What is BUFPI?
BUFPI is a new private science institute – the Biomehānikas un fizikālo pētījumu institūts (hereinafter referred to in the text as the Institute of Physical Research and Biomechanics, or BUFPI), whose management and research are overseen by young Latvian scientists already notable for their achievements to date. The Institute currently has three main operational research directions – energy, laser physics and optical science, and in the immediate future it plans to expand its research to other advanced fields, including psychology.
How did BUFPI come about?
At the end of 2008, three likeminded people pooled their ideas and experience and came up with the idea of launching a new institute to conduct practicable, comprehensible, commercially viable and effective science. To implement this idea in practice, the doctors and scientists who currently direct the Institute's scientific directions – optical science, laser physics and energy – all convened. In 2009, BUFPI was officially accredited as a science institution.
Goals of BUFPI
- At a minimum, to be European and preferably global leaders in our defined scientific fields, creating innovative, exportable and high-value-added end products.
- Self-sufficient and practical science that is independently viable and beneficial to Latvia.
- Boosting competitiveness within international markets by offering high-quality products and becoming a leader in several scientific directions.
BUFPI funding
Funding for BUFPI projects is generated from private capital invested by its founders, as well as from financing from European Union structural funds secured through formal tendering procedures in the face of competition from state science institutions. As its operations expand, the Institute's founders plan to finance their work through commissioned studies, reflecting their belief in the earning potential of science in Latvia.
BUFPI projects
Each BUFPI research direction is represented by its own laboratory, whose work is directed at the development of new products. Our latest research projects involve research on legibility and reading problems, the relationship between optical characteristics and elite sporting success, the possibilities of obtaining renewable energy resources in Latvia’s territorial waters, sustainable technologies for obtaining hydrogen from renewable resources, optimisation of the biogas production process, etc.
BUFPI team
BUFPI currently employs ten active young scientists and specialists, including physics doctors Janis Alnis, Aigars Atvars, Kaspars Bluss and Roberts Paeglis; chemistry doctor Iveta Ancane; and others.
Science can be profitable
Preserving the egalitarianism of science, BUFPI focuses on ensuring the practicability of its implemented projects, so that all products it creates find their end consumer and deliver a return on investment. Therefore, companies that produce our end products and create new technologies evolve from within the BUFPI community of scientists.
Partnerships with educational institutions and regions
Among the Institute's founders is the Latgales Aparātbūves tehnoloģiju centrs (Latgale Centre for Apparatus Building Technologies). This relationship has directly led to the implementation of projects in partnership with Rēzekne High School, Rēzekne City Council and the Rēzekne Economic Zone, and to the Institute securing EU financing from the di minimis programme.
BUFPI is open to partnerships with state science institutions with a view to exploring jointly areas of mutual scientific interest and leveraging the human and technological resources available at state science institutions. We have recently entered into a partnership with the Latvian Academy of Sports Education to implement an optical science project. And in the very near future we plan to launch additional partnerships with regional higher education institutions, including Daugavpils University, with which we share a common scientific research interest in the field of laser physics.
Recruitment of young scientists
BUFPI is interested in recruiting scientists whose work overlaps with the Institute’s scientific directions and who can offer original and practicable ideas that lead to commercially viable solutions.
BUFPI and society
In line with the Institute’s postulation of open and friendly "new science”, BUFPI will devote serious work to explaining science by implementing and supporting captivating educational events. In December 2009, the 1st Young Latvian Scientists Forum took place with the support of BUFPI and with former Latvian President Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga as its patroness.
Cooperation partners
SIA Baltic Wind Park
SIA BIOGAS
Daugavpils University
SIA KSD
Latvian University of Agriculture, Institute of Agricultural Energy
LU Institute of Astronomy
LU Faculty of Biology
LU Institute of Solid State Physics
Max Planck Institute, Munich
LU Institute of Electronics and Computer Science
SIA SPD Energo
SIA OptimEyz
