PRESS RELEASE

Swedish company Umbilical Design wins exclusive contract with the European Space Agency

STOCKHOLM (December 12, 2012) – The Swedish space technology Company Umbilical Design has been appointed to the Swedish node within the ESA Technology Transfer Network. The network consists of 12 national technology transfer initiatives across Europe, all working to identifying and transferring space technology to be used in the commercial industry sector.

“This is an important strategic development for Umbilical Design and a milestone in our ambition to position Sweden as a leader in the development of sustainable innovations for the future based on resource efficient space technology, says Cecilia Hertz”, CEO of Umbilical Design.

The potential of such a transfer is significant, as studies have shown that each euro invested in space generates 20 Euros in spin-offs in other industries. Umbilical Design has been granted a three-year national funding through the Swedish National Space Board.

The mission of ESA’s bidirectional and Umbilical Design will both identify Swedish technologies to bring to the ESA and European technologies to bring from the network to the Swedish industry. In practical terms, this involves the creation of forums for technology developers and receivers, and to support the technology transfer process and to highlight good examples.

“I’m really looking forward to be the Swedish node in the European space network and also to convey the values of the network ​​to the Swedish industry”, says Cecilia Hertz.

ESA Technology Transfer Network is coordinated by the British ISIC (International Space Innovation Centre) on behalf of ESA. Umbilical Design is currently working on projects for companies like Volvo Cars and Jernkontoret. Previous assignments include projects for companies like Electrolux, Academedia, Scania and NCC.

For more information please contact

Cecilia Hertz, CEO and founder of Umbilical Design, tel. 070-5754651, cecilia.hertz @ umbilicaldesign.se

Technology transfer

ESA defines “Technology Transfer” as a process in which technologies, innovative methods, knowledge and facilities, designed for a specific market sector, are adapted and used to improve existing processes or products in other sectors. The potential for commercialization of space-related development is great and ESA has over the years contributed to the use of space technology for a wide range of applications for example in health care products, improved waste management and water treatment.

Umbilical Design

Umbilical Design AB was founded in 2001 by space designer Cecilia Hertz and has since the start offered services in design and architecture of space and other extreme environments in cooperation with ESA and NASA. Umbilical Design runs the Swedish initiative Down to Earth space technology transfer aiming at stimulating Swedish industry and creating exciting new work opportunities for young people based on sustainable concepts and technologies. Down to Earth was initiated in 2009 by the Umbilical Design in cooperation with partners from industry and society.

Pressrelease in English: Press Release ENG 2012-12-12 Umbilical ESA

Press release in Swedish: Final Pressmeddelande 2012-12-12 Umbilical ESA

Be Curious. Change the world.

Sweden may be a small country, but we are full of great ideas. Our curiosity, creativity and desire for change have made us innovators. We lead the world in innovations in a variety of fields. Our curiosity has enhanced and upgraded the way we all live. – Innovative Sweden by the Swedish Institute

Meet us at Stanford University on November 5th!

Cecilia Hertz is the Founder & CEO of Umbilical Design. In 2009 she initiated the Down to Earth project – commercializing space technologies for a sustainable earth – a Swedish ten-year initiative that targets global challenges regarding energy, health care, transportation, water, climate change and mega cities. The interdisciplinary project involves space agencies, companies and universities to identify sustainable solutions inspired by space technologies. She has worked with clients like Electrolux, Volvo Cars, SKF, Academedia and Lidköping Municipality.

Space Technology Transfer, with NCC, how can space materials contribute to more energy effective house constructions, with Scania, creating more volume effective truck cabins for a better working & living environment for the driver. Umbilical Design was given the contract by ESA, European Space Agency 2009 to initiate and develop the Swedish NTTI, National Technology Transfer Initiative.

Birdhouse Project – a Japanese project invited as 1 of 9 space designers to create future house concepts inspired by space technologies

Space tourism – Inflatable interior design for a parabolic flight plane, for tourists.

Interior design for the Crew Return Vehicle, initiated as a Diploma work at Lund Institute of Technology, developed in cooperation with NASA, JSC and ESA, ESTEC.

Zero-gravity experience – prototype testing of design solutions in ESA Parabolic Flight Campaign, France.

Cecilia Hertz
Founder and CEO, Umbilical Design

Image of Sweden: Our openness to new products, concepts, technologies – both to identify them if they exist or contribute to the development. Our possibility to work in teams.

Link: Speaker bio

Learn more: Meet Cecilia Hertz: Five questions for space industrial designer Cecilia Hertz, CEO and founder of Umbilical Design.

About Down To Earth – Commercializing Space Technologies for a Sustainable Earth

Down to Earth is a Swedish ten-year initiative that involves space agencies, companies and universities seeking to identify sustainable solutions inspired by space technologies. Down to Earth targets current and global challenges by specifically showing how space missions deal with scarce resources, such as energy, water, air and living space. The space sector is an untapped source of know-how with a huge potential for technology transfers to Earth-bound businesses.

The goal is industrial renewal, job creation and sustainable growth, which requires new thinking and new methods. Down to Earth catalyses challenge-driven innovation processes aiming to co-create the next generation of products and services that lead to new businesses and ventures and exciting new jobs for young people.

Link: Project presentation

Extra: 2011-11-01 Press release by the Swedish Institute (in Swedish)

Den 10 mars 2011 bjöd VästKraft in till konferens tillsammans med nätverket SamKraft, Svenska mässan och projektet Down to Earth. ESF-projektet VästKraft genomförde kurser och aktiviteter för praktisk kompetensutveckling. Down to Earth med samarbetspartners visar hur rymdindustrin i samverkan med näringsliv, utbildning och samhälle kan bidra till att skapa nytänkande för innovation och hållbar tillväxt. Läs mer om resultat och “spinoff” från samarbetet.

Click here to view the embedded video.

At the Sustainability Space Day in Shanghai on Oct 10, innovation and sustainability project Down To Earth gathered top stakeholders from industry, government and academia. The purpose was to discuss how commercialized space technologies can generate a more sustainable world, while creating growth, innovations and new jobs. For both states and corporations, space technology transfer is becoming big business. A calculation made by the European Space Agency, ESA, shows that every Euro invested in space provides a return of 20 Euros in spin-offs in other businesses and parts of society. This and the pressure to develop more sustainable products and services to meet higher market expectations, have raised the interest in space technology transfer amongst both industry, academia and society.

Open innovation concepts launched
Down To Earth is a 10 year initiative founded in Sweden, a country known for its high profile within both space technology, sustainability and innovation. The project has developed a multi-disciplinary open innovation process for commercializing materials, technologies and solutions from space. It aims to generate new innovations and ideas with focus on sustainability, and the first innovation conceps are presented in Shanghai today at the Swedish Pavilion ”Spirit of Innovation”.

- Sustainability Space Day is about showing key stakeholders of society that they can benefit from solutions in space. We meet global topics such as education, household services and city development with innovative ideas inspired by space, says Cecilia Hertz, co-founder of Down To Earth and Managing Director of space design company Umbilical Design.

”The Kitchen of The Future” innovation concept was developed for household appliance world leader Electrolux. The appliance maker draws valuable learnings on how space technology can help develop more sustainable products to meet future consumer needs.

- The overal objective of Electrolux is to serve our consumers with household appliances that make every-day living a little easier. We should develop products that satisfies needs and wishes consumers may not even know they have. To learn from the space industry is a different and exciting perspective and fits well with sustainability already being a vital part in our strategy. We have learned that Down To Earth is an exciting project for us that can translate to future business opportunities, says Christina Lindstedt, General Manager New Business Areas at Electrolux.

NASA technology based success story
Swedish entrepreneur Dag Landvik have vast experience in space technology transfer, after having built up Fagerdala World Foams. The company is an international group specializing in high technology polymer foams and a world wide success story in using space technology after developing the “Tempur” foam based on NASA technology. The ”Tempur” foam was accepted to the NASA Hall of Fame in 1998.

- The space sector is fantastic to understand and use for innovations, and as a source for inspiration. At Fagerdala we managed to find the right application for NASA’s technology in our own state of crisis and the successes have inspired us to continue apply space technology for other business areas. Examples are boat hulls and light weight components for the car industry, where we use material from space, says Dag Landvik, key note speaker.

Mind challenging initiative with high ambition
The project is founded by space design company Umbilical Design and Jönköping International Business School, with the overall objective to stimulate industry to create new exciting jobs for young people based on sustainable technologies.

- Down to Earth is a mind challenging initiative and a chance for industry, academia and society to work around real global challenges and explore new innovative business opportunities. As an educator of tomorrow’s international business developers it is important for us to be part of driving this kind of development, says Professor Niclas Adler, co-founder of Down To Earth and Dean and Managing Director of Jönköping International Business School in Sweden.

For more information please contact

Erik Lindgren
Project Manager
+4670-743 11 33
erik.lindgren@downtoearth.se

Ebba Kierkegaard
Project Coordinator
+4670-679 37 60
ebba.kierkegaard@downtoearth.se

SUSTAINABILITY SPACE DAY 101010
SPEAKERS BIOGRAPHY
Cathy Huang is the founder and president of China Bridge International, a 7-year-old
design research and design strategy consulting company in Shanghai. She is a
respected Thought Leader in the design industry and has judged numerous
renowned design awards and is a frequent guest speaker at international
conferences in America, Europe, Asia as well as at leading colleges and universities
around the world.

Cecilia Hertz is founder and Managing Director of Umbilical Design and one of the
Down To Earth initiators. She is the industry designer from Lund Technical
University, Sweden, who created history when starting the first ever space design
company in Sweden in 2001. She has done her graduation project working for NASA
and is today considered a key Swedish ambassador within space technology.

Professor C.S. Kiang is Founder and Dean of the College of Environmental
Sciences at Peking University, CEO of Sustainable Development Technologies and
Vice Chairman of Global Urban Development. He is a Councilor of the World Future
Council, a member of Advisory Board of the Climate Change Capital, a member of
International Council of Asia Society and a member of the Global Agenda Council fo
Climate Change of the World Economic Forum.

Dag Landvik is the founder of Fagerdala World Foams, an international group
specializing in high technology polymer foams with operations in 26 factories in 11
countries. The group developed the “Tempur” foam based on NASA technology that
became recognized as inducted technology in NASA’s Hall of fame 1998.

Guo Jianping is the Deputy Director General of International Cooperation Dept. Of
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)

Jan Stael von Holstein, in China known as Yuen Shi Dao, is the founder and cochairman
of The Network with a Silver Lining with 15 offices around Europe and the
USA. TM&N and Bamboo communications in Hong Kong, PG Design and Branding
and CBI in Shanghai, make up for a strong presence in China. Having spent more
than thirty-five years in the design business, he is now a world authority in Corporate
and Brand Identity creation and Design Management.

Dr. Jean Marie Cishahayo received his PH.D in Business Administration from
Washington Intʼl University (USA) in 2004, specializing in Private sector
development policies and Sustainable Development. His research topic was
“Globalization and Future trends of China Sustainable Development: A Sustainable
Development Approach”. He is a distinguish lecturer at Beijing University Shanghai
University, Hong Kong Business School and others.

Jimmy Xia is the Manager of Swedish Space Corporation’s Beijing Office,
responsible for representation and public relations with Chinese Government
Bureaus and Space Companies.

Professor Maria Nyström is a professor in Design in Urban Development at
Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. She has working experience in
developing countries concerning urban areas and living spaces, mainly in
cooperation with University of Houston and NASA.

Professor Niclas Adler is the Dean and Managing Director of Jönköping
International Business School, and one of initiators to Down To Earth. He has cofounded
14 companies as well as co-founded and managed research centers such
as Stockholm School of Entrepreneurship and FENIX Centre for Innovations in
Management. He is an active management consultant and a Director with Truepoint
Partners, Boston.

Nina Ekstrand is the Deputy Commissioner General at the Swedish Committee For
Expo 2010 in Shanghai.

Tony Meurke is a Programme Manager in International Affairs with the Swedish
Agency for Economic and Regional Growth. He holds a bachelor in system
development and have a background in public and private sector as well as an
entrepreneur. Today he focuses on the area of health care and sustainable growth
for Swedish companies.

The Down to Earth team

About Umbilical Design

Umbilical Design is a Swedish company in the area of design for space applications and for technology-transfer from the space sector to other industries. Umbilical Design has worked with NASA, ESA and with projects across many industries. The company was founded 2001 by space designer Cecilia Hertz. See the full story at: www.umbilicaldesign.se

About Jönköping International Business School (JIBS)

JIBS works in partnership with more than 200 universities all around the world, is one of the world leading when it comes to research in entrepreneurship and business renewal and has more than 400 students as exchange students from about 80 different countries as taking part in JIBS education programs every semester. Read more at: www.jibs.se