Ten scientists graduate from the first CAROTS Startup School

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© CAROTS

On 16 and 17 June 2021 the Startup School programme successfully ended with two pitch events for the ten first participants. Five webinars on the entrepreneurial mindset, the Business Model Canvas, financial management, marketing and sales as well as storytelling and pitching laid the groundwork for ten fantastic pitch performances and presentations with convincing stories to tell.

The CAROTS Startup School was focused on practical knowledge transfer. Six experienced founders and CEOs of established scientific service companies shared their knowledge with the participants in the webinars and additionally in 1-to-1 coaching sessions from the end of March until the end of June 2021. “The CAROTS Startup School is something quite special” says coach Mårten Edwards, founder and CEO of Uppsala Synchrotronix. Anna Stenstam, CEO of CR Competence, adds: “I wish I could have attended something similar when I started.”

Next to specialists from large-scale research facilities, the innovation sector and financing, the CEOs were also part of the jury giving the participants feedback on their pitch presentations. All participants will now write their business plan, some of their concepts will be presented at the CAROTS Final Conference on 21 September 2021.

Read more here

 

 

 

 

#ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 3: Episode 6 – “Towards a new EU strategy on Technology Infrastructures”

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Welcome to the recap of our #ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 3: Episode 6. We were happy to hear from Muriel Attané, Senior EU Public Affairs professional and Secretary General at European Association of Research and Technology Organisations (EARTO).

The main focus of our episode was to unpack what are Technology Infrastructures (TIs) and how they relate Research Infrastructures (RIs). In short EARTO definition of TIs is “facilities and resources, used either for technology development activities at intermediate TRLs or for testing and demonstration activities at higher TRL or for both activities” the intended uses are both public organisations and private companies including SMEs.

Some characteristics of TIs are that they can be both physical and virtual. Also, the extent of the network can be local or European for example. Muriel emphasises that these parameters can vary a lot. Additionally, TIs usually have two main and possibly intertwining purposes: cocreation of innovation and making sure that available technology is rolled out and used in the market. Disclaimer: such typology is an attempt at generalising a complex and diverse landscape, and it can of course lead to oversimplifications in several cases.

Muriel pointed out that often RIs and Tis can be located in the same building and even managed by the same entity and complement each other. She believes that this mutual enrichment is a better way to compare TIs and RIs.

Since TIs are focused on innovation, Muriel feels that their function is at times to invest in research and development where the industry can not make the substantial investment.

The last part of Muriel’s compact, yet comprehensive crash course to TIs are the gaps in the current system. She highlights that there needs to be a strategic approach to TIs and especially maintaining them. Also there should be more interconnectivity between TIs for capacity building and that there would be no gaps in technology when rolling out the for example the Green Deal or Digital strategy.

Watch our episode with Muriel to learn what other topics besides robotics and 3D printing are covered by TIs.

After Muriel’s presentation we had a lovely discussion talking more about the TI and RI differences, where do technology parks fit in and much more.

Muriel’s presentation is available here. Don’t forget to check out our new ENRIITC your Knowledge series that is more broader than our coffee breaks.

The next episode of our #ENRIITCyourCoffee is on the topic of applied and industrial vs fundamental science – who should get access to research infrastructures? The session will be led by Ed Mitchell, Head of Business Development Office at ESRF.He will be joined by Magnus Larsson (Head of Industrial Relations at MAXIV Laboratory) and Graham Appleby, (Business Development Manager at the UK’s ISIS Neutron and Muon Source). Register here.

The KM3NeT/ARCA neutrino telescope, in which IFIC participates, already has six detection units in operation

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© IFIC

KM3NeT is one of the ESFRI high priority projects and implies the close international collaboration of more than 50 scientific institutes and 250 scientists. Recently, five new ARCA neutrino telescope detection units have been installed, which are already operational and collecting data.

For more than two decades, IFIC has been participating in neutrino telescope projects. In this case, has actively contributed to the design, construction and calibration of the six detection lines currently operating in the initial core of the KM3NeT / ARCA.

The ARCA telescope in Sicily, together with ORCA in France, will allow scientists to identify astrophysical sources of high-energy neutrinos.

Read more here

 

 

 

 

IFIC opens a new call to use Artemisa infrastructure for computing in Artificial Intelligence

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© IFIC

Artemisa is a High Performance Computing Facility oriented to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence research. It uses GPUs coprocessors to allow computing projects to develop and run their most advanced algorithms, making big data processing a reality.

Until 13th June any international research program involving Spanish public universities and research centres can request its use and take advantage of its capabilities. The Artemisa advisory committee will evaluate all the requests from this day on and those approved will be granted access to the cluster from July 1st to October 31th.

Artemisa wants to contribute to strengthen the European science and industry links and is particular keen on housing AI research activities related to ESFRI landmarks and projects.

Applications for research groups are open here

 

 

 

 

Just the gist: Big data and pandemics in seven key points

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EMBL © Adobe Stock; Rayne Zaayman-Gallant/EMBL

EMBL Science and Society panel examines opportunities and limitations for big data in addressing present and future pandemic.

The use of data has played a central role in the COVID-19 pandemic, but it should come as no surprise that researchers are already looking at ways to improve data acquisition, management, and access. EMBL’s most recent Science and Society seminar, ‘Harnessing Big Data to Monitor and Tackle Pandemics’, featured a panel of three speakers who shared their experiences and conclusions about these topics.

Ilaria Capua, Director of the One Health Center of Excellence at the University of Florida, explained why the concept of ‘circular health’ could transform what we know about pandemics and how we address them. Enrico Bucci, Director of the System Biology programmes at Temple University in Philadelphia, discussed the limitations of big data and the idea of long-term pandemic forecasting. And Rolf Apweiler, Director of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and Senior Scientist, focused on the ways in which big data is most suited to answering specific questions about the pandemic. Ewan Birney, EMBL Deputy Director General and Director of EMBL-EBI, moderated the discussion and took questions from the audience.

Read more here

 

 

The European Solar Telescope will be installed on La Palma

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IAC-European Solar Telescope (EST). Photo © Gabriel Pérez Díaz, SMM (IAC)

The International Scientific Committee of the Canary Observatories has given the go-ahead for the siting of the installation of the European Solar Telescope (EST) at the Roque de Los Muchachos Observatory (Garafía, La Palma). The decision, taken at the first of the biannual meetings of the Committee, held virtually, implies the construction of the largest European infrastructure dedicated to solar observations, and the strengthening of the position of the Canaries as the place with the largest concentration of solar telescopes in the world.

The committee, made up of representatives of all the countries involved in the Observatories, has made a positive evaluation of the proposal by the Project Office of the European Solar Telescope after receiving the recommendations of the Subcommittee for the Astronomical Characteristics of the Canary Observatories (SUCOSIP).

The EST will be sited in the area of the Swedish Solar Telescope (SST) and the Dutch Open Telescope (DOT) within the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory. The final site for the EST has been decided taking into account the conditions which a solar telescope has to satisfy to optimize its scientific results, avoiding perturbations due to nearby infrastructures.

The main aim of the telescope, which will give astronomers a better understanding of solar magnetic activity, will be research into the structure, dynamics, and energy flow in the lower solar atmosphere, to understand phenomena such as sunspots and flares with unprecedented accuracy.

Read more here

 

 

#ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 3: Episode 5 “Innovation impact of RIs through supplier relationships”

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Welcome to the short recap of our fifth episode of this #ENRIITCyourCoffee season on May 6th and last before a little break from our coffee meetups. This episode was led by Prof. Jason Li-Ying, Director of Research and Education at the Centre for Technology Entrepreneurship at Technical University of Denmark (DTU). He was joined by Dr. Nikolaj Zangenberg, Director at Danish Technological Institute (DTI) and Danish ILO for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and XFEL, and Dr. Søren Bang Korsholm, Senior Scientist at DTU and Danish ILO for Fusion for Energy (F4E) and ITER.

Jason was kind to share and elaborate on his research into innovation impacts and how that impact is created through the supplier relationship with the Research Infrastructures (RIs). In a broader sense this topic leads to a larger socio-economic impact, which affects us all, in- and outside of RIs. In a nutshell, Jason’s work tries to explain how supplier innovation occurs while being contracted by a Big Science Organisation (BSO) and after the contract ends. Jason’s research used the European Spallation Source (ESS) data and supplier interaction as the basis data for his paper, which is currently in publication.

His presentation focused on the below main points:

  1. Building on previous data – Jason’s team’s research built on cross-sectional internal data from ESS, previous EU projects and two surveys sent out to suppliers and WP leaders. He emphasised how important the surveys were. In many cases, after a project finishes, there is rarely any follow-up with suppliers and this spill-over effect can get lost.
  2. Outcomes for suppliers – An especially noteworthy figure Jason presented, is the proportion of highly customised or completely new technologies/services provided by the suppliers. This makes up the vast majority of the supplied services and products for ESS. The simplified mechanism is such: suppliers work with RIs > they finish a contract > they have improved marked and technical knowledge. What happened to provide this outcome?
  3. The BSO and supplier modes in the BSO and supplier interaction sphere and the supplier evolution sphere – this is the core model of the publication of Jason and his co-authors. The publication is still in the review phase, but listen how Jason explains the model in the episode recording from 11 minutes 27 seconds onwards in the below video.
  4. Innovation modes and their solutions with best practices – Jason provided a lightspeed summary of a three-page long table of the innovation modes from his paper and the problem solvers with recommended best practices. As mentioned this was vert brief, but we are certain Jason can elaborate more on that when given more time than our 30 minute coffee ENRIITCment.
  5. Much more – see the video below to get the details.

In this episode we were fortunate to have Dr Sonia Utermann and Pardeep Ghosh who are working on this exact topic. The questions posed by Sonia and Pardeep were insightful and really touched the topic in its core. See our coffee discussion yourself from the recording below.

We welcome you to join the discussion at our next #ENRIITCyourCoffee on new EU Strategy on Technology Infrastructures. The session will be led by Muriel Attané, Senior EU public Affairs Professional and EARTO Secretary General. It will take place on Thursday, 3 June, exceptionally from 10:30 to 11:00 CEST. Read more here. Rgistration is open here.

EMSO-PT Leg 1 Campaign is underway off the southwestern coast of Portugal

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© EMSO ERIC

The EMSO-PT initiative, coordinated by the Portuguese Institute for Sea and Atmosphere (IPMA), and the +ATLANTIC CoLAB have joined forces to showcase an oceanographic campaign in near real time.

The multi-task endeavour began on Sunday, 23 May 2021 onboard the research vessel Mário Ruivo, owned and managed by IPMA, and is scheduled to conclude on Wednesday 26 May 2021. During the entire week, the +ATLANTIC CoLAB will publish daily updates about the various tasks that will be carried off the southwestern coast of Portugal by a 20-people strong research team and crew, whose main goal is to deploy various oceanographic equipment to increase the EMSO-PT data collection capacity in the Atlantic Portuguese waters.

After leaving the Lisbon Naval Base on Sunday night, the RV Mário Ruivo, previously named as “Mar Portugal” and recently renamed after the Portuguese oceanography pioneer, Mário Ruivo , set sail to the area off the southwestern tip of mainland Europe where she will remain for a couple of days before heading back to Lisbon.

The first task in the schedule consists in the deployment of an Ocean Profiler and an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). In the following days, the research team will deploy an Ocean-Bottom Seismometer (OBS), a glider, and will collect data on diverse ocean parameters using a FerryBox tool, a Conductivity-Temperature-Depth (CTD) and several water samplers.

You can click here to watch a teaser of what will happen this week onboard Mário Ruivo and follow the campaign’s logbook through the +ATLANTIC CoLAB social media:

 

 

Bi-regional recommendations for cooperation of research infrastructures

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© RI-VIS

RI-VIS is a Horizon 2020 funded project, designed to increase the visibility of European research infrastructures (RIs) to new communities in Europe and beyond.

The consortium has 13 partners from 12 RIs working in the fields of biomedical sciences, social sciences and environmental sciences, but they also have expert advisors from the Physics sector, and from e-infrastructure.

The objectives of RI-VIS are to:

  • Map RI services to new target communities and identify routes to maximize exchange of information and bases for new partnerships;
  • Create an outreach programme to provide information, bring research infrastructures together with new target communities and facilitate collaborative engagement;
  • Create a collection of tools that are freely available to all research infrastructures that have demonstrated efficacy and impact in facilitating new cooperative relationships.

With the three white papers, arranged into sections that cover examples of successful collaboration, lessons learned and possible challenges/bottlenecks and focused on a pair of regions, RI-VIS is meant to explore methods to increase collaboration between research infrastructures  and in funding and policy making roles in both regions.

The three papers are:

  1. Recommendations towards cooperation between African and European RI’s
  2. Recommendations towards cooperation between Latin America and European RI’s
  3. Recommendations towards cooperation between Australian and European RI’s

Also, to further discuss about opportunities and challenges for RI cooperation between Latin America and Europe, RI-VIS in collaboration with the EU-LAC ResInfra project , organised the RI-VIS Latin America – Europe Symposium , a three-day virtual event which brings together delegates from RIs, science policy organisations and research institutions of these regions. It will take place between Tuesday, June 15th and Thursday, June 17th 2021.

Read more about the event here

 

ENRIITC Focus Group #4 “The role of the ICO (Industry Contact Officer) in Industry access to Research Infrastructures”

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  • What is the role of an ICO in industry access to RIs?
  • What are the main objectives of ICOs in the execution of their tasks?
  • What does industry expect from an ICO and when this role can be considered as highly successful?

These are just a few of the topics which have been discussed during the ENRIITC Focus Group #4, on the 11th May 2021, and the follow-up meeting, on the 18th of May The purpose was to provide input towards the “RI Innovation – Partnering Readiness Strategic Action Plan”, by surveying practical examples from experienced practitioners, which could inform the project about tested outreach strategies towards industry.

One of the main points emerged during the meeting is that industry expects to be competently and efficiently led through the RI ecosystem, in order to timely find the required information or expertise. In fact, the engagement with an Industry Contact Officer (ICO) should adequately serve this crucial role of navigating the complex RI environment.

The precise collocation of the ICO within the organisational structure of a Research Infrastructure and the role’s daily tasks may vary across the different RIs. While the ICO is described as related to either the business development units or the technology transfer offices – or both, it emerges quite clearly that the ICO role appears to never mingle with procurement office matters. ENRIITC should contribute to an updated definition of ICO, closer to the notion, revealed in this and other ENRIITC experiences, which all the interviewed practitioners have experienced through their careers.

TRAINING PROGRAMME AND FINANCIAL TOOLS: HOW CAN AN ICO BE SUPPORTED, NOT ONLY FROM WHAT CONCERNS SKILLS DEVELOPMENT, BUT ALSO IN TERMS OF PROFESSIONAL INTERACTIONS?

This is another important feature because the identification of financial tools, which could support the development of the ICO skills, based on a common ground of activities, would lead to intensified actions as well as exchanges of practices and information among ICOs, as well as with the ILOs. Examples of activities which could be beneficial in this respect include exchange visits between ICOs and the creation of shared resources and practices.

CHALLENGE FOR AN ICO ABOUT FUNDING COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH PROJECTS BETWEEN RIs AND INDUSTRY

All the participants agreed that a programme of scaled incentives – like feasibility study, commercialisation grant or innovation vouchers – could be extremely beneficial in order to empower this collaboration, such as Enterprise Ireland “Innovation Vouchers” scheme or the Swedish scheme ‘Vinnova’, which are cases of effective funding programmes, at the national level.

Clearly, this could also be mimicked through a European project, such as TamaTA in the CalipsoPlus project (it allows SMEs to go beyond the simple feasibility access foreseen in the industry networking activity) or LEAPS Innov (which focuses on the implementation of new strategies and activities for long-term partnerships between industry and the European light sources).

BUT WHICH ARE THE RELEVANT SKILLS FOR THE ICO ROLE?

They actually seem to be highly related to interpersonal capabilities, connected to a good understanding of the industry operational needs. To experience and learn about industry-RI engagement practices, exchange visits and/or a short professional “life-long” learning summer school, with the organised support of experienced practitioners, could be valuable initiatives for ICOs.

 

On any account, the need to incentivise the relations between ICOs and ILOs is strongly felt.  The realisation of an action plan, supported by economic resources, targeted to specific activities (such as funding for meetings or common training programmes), could generate an alignment of organisational strategies of both the ILO and ICO employers. These synergistic activities would very likely strengthen European innovation potential, with a positive impact on the use of RIs and national return on RI investment.

 

The ENRIITC project has 6 focus groups, each of them contributing with input and knowledge to ENRIITC and its deliverables. 

Participants: Ilaria Nardello (SZN), Ed Mitchell (ESRF), Jorge Lopez Reig (CDTI), Wahid Rofagha (PRACE), Katharina Lauer (ELIXIR), Adrianna Ianora (SZN), Vito Vitale (CNR), Claudia Pfander (EMBL), Nigel Wagstaff (EATRIS), Shridhar Jawak (SIOS), Antonio Bonucci (XFEL), Laura MacDonald (ASTP), Andreas Witt (CLARIN ERIC), Gerard Cornet (NOW), Franciska M.G. de Jong (CLARIN ERIC).