Floralis, the University Joseph Fourier’s (UJF) technology transfer subsidiary is pleased to announce that its first Business Unit has been successfully launched as a company in its own right. The company, Alpao, which develops adaptive optics products, and was awarded the Lauréat Anvar in the emerging technology category 2006, was officially born on 16^th April 2008.The creation of Alpao as a new company is a milestone in the development of Floralis, which has developed a longterm strategy aimed at nurturing and supporting emerging technologies to ensure their commercial success.  Eric Larrey, Director of Floralis stated: “The birth of Alpao is great news both for Alpao and Floralis.  The creation of Alpao both demonstrates the company’s adaptive optic technology and validates Floralis’s longterm, value-added approach to both commercializing and developing technology”.Floralis is the commercial arm of UJF and is responsible for the development and commercialisation of technologies that originate from its numerous laboratories.The process of taking a raw technology from the lab and developing it into a commercially viable product is a complicated and risky process which involves the participation of a myriad of scientific, commercial and legal experts.. According to a briefing paper from the Institut Montaigne*: “France currently lags between 7 to 10 years behind Germany, Belgium and Great Britain in terms of technology transfer”  To redress this balance Floralis has developed a long term strategy based on quality, not quantity. Alpao’s birth is evidence of the effectiveness of this strategy and consequently a milestone in the development of Floralis.The history of the company starts in 2002 when UJF and the CNRS (Centre National de Recherche Scientifique) filed a patent for the adaptive optics technology. Two years later when the research project had advanced sufficiently. Floralis’s Thierry Gonthiez and a team from LAOG (Laboratoire d’Astrophysique de l’Observatoire de Grenoble) including Julien Charton, Laurent Jocou, Jean-Luc Beuzit et Pierre Kern, proposed that the technology be turned into a Business Unit. Floralis had, by this point, developed the strategy of Business Unit development to ensure that technologies with sufficient potential be truly supported throughout the entire commercialization process and that adequate marketing, commercial, legal and financial support would be given to help mature selected technologies.  Frederic Rooms joined the company in early 2006 and has since played a key role in developing the company in collaboration with Floralis. Around this time a laboratory prototype was developed proving the commercial viability of the product and importantly, Alpao was given the financial support and time to convert this prototype into an industrial product.. Since this time the initial product has been extended to a range of three and over a dozen mirrors have been sold in markets as far ranging as the United States, Canada, Germany, Japan and France. In 2007, valuable financial, consultative and marketing support was given by Le Reseau Entreprendre Isère (business development agency) and Le Grain (incubator) to help the project maintain traction.Frederic Rooms stated: “We are delighted to see the creation of Alpao. The support of Floralis to help us achieve this goal is undeniable; Floralis has given us the time to mature and develop as a company in order to help us take our product to market. Furthermore, as well as the financial support that got us started,  Floralis’s longterm approach to commercial development has enabled us to turn what started as a research project into a commercially viable company”-Ends-*Source: Institut Montaigne Briefing Paper June 2007 www.institutmontaigne.orgwww.floralis.frwww.alpao.fr

About FloralisFloralis is the technology transfer arm of the Université Joseph Fourier (UJF), one of France’s most successful universities in terms of patent development.  An SAS developed with a start-up capital of 1.5m € in 2004, the company is responsible for managing the intellectual property and the transfer of technology from UJFs laboratories to the market place through a variety of means including business unit development, licencing and company creation.  Floralis manages a family of 140 patent families and works in a wide variety of scientific fields including bioscience, health science, chemistry, physical science, engineering and computer science.

Press ContactsFranceEric Larrey  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 04 76 00 78 48R.o.W/Technical EnquiriesFrederic Rooms : This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it 04 76 63 55 05