Fourteen Slovenian companies are making an effort to establish a new development centre called SIMIT (Sodobni materiali in inovativne tehnologije – Modern Materials and Innovative Technologies) which would integrate large, middle-sized and small companies and public and private institutes. The goal of establishing the centre is to achieve cooperative research and development excellence and to create a support environment for the long-term development of a research centre and any potential partners. The company shall be divided into 8 business units and will employ more than 40 developers who will work on new materials and techniques in the field of foundries, cold and hot re-casting, etc. First, the company will perform development services for its founders, and will later be open to new clients and new partners. The total project value shall amount to €33,716,040. New positions of employment could also facilitate more uniform regional development.
Several Slovenian companies decided to establish a joint development centre in the form of company which will legally be a limited liability company (d.o.o.). Internationally renowned and recognized companies such as TALUM, CIMOS, Iskra ISD, LTH Ulitki, SWATYCOMET, UNIOR, Amit, Ortotip, Roboteh, TC Livarstvo, HTS IC, TECOS, Zavod za livarstvo, Telkom-OT and two internationally renowned public institutes and internationally recognized institutes from Ljubljana, the Institute of Metals and Technology and the Jožef Stefan Institute, shall be members and supporting partners of the consortium. More than half of the companies are from the Podravska region, so more than 60 % of the operations will take place there.
The main reason for establishing a new development centre is mostly the aspiration to create suitable conditions for the long-term development of not only the Research Centre (RC) and partners but also of all other interested parties. The goals and the results of the R&D processes shall be directly oriented towards sustainable and more effective energy use, exploitation of renewable resources (solar energy), reducing the release of hazardous substances into the environment and largely towards recycling, namely towards re-using waste.
Applied research shall be based on joint creative cooperation of all consortium partners and on sharing knowledge, experience and findings, as well as R&D equipment, laboratories and testing-and-development test areas in order to acquire new and useful knowledge and skills faster.
The operation of the RC shall be based on business innovation models: (a) the Open Innovation model and (b) the Connect and Develop model. The characteristics of the models are to loosen a company's own, mostly rigid frameworks regarding R&D processes, and to promote outward openness while simultaneously connecting with those companies that have reached more advanced R&D achievements in business operations which could be included as a part of the company's own R&D process.
In this way the companies shall be able to achieve an appropriate level of research and development excellence which will lead to new innovative solutions and prototypes, all based on new modern materials.
RC SIMIT's partners shall be the company’s founders; however, in the future, RC SIMIT will be open to new potential members. It shall be in operation in 8 cities (and in 12 locations) in Slovenia: Kidričevo, Maribor, Ljubljana, Kranj, Zreče, Celje, Šmarje pri Jelšah and Pesnica pri Mariboru. In accordance with the field of the R&D process, the business units shall carry out the R&D process phases independently and complement each other's achievements.
For a while now, the consortium's partners and supporting partners have been finding that the openness and maturity of their research and development (R&D) processes is such that it would be of key importance to divide the basic risks of R&D activities among the field of new materials. By cooperating creatively, the R&D processes could be made more effective and successful, and the knowledge could be transferred and expanded, leading to upgrading both value and knowledge, which are key decisive factors for increasing a company's competitiveness.
The primary orientations of the company's activity:
R&D of new, modern and ecologically acceptable (a) new materials and (b) techniques and technologies in the area of foundries, grinding materials, cold and hot re-casting, mechanical treatment of metals, increasing production capacity, reverse engineering, machine building, robotics and medicine, as well as fast development of products (prototypes, communication models, functional prototypes);
Education and consulting services based on R&D findings and achievements of RC SIMIT regarding new materials, techniques and technologies in the frame of the development centre.
RC SIMIT predicts that with the positive impact of the joint R&D potential, in the next 3-year period it shall contribute to 21 newly created spin-off companies and establish another 21 patents or trademarks.
