The Horizon 2020 SME Instrument is a EU framework program for research and innovation, and its purpose is to fund innovation projects and help businesses grow and expand their activities into other countries in Europe and beyond. The funding is extremely hard to get and available for only the cream of the crop, and it was granted to Spectral Engines after a vigorous evaluation process.
SME Instrument provides funding for small and medium sized EU-based enterprises. By funding Spectral Engines’ latest project called NarcoScan with 2.4M€, the EU recognizes for the second time Spectral Engines’ position as a pioneer in the field of next-generation sensor technology and acknowledges its hard work on developing cost-efficient, high quality products and technologies. Earlier this year Spectral Engines won the EU Horizon Prize for developing Food Scanner, a novel spectral sensing platform that offers unique benefits in many applications, such as food sensing and analysis.
The device built in the NarcoScan project will follow in the footsteps of the Food Scanner, as it is not only innovative but groundbreaking. Its technology and small size will change the future of police work and the war on drugs, as it is the first re-usable pocket-sized scanner for police patrols. The technology developed in this project allows police officers to detect any type of illicit narcotics onsite, and it is more than 20 times less expensive than its alternatives. The core of the scanner is a Spectral Engines’ innovative spectral sensing module combined with cloud and device connectivity to enable mass data management. It also has an extremely high measurement accuracy from a very low drug concentration, and it shows the results in just a matter of seconds.
Spectral Engines’ advanced technology platform can be utilized in a vast spectrum of products and applications ranging from smart agriculture to smart homes and smart industry. The main goal of Spectral Engines is to offer building blocks and technology innovations for industry level as well as consumers. With the help of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument funding, Spectral Engines can focus on building even more efficient IoT-compatible wireless sensor technology faster and more cost-efficiently. The funding will also provide a solid base for Spectral Engines’ rapid growth, as the used technology expedites the improvement of other applications and enables the use of material detecting solutions outside of laboratories.
You can read more on the funding program here: http://ec.europa.eu/programmes/horizon2020/en/h2020-section/sme-instrument
Read more about our previous recognition from the EU: https://www.spectralengines.com/our-portable-food-scanning-solution-takes-home-the-1st-prize-from-eu-horizon/
