Invitation for Applications

(Deadline 23th April 2009)

DAAD-Fraunhofer Technopreneur Award 2009

Award for academically qualified young Indonesian scientists with high entrepreneurial motivation

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), in co-operation with the Fraunhofer- Gesellschaft (FhG), invites applications for the

5th Technopreneur Award 2009

Research projects may be submitted in the following application fields:
Biorefinery: Fuel and material from renewable resources

The award winner will receive a prize and a 4 months fellowship at one of the 56 Fraunhofer Institutes in Germany. The respective Fraunhofer Institute will provide scientific guidance and supervision in the candidates’ fields of interest.

The monthly stipend will be Euro 1.840. In addition, the international travle costs will be borne and the winner will recieve Euro 3.000 prize money.

Fraunhofer and Daad will support the award winner in his/her efforts to develop marketable products from the research and help him/her establishing contact with potential co-operation partners in German companies which would be able to produce these products.

Deadline and Notification

The deadline for submitting all necessary documents is 23rd April 2009.
The winner will be selected and notified june 2009.
He/she can leave for Germany for a research stay of
4 months that has to be completed in 2009

The DAAD Jakarta Office and the Fraunhofer Representative Office in Indonesia will carry out the formal pre-selection of the candidates. The final selection will be made by a selection committee at the DAAD Head Office in Bonn. Applications (two copies) should be sent to:

Background and Objectives

Since the 1990s, global innovation processes have been changing continuously.Newly developed products and knowledge are successfully creating new markets and revenues. Moreover globalization and transnational research have increased. Countries with excellent R&D infrastructure join togehter with researchers from centres of excellence elsewhere. The leading technology intensive enterprises increasingly tend to follow this strategy.

Such synergy effect can also be established between Indonesia and Germany.

This new initiative will be mutually beneficial to both Indonesia and Germany. Both countries have outstanding research environments which complement each other. Working together will promote joint development of internationally competitive products. The Technopreneur Award – to be awarded for the fifth time this year – will help increase the entrepreneurial potential of Indonesian researchers.

• For German scientists and researchers it is important to increase knowledge by exchanging ideas with their Indonesian partners.
• For Indonesian researchers and their scientific institutions it is important to learn how to develop marketable products using the infrastructure and expertise of Fraunhofer in the field of technology transfer.

Selection Criteria: Who can apply?

Applicants must be:

• Indonesian citizens
• Highly-qualified scientists (Biotechnology, Management, Industrial engineering) who hold a Ph.D.
• Motivated to turn research into marketable goods and services
• Actively networking with science and industry in Indonesia
• Willing to co-operate with Fraunhofer and German companies in developing marketable goods and services
• Strongly convinced of the market potential of their research
• Fluent in English (spoken and written)

Selection Process: Application Documents

Applicants must submit the following documents:

• DAAD Form, which can be downloaded here
• Letter of application
• Curriculum vitae
• Latest academic degree certificate
• List of international publications
• 5 pages research proposal, to be structured as follows:
  – Executive summary
  – Market potential / feasibility study
  – Research objectives
  – State of the art in that area of research in Indonesia
  – Expected contribution of Fraunhofer and German companies and research organisations
  – Action plan / timetable, including business development
  – Brief profile of Indonesian research institutions and companies involved.

The Fraunhofer-DAAD Technopreneur Award 2009 focuses on:

Creation of sustainable, value-added products from raw material ex South-East Asia

The production of good quality and sustainable biobased products could enable Indonesia to rise its economic and social standards without sacrificing the environment standards. This could be achieved by employing new technology and processing methods generating less waste. Often simultaneously considerable improvements are also possible with respect to reduction of overall energy consumption. Against this background technical innovations are pushed by researchers and engineers to find new processes and concepts.
These technical developments go along with a discussion about the availability of resources, sustainability and competition between food and biomass production.
Many technical improvements primarily took place in the western industrial countries and parts of Asia. Still many countries in South-East Asia do not have sufficient access to technology that could help them to create more added value out of their local renewable raw materials. Suite value-added processes for the production of fuels, chemicals and materials could use several feedstock of Asian countries, in particular palm oil, jatropha, or sweet sorghum. Non-food raw materials like jatropha are of particular interest in this context. Potential products of improved conversion processes are, amongst others, biodiesel, ethanol, biogas, platform chemicals, proteins, fibers and fertilizers.
Technical improvements are expected in some ways, e.g. new multi-feedstock/multi-product biorefinery concepts or integration of single processes in existing production infrastructures. Both approaches require a smart interfacing between technology and feedstock supply.
In comparison to the fossil based products, the production of bioproducts has less environmental impact. With the finding of technical improvements during the process of bioproduct production, this project is expected to give contribution to the increase of natural resources sustainability, reduction of CO2 emission and prevention of rainforest deforestation.
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and DAAD invite Indonesian academics, researchers or engineers from research institutes and universities to engage in a collaboration to support technology development and local integration of new technology for generating sustainable, value-added products from local raw materials. For this purpose scientists and engineers in the field of chemistry, process engineering, agriculture or biochemistry are suited, which provide the following skills:

• Analytical characterization of raw materials from Indonesia and of new value-added products and intermediates from the above mentioned new technology
• Assessment of suited agricultural production schemes and options with minimized need of fertilizers and minimized production of waste
• Development of methods to stabilize raw material and products, that need to be shipped for logistic reasons (e.g. developing suited methods for sterilization and pretreatment of biological materials and intermediates, prevention of deteriorated raw materials and physical or functional properties due to shipping)
• Setting-up energy and material balances with respect to Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphate etc, for new bio-conversion processes on basis of data assessment for biomass production, as well as for environmental, social and economical impacts
• Technical know-how transfer between German and Indonesian stakeholders

DAAD-Fraunhofer Technopreneur Award 2009
sponsored by

DAAD – German Academic Exchange Service:
The Leading Address for Academics and Scientists from Around the World

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is the German national agency for the support of international academic cooperation. DAAD offers programs and funding for students, faculties, researchers and others in higher education, providing financial support to about 60,000 individuals per year. DAAD also represents the German higher education system abroad, promotes Germany as an academic and research destination, and help build ties between institutions around the world. For further information please visit: www.daad.de.

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft is Europe’s largest organization for applied research. It undertakes research on behalf of industry, the service sector and government. Work focuses on specific tasks across a wide spectrum of research fields. For more information on Fraunhofer please visit: www.fraunhofer.de.

The following Fraunhofer Institute in Germany will serve as partners for the DAAD-FhG Technopreneur Award 2009:

Fraunhofer-Institute for Environmental, Safety and Energy Technology UMSICHT (Fraunhofer UMSICHT): Division Biofuels

Fraunhofer UMSICHT conducts experimental lab scale and pilot plant investigations, evaluates and optimizes technical processes of prototype scale in the fields of environmental, safety, and energy technologies for almost 20 years. The institute strives for the introduction of new, intelligent technologies based on renewable resources, in an energy efficient and economical way. It is engaged in participating in and leading of national and international projects.
Examples are the development of catalytic processes for more efficient biofuels processes as part of biorefinery concepts including fermentative production of basic chemicals. It also includes biogas process development especially from new agricultural residues. The biofuels business unit is a member of the workgroup »conversion« of the European biofuels technology platform, striving for integrated concepts of biofuels, materials and energy.
The institute has extensive experience in modeling systems of chemical and biotechnological unit operations. For modeling a combination of engineering software packages and specially developed modules in FORTRAN, adaptable to generate additional information on costs and sustainability for complex systems are applied.