An intense and challenging discussion took place during the ENRIITC Focus Group #3, on Thursday 6^th May 2021.  The meeting mostly focused on the post-covid effects on brokerage events linking RI’s and Industries and, the participants (who were mainly composed of RI communication officers), tried to answer to the following:

• How to promote brokerage events?
• How to follow up on them?
• How to promote policy dialogue from brokerage events?

BROKERAGE EVENTS BETWEEN RI’s AND INDUSTRY

Hybrid events combining physical presence with virtual exhibitions, may be one way to move forward though the price for virtual exhibitions is a challenge.

During the discussion, the importance of what industry gets out of a meeting and to what network they would gain access by, became evident. Especially for SME’s, it can be a challenge to participate in larger events,due to their lack of time and thus it may be difficult to attract them. That’s why, to involve facilitators like industry associations, Chambers of Commerce and for example Enterprise Europe (though adding a layer of go-betweens takes additional time), it could be beneficial in order to better engage SME’s.

National Contact Points (NCPs) might also be helpful: they often possess a lot of useful information which can assist the RI outreach efforts. However, they need to be aware not only about the actual RI’s need,  but also concerning how they can be relevant in terms of offers for the industry. So, why not considering to co-organize “Access to SMEs” events with NCPs?

Another issue which should be promoted towards the policy levels, it is funds’ allocation for RI’s to properly support an effective and efficient communication with industry: this is a considerable barrier that strongly impact SMEs, as it requires a lot of effort to be done in an effective and targeted manner (It should not be forgotten that directly and/or indirectly there is a policy push towards the RIs for strengthening the bonds with the SME’s).

Finally, the importance of efficient follow-up to brokerage events was highlighted.

DISCUSSION OF STRATEGIES

The Focus Group discussed two draft strategies, which are both deliverables from the ENRIITC project:

1. Strategy to exploit the innovation potential of RIs
2. Strategy for innovation and industry-RI cooperation

The participants pointed out the difficulties of establishing single strategies covering all RI’s, as they are very different not only in terms of technology domains (of which some are more interesting for industry than others), but also concerning their “being distributed or not”. Furthermore, there is also a huge difference between the RIs, as in how mature they are in their development of outreach strategies, as well as in what mandate they have to pursue it.

The role of RIs as counsellors in regulatory matters of relevance for industry, could be an important topic for the strategy developments.

Bridging the gap between Science/RIs and commercialization in companies benefiting society, requires funding and innovation related spending. Translation of value from RIs to industry does not happen by itself , but it definitely must be part of strategies. For example, RIs could assist in identifying the innovation gaps to be filled by industry.

After two hours of lively discussion and even if it is not required by the project,  the FG #3 decided to go on with an additional meeting, as the participants found that significant benefits were to be gained from a continuous exchange of experiences, knowledge and ideas about the communication between RI’s and industries.

 

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

Participants: Anne Charlotte Joubert (ESS), Manfredi Gabriele (SCK CEN), Iulianna van der Lek (CLARIN), Nikolaj Zangenberg (DTI), Marco Galeotti (EMSO), Francesca Morselli (DARIAH), Claudia Pfander (EMBL), Nigel Wagstaff (EATRIS), Rosa María Rodríguez (IFIC), Lisa Vincenz-Donnelly (JÜLICH) and Peter Frank (DTI).

© ILL

An international team, including ILL scientists, have used neutron scattering to study the behaviour of dense supercritical methane. Their results could help to better model the interiors of methane-rich outer planets of our solar system.

“Methane is one of the most abundant molecules in the Universe and there’s no doubt it is a major component in our solar system, especially on planets further out from the Sun than Mars,” explains Umbertoluca Ranieri, former ILL PhD student and now a postdoctoral researcher at Sapienza University in Rome.

“With data at hand coming from the most recent space missions, scientists are modelling the interiors of those planetary bodies, and our study provides new clues for that modelling.”

Read more here

 

Welcome to the recap of another captivating Thursday coffee break. We were joined by Sy Holsinger from European Open Science Cloud Digital Innovation Hub (EOSC DIH). Sy started the meeting with a short introduction on EOSC DIH, which sprung out of EOSC-Hub and is an international and multi-partner cooperation that supports companies in easily accessing the digital technologies and services offered by the EOSC DIH. Sy summarises the complex entity of the Digital Innovation Hub as a centre that helps to test before you invest – allow people to test their products, develop new products, move them through maturity life cycles, and then potentially into the market.

“But we always say if a credit card can solve your problem, we’re probably not for you.”

In the EOSC DIH the true value is in the various digital solutions (computing storage, data management, partners for machine learning and artificial intelligence) and the expertise that comes with it.

Another key component here is visibility. Sy emphasised how this is a very underrated value for small companies. By partnering with international organisations it raises the profile of what small companies would otherwise get in their local market in a multiplier effect. This is especially important when a company is starting off and every euro in the budget is dedicated to the product development. Marketing is often not the priority. With EOSC DIH the companies are on websites, pamphlets and invited to conferences, which is all invaluable for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In a nutshell EOSC DIH aims to be a community and a facilitator. Their team is branched in a vast number of different sectors, across a number of different industries. The success stories and other pilots can be seen on EOSC DIH page here.

EOSC Future is going to be the next project and will continue the evolution of the Digital Innovation Hub.

Very promptly Marco Galeotti from EMSO ERIC asked further about EOSC Future. Sy expanded that EOSC-Hub was in a way the first implementation project like setting up the internal core services, a monitoring, accounting etc. It also started to involve some of the thematic services and competence centres and start to build on it. EOSC Future on the other hand has many partners and is replicating and vastly expanding what EOSC-Hub was across the landscape. This 30 month project will add complexity, but there was only excitement in Sy’s voice.

Next question came from Claudia Alen Amaro from Instruct ERIC and she asked how Sy handles that perhaps EOSC is misleading: “The acronym mentions cloud, but it’s not really the cloud, and it’s open to more than Europeans, plus there is more than science. None of the letters are really what it says in the name.” With a relatable chuckle from the rest of our coffee drinkers, Sy explains that the project started out as the name refers, focusing on cloud computing but quickly grew out of it. “In fact, our six business pilots when we started the project, they were all using infrastructure services, because in 2018, that’s what it meant. But then it grew over time and we started adding in community specifics and data etc. So the cloud became itself nebulous. I think there are about 200 services now available.” And how does one make sense in that? Sy put it well:

“Unless you know what you’re looking for, you are going to have to talk to a human.” Sy encourages anyone with a deeper interest, to reach out and contact him or his team.

Sy gave us a more elaborate and thorough answer and further expanded on the impressive aim and scope of EOSC Future and the secret sauce they have to choose projects. That and many more details will be for our readers to explore from the recording below.

Experience this first hand and join us next Thursday at our usual time of 15.00 CEST.

© ESO

Part of the world-wide effort to scan and identify near-Earth objects, the European Space Agency’s Test-Bed Telescope 2 (TBT2), a technology demonstrator hosted at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile, has now started operating. Working alongside its northern-hemisphere partner telescope, TBT2 will keep a close eye on the sky for asteroids that could pose a risk to Earth, testing hardware and software for a future telescope network.

“To be able to calculate the risk posed by potentially hazardous objects in the Solar System, we first need a census of these objects. The TBT project is a step in that direction,” says Ivo Saviane, the site manager for ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.

The project, which is a collaboration between the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the European Space Agency (ESA), “is a test-bed to demonstrate the capabilities needed to detect and follow-up near-Earth objects with the same telescope system,” says ESA’s Head of the Optical Technologies Section Clemens Heese, who is leading this project.

Read more here

 

©  LifeWatch ERIC