SMEs are offered facilitated one-to-one meetings with key decision makers to pitch your company and your products and discuss business partnerships that can accelerate your company’s growth. This event will be held after the Cambridge Cleantech Annual Conference.

AGENDA

 How to apply

If you are interested in this opportunity in the first instance please express interest by responding with an email to:

sam.goodall@cambridgecleantech.org.uk

describing in less than 100 words why you believe there is a fit between your company and Xylem. In addition please also provide a link to your website and up to two pages of additional company or product information.

If you would also like to attend Cambridge Cleantech’s annual conference, please register here.

Xylem’s priority challenges

Xylem’s core business relates to the Water sector, however it’s innovation needs are also linked to its expansion into related sectors and technology fields, in particular Smart Cities and Energy. As a large multi-national with a large workforce and property portfolio Xylem is also interested in technologies to reduce its own global environmental footprint.

1. Water

• Addressing global, clean water and supply challenges
• Long distance water transit
• Decentralised water treatment
• Low cost, wide area, water quality monitoring
• Non-revenue technology (water leaks)

2. Smart Cities

• Clean air
• Smart sensor technology

3. Energy

• Energy distribution
• Networks intelligence
• Water / energy crossover technology

Xylem approach

Xylem are in a dynamic, divergent technology identification phase and are undertaking a wide-ranging supplier identification and collaboration processes. Companies interested in working with Xylem will have the opportunity to present their innovative technologies and services and where successful initiate a dialogue which has the potential to lead to pilot technology implementations or collaborative development opportunities. In addition to it’s aim of being a technology lead Xylem also wants to be a leader in dynamic SME collaboration and relationship building. The acquisition of Sensus (and Sentec), through it’s experience as a technology innovator and scale-up company, is aimed at creating an ideal entry point for like-minded businesses to engage with the demands of leading global infrastructure company; in short Xylem’s open innovation programme is being run by people that understand what it takes to make a SME-Corporate collaboration work.

What are Xylem looking for?

If you believe your company has a technology or service that can contribute to Xylem’s objective of becoming a global leader in water and infrastructure technology then they want to speak to you. To be successful your company will have a proven product or service, with customers and products in the field. Earlier stage technologies are not excluded, but companies wishing to pitch these types of solutions will need to have a compelling case that they can demonstrate ahead of being offered 1-1 meetings. Xylem’s open innovation strategy is a long term commitment so early stage companies are encouraged to make contact with a view to being contacted and considered for future calls for collaboration and engagement.

Johnson Matthey’s areas of interest

1. Energy Storage

Future energy systems will be different to established energy systems. Increasing electrification and the ongoing shift to renewable energy generation means that more of the principal primary energy input is electricity: it is more distributed and more intermittent. Production is becoming decoupled from demand. This requires new mechanisms to balance the system – by storing and by creating new links between the four siloes. Johnson Matthey are looking for energy storage technologies to provide frequency response from 2 secs to long term where JM’s strengths can contribute to the value proposition. We are particularly interested in batteries for stationary electricity storage, electrochemical and thermochemical power-to-x technologies (e.g. power-to-H2), distributed generation, decarbonised fossil heat, fuel & power generation, electrification of chemical processes.

2. Air Pollution

There are many types of air pollution, some are visible like smog covering capital cities, others like residential indoor air quality are less visible. Emission control is one of the things JM is best known for. We make about a third of all autocatalysts fitted to cars in the world. But it’s not just about vehicles, we also create products for reducing emissions from diesel generators through to leaf blowers. We are also working on better air purification systems. At Johnson Matthey, we are always thinking of ways to improve the quality of air around us. If you have a business idea that helps clean up the air and you have an idea for how JM strengths can help, we want to hear from you.

3. Biotechnology

Johnson Matthey has interests in the area of biocatalysis and we currently supply a portfolio of enzymes for reactions such as transaminations and transesterifications. We are interested in increasing our portfolio of reactions facilitated by enzymes, but we are also interested more widely in the areas of synthetic biology, strain engineering and fermentation science. Reactions which have conventionally been done with conventional catalysis, often at high temperatures and pressures, which could advantageously be done via biological routes are relevant. We are interested not only in single step transformations, but also in full biosynthetic routes to useful molecules using inexpensive feedstocks such as sugar, methane or CO2. Example would be Amryis’ production of farnesene by the fermentation of sugars with a modified yeast or Evolva’s route to vanillin.

Some of JM’s strengths

▪ Advanced materials design and engineering
▪ Synthetic & surface chemistry, material characterisation and testing
▪ Scale-up of complex manufacturing
▪ Provision of customised solutions
▪ Customer service & reliable brand