PICO – The Platform of Industrial Contact Officers
The Platform of Industrial Contact Officers (PICO) is at the heart of RIANA’s strategy to connect research infrastructures (RIs) with industry, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Its mission is to make advanced scientific facilities more accessible, visible, and impactful for industrial innovation.
Why PICO?
While research infrastructures provide world-class analytical and technological capabilities, many companies, particularly SMEs, lack the in-house expertise or knowledge to fully leverage them. With the exception of the pharmaceutical sector, most industries are not familiar with how to design or monitor experiments at public RIs. This creates a gap between industry needs and RI capabilities.
PICO addresses this challenge by acting as a strategic interface between providers and industrial users, ensuring that companies can access the right expertise, tools, and methodologies to advance their innovation goals.
Strategic Impact
Through its activities, PICO helps bridge existing gaps in the European innovation ecosystem:
- Large-scale RIs often already have industry-oriented services in place.
- Smaller laboratories may lack such frameworks.
PICO ensures both types of providers are aligned and synergized, creating a consistent and accessible entry point for the industry. This unified platform strengthens RIANA’s ability to reach into emerging sectors such as:
- Quantum technologies,
- Semiconductors,
- Green energy,
- Advanced materials.
PICO Contact
Noor Nawaz (ESRF- European Synchrotron Radiation Facility)
Peter Lang (Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH)
© RANKIN
Uwe Sassenberg (SaSaS Science as a Service GmbH)
Núria Valls Vidal (ALBA Synchrotron)
Simone Marasso (CNR-IMEM, Politecnico di Torino DISAT Department)
Jefferson do Rosário (DESY)
Giulia Aprile (Istituto Nazionale di Ricerca Metrologica I.N.Ri.M.)
Stefan Facsko (Institute of Ion Beam Physics and Materials Research (HZDR))