of the pathogens will allow our customer to react more efficiently to possible bacteria-related threats.
With this call for expertise they want to explore new advances that will allow them to obtain the most precise information on the final content of pathogenic bacteria in their products as rapidly as possible. The report must include both method, tools, and key players.

Our client is a major player in the food industry, developing and selling agricultural products with a promise of quality and safety. One of their key needs is knowing the exact quality and quantity of any phytosanitary residues that remain on the raw ingredients they use in their products. The more reliable the information they can gather, the more effective their decisions will be. With this call for expertise, they want to explore new advances that will allow them to obtain the most precise information possible on the final phytosanitary residue content in in their products, in the shortest amount of time. The report must includes both methods and tools.

Our client is an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in the automotive sector specialized in the thermal management of batteries for electric vehicles. They wish to remain aware of new technologies that appear in the field worldwide.

We are seeking through this call for expertise to find a battery development expert from the scientific and technical community who would write a report followed by shorter biannual update reports about new, significant technical advances and ongoing research efforts in the field worldwide.

The global R&D of our customer is tasked with driving upstream innovation and nourishing the project pipeline worldwide. This team is also tasked to find technical solutions for existing and new technologies within concentrated liquid dairy systems. Technical solutions of interest are mineral crystallization and protein aggregation mechanisms that can occur in certain liquid dairy products. The company has already done a number of trials in order to understand the reason why these phenomena are occurring. They are looking for outside help to better understand the fundamental mechanisms of crystallization and aggregation processes occurring in concentrated liquid dairy products and to find creative/innovative solutions to prevent these phenomena from happening during storage. These solutions could be ingredients-, technology- or process-oriented and come from the food industry but also from other industries. Therefore, they seek to work with an expert with expertise in food (dairy) food science & technology, food physics, food crystallography and texture, rheology, process chemistry, wet physical chemistry, colloid chemist, inorganic / mineral crystallization, dairy mineral, calcium chelating capabilities, dairy buffering, coalescence in (dairy) emulsions, oils/lipids/emulsions, cream ripening/processes, and or related disciplines.

Our client is an international company that produces inflatable sporting devices, such as camping airbeds and inflatable armbands. The material used for this application is predominantly PVC (polyvinyl chloride), which can be formulated to have the desired mechanical and functional properties and is relatively cheap. But, for reasons related to the environmental impact of PVC, this company wants to find a substitute material.

We are seeking through this call to expertise to find either an expert who is aware of an existing polymer formulation meeting the above requirements, or an expert who can propose a new polymer formulation—possibly based on a new polymer chemistry. In this last case, the expert would have to suggest a third party who should be contacted for the development of this formulation.

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our client to evaluate the potential and the maturity of the polymer formulation under discussion.

Our client is interested in the growing xylitol market. He wants to have a full understanding on the evolution of the cellulosic xylose production including both sources, processes and economic aspects. The final goal being to evaluate worldwide current and future competitiveness, on the horizon 2020-2025, of the processes of xylitol production from lignocellulosic xylose. Our client want to know all the key players (companies, universities, research centers, startup’s, …) to possibly establish further collaboration and have the more recent patents in this field.

Our client is a large international company using long lengths of metallic tubes covered with a metallic chromium or chromium-based alloy coating. This company has to choose the best deposition process, with requirements concerning the quality of coatings and constraints regarding the deposition process. This process should be amenable to high productivity.

We are seeking through this call for expertise either to find an expert belonging to an organization that would be able to develop the process by itself, or to find an expert having a good proposition for the process, but not having the means to develop the process by himself/herself. In this case, the expert would have to suggest who should be contacted for the development.

The information will be delivered in a written report, which will help our client to evaluate the potential and the maturity of the process under discussion.

Our client is an industrial company involved in gas transport. The study aims at reviewing the technical and economical implications of transporting H2 together with natural gas in high pressure natural gas transport pipelines, from the injection of the produced H2 to the delivery to the local distribution networks and users. The analysis will cover the experiences already done so far, the materials, connexion types (flanged,…), the related equipment (valves, compressors, expanders,… as well as the impacts on measurement approaches and norms. It will discuss the impacts on present and future user technologies.

Our client is a life science company that is active in the field of food ingredients with new health benefits. Sugar reduction is an important trend in the food industry. Our client is currently developing a steviol glycoside and wants to better understand the health benefits and concerns of their product in development in relation to other (natural) high potency sweeteners on the market or in development. Before answering this main question, the expert is expected to provide a comprehensive overview and vision of the current high potency sweeteners on the market or in development. In addition a strategic plan needs to be developed that will substantiate (new) health benefits of steviol glycosides and address potential health concerns. Lastly, a list of key players need to be provided that could help to implement this strategic plan.

Our client is a world leading beverage producer selling a whole variety of premium non-alcoholic drinks and health waters in traditional on-the go bottles or cans. The future of our client will be defined by disruptive innovations in the beverage sector that change the way we experience a drink like Amazon changed the way we buy things and Airbnb the way we stay somewhere. Therefore, our client is seeking an online platform to create a better relationship with consumers. The platform should be able to gather consumer information and subsequently propose a personal recommendation which, in this case, is a beverage solution with a unique and new user experience. The platform may have machineries/gadgets as a part of system (e.g. Nespresso) or a unique/new way to collect data (wearables, sensory, IoT). The client wants to build this platform (or a collection of sub-platforms under a big umbrella platform) through alliance/acquisition/co-development. The platform facilitates a direct relationship with its users (from farm to table). The users (consumer, customer, supplier, stakeholder) are people that are willing to pay for or sell healthy, natural and premium beverages. Our client wants to go beyond liquidation and traditional bottling.

Our client is an international company specialized in the manufacturing of flexible printed circuits for smart cards. Their customers are taking care of the following manufacturing steps :

i) die attach,

ii) wire bonding,

iii) encapsulation.

This technology has reached maturity, and our client wishes to know which new chip assembly technologies on flexible printed circuits are emerging and will be able to supplant the current technology in this application within a 3-5 years term. The objective of the project is therefore to obtain a detailed screening of new and emerging technologies in chip packaging and to get an evaluation of the potential of these technologies.

The information will be delivered in a written report which will help our client to evaluate the potential and the maturity of the technologies under discussion. The report will also present a ‘who’s who in the field’ section.

Our client is an international oil-and-gas company that manufactures equipment for offshore applications, and in particular: pipes. In some of these pipes, use is made of thermally superinsulating materials in order to keep the oil temperature high enough to avoid deleterious effects.

The client company wishes to know if products with improved properties and/or lower cost have recently become available or are expected on a short/medium term to arrive on the market.

The objective of the project is:

-  to obtain a comprehensive overview of new superinsulating materials that have recently been introduced on the market or that are expected on the market on a short term. 

-  to learn what the current promising R&D projects in the field of superinsulating materials are, worldwide, and who is working on them.

The information will be delivered in a written report which will help our client to evaluate the potential and the maturity of the materials under discussion.

This report will describe the materials, discuss their properties and implementation means, discuss the application of these materials in the mentioned industrial field, and discuss their maturity levels. The report will also present a ‘who’s who in the field’ section.

Our client is a global food company which is deeply involved in the health food sector and possesses robust knowledge about sugars and sweeteners. The “Innovation Department” wishes to investigate sweetness from a behavioral and experimental psychology point of view. The objective is to identify product innovation strategies combining nutritional health through reduced sugar levels and consumer satisfaction. It is necessary for this purpose to understand the underlying behavioral mechanisms, the major drivers, and the sensory interactions. The company also wants to know more about the key players in this field.

Our Client is a company specialized in offshore equipment that wants to develop an original concept of oxygen production that includes a pressurized water electrolyser, ideally also high temperature. The objective of the present project is to provide him with a rapid overview of the state of the art in water electrolysers under pressure as well as a predesign of a recommended solution. Predesign here means an assessment of the flows, size, weight, performance for achieving 3000 tons O2/day, ideally at a pressure of 80 to 100 bars.

The information should be delivered in a written report which will introduce the different technologies that could be envisaged, discuss their expected performance and level of maturity, and provide a recommendation with predesign.

To prepare the report, you will work with Daniel Favrat, Fellow at Presans and professor emeritus at Ecole Polytechnique Federale of Lausanne (EPFL).

Our client is a major player in the world of food and beverages. His Biometry Department faces a increase of data in terms of quantity, in terms of types and in terms of accuracy. There is a strong expectation concerning the understanding of the interactions between all these data in order to establish the links allowing to create products which satisfy the consumer in term of quality, safety and health benefits. Our client is willing to review only the most recent advances of this topic: the methods, the underlying theories, the needed scientific knowledge, the needed computing means, the industrial potentialities and the key players.

Our client is a major player in the transportation industry. His Direction Recherche et Technologies is looking for a Review of complex systems and of their concrete applications in the transportation industry. Their systems, composed of software, calculators and hardware have become more and more complex. Much of this complexity stems from the fact that, new functionalities being constantly added to each part of the system, consequences of the new interactions between these parts get harder and harder to foresee. Moreover there is a need for models to integrate human factors. The efficiency of the process of validation is vital and must be demonstrated.

Our client is seeking first of all expert advice in order to source a phospholipid (PL)-rich fraction from milk using new processes and/or technologies. Secondly, our client wishes to understand who the key players (e.g. universities, research institutes, etc.) are that possess the right skills to help develop the PL rich fraction.

Our client manufactures liquids composed of organic materials. Deposits are commonly found within the devices in which these liquids are used. Our client wants to develop novel detergents that can prevent and remove these deposits.  The goal of this project is to identify research teams able to help him in this task. Our client is aware that, due to the multidisciplinary aspect of this project, an expert may cover only a part of the expected panel of the required skills. In this context, you could propose collaborations to our client or our client could propose collaborations to you.

Our client is an international industrial company which manufactures structures for the marine domain. This company wishes to evaluate the potential of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). Our client wants to get a review of the state of the art in this domain and to understand what will be the evolution of the UHPC technology in the next 10-15 years, in order to define a technological and applicative strategy for the future.

The objective of this project is twofold:

• To obtain an overview of the properties, modes of implementation and fields of

  application of UHPC.
• To obtain a forecast of what the properties and modes of implementation will be

  within a 10-15 years term.

The information will be delivered in a written report. This report will describe the materials currently developed, discuss their properties, review the domains of application of these materials, and discuss the technologies used to implement these materials and the maturity of these technologies. The report will also contain a prospective part in which the anticipated evolution of the materials, of their properties and of their implementation technologies will be portrayed.

Our client is a major player in the world of food use of micro-organisms. His Strategic Partnership Department team wants to have a clear view on the recent advances on technologies allowing the screening of micro-organisms including bacteria, yeasts, fungi, algae & viruses. The final goal is to drastically improve the speed of obtaining the application properties of the micro-organisms, allowing the appropriate selection for foods. The two approaches: “What strains for wished properties of the product” or “What properties for a given strain” must be considered. Our client want to know the key players in order to possibly establish a collaboration, and have the more recent patents in this field.

The Faculty opening is with a graduate university that champions a distinctive approach to sustain its knowledge and innovation ecosystem.  This ecosystem is imbued with a culture of research excellence, transdisciplinary collaboration, seamless integration of research and education, and unwavering focus on translating scientific discoveries into economic development for the well-being of society.

Both curiosity-driven research and goal/mission-oriented research on a limited number of thrust areas are supported within this graduate university. Funding for research is generous and combines both recurring baseline and project-based resources. Salaries are broadly on par with those of leading US universities.

A full-time position is opened for a professor in heterogeneous catalysis. Strong expertise in this field is required. It should include understanding of heterogeneous chemical reactions on the catalyst surface, and experience in domains such as:

• design of catalysts for C1, C3 etc. ,

• design of catalysts for dry reforming,

• design of catalysts for syngas production.

Other keywords are:

• catalysis by design

• in situ, in operando spectroscopies

If you are potentially interested in applying for this position, go to the next step. Please include a biography or a CV and a list of publications with your application. Please specify

• your general motivations for and your perspectives on teaching and research,

• a list of countries you would definitely exclude moving to,

• the financial conditions under which you would be ready to move to another country,

• conditions that would need to be met if a job opportunity required of you to move to another country (family etc.),

• a list of the most important names in your scientific field (specifying whether they are part of your network or not).

The deadline for submission is September 11th, 2015.

Our client is a major player in the world of food and beverages. Its R&D team desires to create a dairy product innovation and is seeking expert advice in ingredients and processes to lower the water activity of the product and/or to optimize the coating to avoid water release. The desired product is a bar with a light and fresh yoghurt filling and ideally with a fruit-taste crunchy coating. The product shelf life should be at least 40 days at 4-8oC. Secondly, our client wishes to understand who are the key players (e.g. university labs, research institutes, suppliers etc) possessing the right skills to help develop the product and who are the suppliers proposing answers and/or susceptible to become partners.

Our client is a major player in the world of non-alcoholic beverages. His R&D team desires to create an innovation community centred on the topic of beverage flavours. For this project our client is seeking expert advice in order, firstly, to study the main trends in the flavour industry (new flavours, new technologies, new stability improvement solutions, ...) and, secondly, to understand the strategies of the main flavour suppliers with regard to the discovery and development of new aromas. Special attention shall be given to the study of recent patents in the fields of flavours and aromas.

Our client is a leading European food company operating mainly in the field of dairy products. This company is developing a new product including wheat bran particles.

For this project, our client is seeking expert advice in order to understand, firstly, the feasibility of obtaining small size particles (20-80 mm) at an industrial level, and secondly, the various consequences of using small size particles of wheat bran in yoghurt products.

This project must provide guidance towards the development of an actual product, in particular with industry-related expertise covering sanitary standards, other relevant regulations, as well as sensory aspects. It is a project requirement that the final product must be a stable mixture without sensory drawbacks, such as bitterness.

Our Client is GRTgaz, the company which operates France's main gas transmission system. The objective of the present project is to provide him with an overview of the state of the art in additive manufacturing of metal pieces.

The information should be delivered in a written report which will introduce the different additive manufacturing technologies, discuss their respective maturities, depict which kinds of metal pieces can currently be fabricated, and discuss the performance of the parts obtained in terms of mechanical properties and other relevant properties such as weldability.

Our client is an international chemical company. The objective of the present project is to identify some additives to urea-water solution that will modify the wetting of the solution towards stainless steel.

The information should be delivered in a written report which will list the proposed molecules alongside modi operandi for their use, and discuss the ease of implementation and possible drawbacks of the procedure.

Our client is an international chemical company. The objective of the present project is to identify some additives to urea-water solution to inhibit or slow down the formation of urea crystals deposited as water evaporates

The information should be delivered in a written report which will list the molecules proposed alongside modi operandi for their use, and discuss the ease of implementation and possible drawbacks for these molecules.

Our client is an international chemical company. The objective of the present project is to identify some catalysts to add to a urea-water solution that accelerate the transformation reaction of urea to ammonia when the solution is at temperatures between 150 °C and 200 °C.

The information should be delivered in a written report which will list the proposed molecules alongside modi operandi for their use, and discuss the ease of implementation and possible drawbacks of the procedure.

The Client is a leading global company operating in the mining, transformation and distribution sectors.
The Client requires a detailed and practical understanding of most modern methods currently developed for describing increasing complexity of industrial systems and reconstructing existing system dynamics from collected data. This understanding will be followed by an evaluation of the potential, limit and cost of the emerging complex systems approach. The information should be delivered in a written report.
The Client is aware that this type of approach is a break from classical modelling. He therefore wishes to know by what means he must engage in this methodology, in which direction and what means need to be deployed. The Client is interested in all aspects of the approach: industrial, logistical and managerial. The report should supply him with all elements required to plan his future involvement in complex industrial modelling with minimal risk and maximum efficiency.

Our client is a global supplier of radioisotopes, capable of sourcing a range of short lived radioactive elements. The client requires a synthetic view of the potential applications for promethium-147, a well known synthetic beta emitter. The study will assist our client to develop  capabilities for promethium-147 synthesis and separation.

The review will cover beta emitting isotope applications for which promethium-147 would be a competitive candidate.  In each case, isotope specifications are to be discussed and promethium-147 be positioned relative to alternative options. The assessment should be based on both the technical performance of novel applications and the estimated economical potential of the application in terms of credibility, maturity, isotope supply, market potential volume  and value creation.

Considering the prospective nature of the requirement, the author is welcome to express his/her expert argued opinion.

Our client is an international company dealing with complex electromechanical assemblies, notably for guidance of unmanned vehicles. The objective of the present project is to generate a comprehensive and prospective review of the potential of novel optical systems exploiting the potential of coded spatial light modulators (SLMs). The potential of various combinations for the optical chain (for scenery interpretation with either natural illumination or possibly  with reflected laser light) should be evaluated.

The review should pin point cases where the concept has the potential to provide superior performance to classical image analysis (lenses + imaging + algorithm) for at least one feature in the scenery content (motion, orientation, distance, pattern recognition, etc.). 

The selected expert is expected to select early stage novelties of interest, describe them, assess their strengths and limits, estimate their best operating mode and benchmark them versus the classical optics based solution. 

Our client is an international company in material processing. The objective of the present project is to generate a comprehensive and prospective review on current innovative projects that are exploiting the specific properties of very thin glass (lightness, flexibility, roll handling).

This review is expected to cover a very wide spectrum of application fields ranging from biosensors to flexible electronics or from lighter battery to long term data storage.

This report should not focus on ideation, but should rather encompass a review of presently on-going innovation projects even at the embryonic stage, as long as they offer interesting and credible potentials in terms of value generation. Existing users of ultrathin glass sheet should be incorporated in the survey as long as their technology is evolving.

Our client is a European leading agri-food company developing and marketing various products, in particular food based on oleaginous derivatives.

The company is seeking expert assistance to develop light edible oil. The market is already offering several options for salad oil or cooking fat claiming lower resulting lipid content in food. Examples such as light margarine or Enova oil were also distributed in compliance with sanitary and nutritional standards.

The aim of the project is to generate a mapping for R&D targeting a novel edible oil with either (1) a lower fat content, (2) or for which the fat absorption by food is significantly reduced. This novel oil should be transparent, liquid, and could be used for both dressing and cooking. One of the possible paths for such project would be a water/oil emulsion with the above mentioned properties. The product should remain stable for many months (say one year). Experts are welcome to propose and outline alternative methods to reach this objective.
 

Our client is an international company in the automotive industry. The objective of the project is to generate a comprehensive and prospective review on HMI (Human-Machine Interface) in cars. This review should cover in a balanced manner all key aspects of the topic as technical innovation, cognitive ergonomics, and socio economic trends. Because of the study broad coverage, the task will be split and contracted to up 3 experts covering complementary fields. Pertinent partial contributions are welcome as they will be combined and integrated by Presans.

Main emphasis is on devices and functions which are located at proximity and in direct interaction with the driver and its passengers. The survey should form a solid base for industrial strategic planning over the next decade.

Our client is a European company acting globally in the field of energy related engineering. He is interested in a review providing an update on all scientific and technical novelties for converting a solid made in majority of long hydrocarbon chains such as tar, bitumen, kerogen or biomass pyrolysis residues into a smaller chain liquid. The emphasis is on moderate temperature processes excluding cracking by pyrolysis. Experts should cover bioconversion, biochemistry and chemical processing, possibly with catalysis.

PRESANS is currently looking for an expert (or a set of experts) who will advise our customer on one or more recent and novel options for converting solid hydrocarbons into fuel. The objective is to review and evaluate the potential of new options discovered in the last 5 years.

It is understood that potential sources for appropriate solutions cover various possibilities, starting with the action of microorganisms, biochemistry such as with enzymes, mere chemical reactions, possibly with the assistance from catalysis. Due to the breadth of this set of fields, in is understood that several experts may have to cover subsets.

The Selected Expert(s) will have to write a survey and evaluation of novel principles for liquefaction of tar, bitumen and or kerogen at moderate temperature and will be paid each a sum of 20 000 €. Our Client is planning to select up to 3 Experts.

Our client is a supplier of high performance large mechanical parts made of composite as seen in energy (ex: mind mills), transportation (ex: aerospace), or advanced racing machines (ex: America cup, formula 1).

PRESANS is currently looking for an expert (or a set of experts) who will advise our customer on one practical issue in migrating from classical thermoset pre-preg technology to a similar thermoplastic based technology. The objective is to review technical options for creating a temporary cohesive interface between metallic surface of a shaping form and the thermoplastic pre-preg during the build-up phase of the multilayered assembly.

Our client is a global supplier for mechanical components. PRESANS is currently looking for an expert (possibly two) who will scan and analyze alternative designs for angular velocity sensors. The objective is to preselect sensor concepts that could renew and modernize the present dominant solutions for sensors in the field of rugged and high volume machinery (mostly magnetic or optical rotary encoders). Relevant sensor designs may be modifications/improvements of established designs, or on the contrary very new and emerging within other fields of application. This review will be used by our client to review and possibly extend, deflect or adapt its innovation portfolio.

PRESANS is currently seeking for its client an expert or a group of experts to help in identifying and in describing various processes leading to “healthy cooking” to develop cookware appliances that do not include the source of heat (Pans, Pots, etc.).

To be noticed: “cooking” has to be understood as food transformations when heated.

Our client, a European company, is interested in an updating review of the various technological options allowing spraying a liquid in very thin droplets. We seek an expert for writing a comprehensive review (White Paper) on this topic. The work should describe the state of the art with special emphasis on practical aspects such as manufacturability and durability.

The accomplishment of this work is a two-step process. Firstly, experts should submit an extended abstract along with a short set of relevant data to PRESANS. On the basis of these documents, the client will select one or several experts. Secondly, the Selected Expert(s) will then have to write the full White Paper and receive a financial reward of 10 000 €.

Our client, a large European company, is interested in physical damages and functional perturbations induced by High Power Microwave systems. We seek an expert for writing a comprehensive review (White Paper) on damage and perturbation mechanisms in both electric and electronic parts of a stand-alone system when irradiated by energetic microwave pulses. The work should describe the state of the art in identifying, modeling and predicting most important damage and perturbation channels and should elaborate on today's trends in shielding designs both at the component and system architecture levels.

The Call for Expertise is a two-step process. Experts should submit an extended abstract along with a short set of relevant data to PRESANS. The selected Expert will then have to write the full White Paper and receive the financial reward.