Noriware and the Swiss Smart Factory researching with the EU

(CONNECT) Noriware, a start-up based in Lupfig in the canton of Aargau, Switzerland, is one of four companies to have joined the major international research project bi0SpaCE. Led by Aarhus University in Denmark, this Horizon Europe project aims to strengthen bio-based industries across the whole of Europe, as detailed in a press release issued by the university. To this end, circular production is to be optimized, digital transparency enhanced and Europe’s global competitive standing improved.

Noriware, a spin-off from the University of St.Gallen (HSG), has developed a film and a granulate on the basis of algae in partnership with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) and the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW). Both products are made entirely of natural and compostable materials and are suitable for the production of sustainable packaging materials. Noriware was co-founded in 2022 by HSG student Jessica Farda, who is now the company’s 26-year-old CEO. In addition to Noriware, three other companies form part of the consortium: Greenlab Skive A/S (Denmark), Fiskeby (Sweden) and Biofactoría Naturae (Spain).

The Swiss Smart Factory, which belongs to the Switzerland Innovation Park Biel/Bienne and maintains sites at other Swiss innovation parks, is among the consortium’s knowledge partners. The competence center for application-oriented research and the transfer of Industry 4.0 has established itself as the first test and demonstration platform for this field in Switzerland. Other knowledge partners include two institutions at Aarhus University, in addition to the Fraunhofer Institute IOSB (Germany) as technical coordinator, the CARTIF Technology Center (Spain), the Nissatech Innovation Centre (Serbia) and the Italian standards authority UNI.

“Europe has big climate ambitions, and circular bio-based products are a major part of the solution”, as Professor Devarajan Ramanujan, one of the two study directors, from the University of Aarhus states. However, contemporary technologies for circular production processes are, Ramanujan explains further, largely created from the perspective of industries that focus on non-biological materials. The project will now seek to change this. ce/mm