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Swiss companies on mission to find RFID collaborators in Cambridge

Written by Tony Quested
Wednesday, 19 December 2007
Say cheese: Members of the Swiss delegation pictured at St John’s Innovation Centre during their recent visit to find RFID partners A delegation from seven Swiss companies has been visiting Cambridge to explore partnership opportunities with RFID specialists. The profile of envoys ranged from small consultancies to giants like the Manor chain of department stores and Swisscom, Switzerland’s leading telco. Following a series of presentations by local companies at St John’s Innovation Centre, hours were devoted to pre-arranged and ad-hoc meetings. The primary mission of the Swiss was to identify companies and research groups with products on the market or close to market. They were also looking for partners for the supply of specialist products and services. Local companies to give pitches included Airetrak, Cambridge Consultants, Codeway, EGA, Tagtec, Xennia and Zimiti, as did The Centre for Distributed Automation and Control from the Institute for Manufacturing at Cambridge University. The mission was jointly organised by UK Trade & Investment, which also took the delegation to RFID Centre and Adastral Park as well as the East of England Innovation Relay Centre (IRC) who helped to identify the local companies with input from Cambridge Wireless, and organised the partnering session at St John’s Innovation Centre. Several potential joint projects are foreseen as a result. More events are planned for the future, including a telecoms mission from Turkey, Hungary and Bulgaria scheduled for January. Any regional companies wishing to take part in presenting to future delegations should email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 01223 421117. In another international initiative, Hendrik Pavel from the East of England Innovation Relay Centre attended a biotech meeting in Bilbao hosted by SPRI, the Basque Government agency. The Basque country has been the only region in Spain to adopt a strategy specifically committed to Biosciences. The region has demonstrated a healthy level of start-up activity in the past few years and has created a climate of optimism that it can become a serious player in European biotech. A new company is being set up every three months. Several hundred jobs have been created in biotech start-ups and a further 1,300 in the more mature pharma companies. The Innovation Relay Centre Network’s Biotechnology Thematic Group members had arranged a brokerage event involving one-to-one meetings with Basque companies interested in partnering with other European companies. Importantly for UK companies, foreign biotech programmes are welcome in the Basque country. Obviously, some physical presence in the area is necessary, but the IRCs in Cambridge and Bilbao can help to identify prospects and eventually arrange a meeting with the companies and local government officials. Once established there, potential cash support from the Basque government can leverage seed capital several times over. If your biotech wishes to explore opportunities in the Basque country, email Hendrik Pavel at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it