Aktina blazes research enterprise trail

Radical new technology based on "smart particles" is at the core of the University's latest spin out company, Aktina launched last month with prestigious heavyweight backing. The technology, developed by Professor James Cairns, has a vast range of potential applications from optical circuit boards and liquid crystal displays to sensors for catalytic converters.

Dr Alex Deas, Derek Douglas and Lynne Falconer join Professor Cairns on the board of directors. Deas is well known as the man behind the Memory Corporation's founding technology and heads Acuid - the data transfer pioneer. Corporate financier Derek Douglas, the first chairman of Kymata and chairman of Adam Smith Ltd becomes Aktina's chairman and will drive the fundraising.

Professor Cairns explains the technology on which the company is founded: "Aktina holds enabling technology which allows thin coatings to be fixed to a range of surfaces. Within these coatings we have tiny particles, one thousandth of the width of a human hair. These particles are capable of detecting the presence of combustible gases such as methane. They can in turn be converted into continuous metal to produce very fine electrically conductive tracks as required for many micro-electronic applications."

He went on: "The technology will allow a wide variety of products to be made smaller, more robust and more cheaply. It is now a question of looking to see where the market pull is and targeting products appropriately."

Aktina, Greek for "ray of light" has itself spun out of AMCET - an enabling company set up by the University with strong financial and business support from Scottish Enterprise Tayside last year. It has already embarked on securing first round funding to take product development to the next stage.

The support of Deas and Douglas has been welcomed as a "tremendous endorsement" of Aktina's potential.

Derek Douglas: "In a tough market it is companies like Aktina, capable of demonstrating sound commercial management of cutting edge technology, which will win. The strength of the new company is that it is based on a range of distinct but interlinked applications, each of which has the potential to make a significant impact on the market."

The launch of Aktina - the university's ninth spin out company - embodies in action what Principal Sir Alan Langlands refers to as the "virtuous cycle" linking research and enterprise. In a direction-setting speech delivered to the National Competitiveness Summit at the University of Cambridge MIT Institute in November, Sir Alan spoke of the need to create the right conditions for improving competitiveness and new company formation at a local and a national level.

"The commercialisation of the University research base is not the be all and end all - universities have other important responsibilities. But it is significant partly as an end in itself, contributing economic advantage and partly as a means to an end, fuelling the development of the university's own research activities."

He went on: "Upstream investment in basic research is an essential pre-requisite for successful company formation. This is a long game - it depends on building a critical mass of highly motivated scientists with complementary skills and interests, drawing on a diverse range of funding sources and investing in the infrastructure and the analytical capacity required to support cutting edge science."

Scotland punches above its weight in research output but the business birth rate is 30% below the UK average. The policies being driven by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning provide the right environment for progress. Scottish Enterprise and SHEFC are playing their part, the Scottish Institute for Enterprise is helping this process and the Dundee example shows what is possible.

"But the real challenge is to scale up- this means taking an uncompromising approach to hiring and rewarding good people. It means moving to the leading edge of teaching and training in entrepreneurship and developing top flight business support services.

"It also means taking risks and accepting, as well as learning from, honest failure. That is the challenge ahead."

The full text of Sir Alan's speech can be read at www.dundee.ac.uk/pressoffice/

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