#ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 2: Episode 2 – “E-Platforms for Tech/Knowledge Transfer”

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We had a fantastic discussion today in the #ENRIITCyourCoffee session led by Ilaria Nardello, Research Associate at the Zoological Station in Naples. The coffee table topic was “E-Platforms for Technology/Knowledge Transfer between Industry & RIs”.

Ilaria opened the session by presenting an overview of knowledge transfer between research infrastructures (RIs) and industry. She outlined a number of possible priorities for specifically-designed portals and e-platforms and talked about how RIs are powerful instruments of communication. Ilaria then ended the introduction by asking the group whether RIs have special powers and how we might be able to build a better or new instrument. What are the priorities for such an instrument in order to work and allow a flow of information and eventually lead to an impact in society and innovation?

At that point, Nigel Wagstaff (EATRIS Advisor Innovation Support) was introduced to share his experience about being at the interface between industry and academia. Nigel then shared his experiences in the CORBEL project. Through a user-led approach CORBEL developed tools, services and data management required by cutting-edge European research projects: collectively RIs established a sustained foundation of and embed the combined infrastructure capabilities into the scientific workflow of advanced users. The project enabled RIs to support users throughout the execution of a scientific project: from planning and grant applications through to the long-term sustainable management and exploitation of research data. By harmonising user access, unifying data management, creating common ethical and legal services, and offering joint innovation. It was a new model for biological and medical research in Europe.

Nigel talked about his experience setting up the innovation help-desk aspect, and dealing with enquiries from both industry and academia. He also talked about resources that were produced for collaboration (e.g. templates and toolkits). The web portal become populated with content that could be downloaded. What became clear was that the innovation help-desk matchmaking seemed to work best through personal networks.

Antonio Bonucci (European XFEL’s Industrial Liaison Officer) then shared his experiences. He started with a brief overview of European XFEL, an international research facility that generates extremely intense X-ray flashes used by researchers from all over the world. He also talked about the ATTRACT project, which is a pioneering initiative bringing together Europe’s fundamental research and industrial communities to lead the next generation of detection and imaging technologies. Antonio also talked about his involvement with the Big Science Business Forum, a business oriented congress which congregates all the European Research Infrastructures, focused on technology and with the aim to be the main meeting point between Research Infrastructures and industry. He mentioned the “BSBF – 3rd Webinar Meeting” that is happening on 18 February 2021, where attendees can hear more about their collaboration platform where anyone can publish on their website about their technology and can look for a possible partnership. He stressed the importance of bilateral collaboration.

Ilaria then picked up on a crucial word that Antonio mentioned: exchange. There was a short discussion around the importance of ‘exchange’, and the vocabulary we use as a community. She then asked if there was anyone from industry present at the session. Ann Ruddy from Redrose Developments stepped forward. She talked about her involvement in developing cutting-edge technologies to harness the benefits of seaweed and provide value-added products to support local economies and communities. In general terms, Ann talked about IP issues and the balance between not giving up everything but also wanting to make sure there is sufficient backing for a project to realise its potential.

There was then a group discussion on the creation and refinement of a portal of information. Does it make sense for RIs to have a catalogue of information?

Nicolas Pade (Executive Director of the European Research Infrastructure EMBRC-ERIC) made some interesting comments from his experience working as Europe’s research infrastructure for marine biological resources. EMBRC-ERIC provide access to marine resources, as well as cutting-edge services and facilities that allow researchers, from both academia and industry, to study the ocean and develop innovative solutions to tackle societal issues. He suggested the possibility that distributed RIs are in a position to pick up the smaller projects that larger research institutes may not be interested in pursuing (and may be more interested in more novel and larger projects). However, this obviously needs considerable resourcing.

Ilaria then pointed out that ENRIITC is starting the conversation with the full spectrum of RIs to exchange best practice, tools and experiences. It was a nice point to wrap up the session.

Next week’s session is on “Joint E-platforms for Procurement from Research Infrastructures” led by Nikolaj Zangenberg, who is the Centre Manager at the Danish Technological Institute and ILO for CERN and XFEL. Looking forward to more coffee discussions then!

 

Watch the episode below!

#ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 2: Episode 1 “A brave new world – moving to remote access and training”

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Season 2 of the #ENRIITCyourCoffee series got off to a flying start this afternoon with a lively session led by Claudia Alén Amaro (Senior Project Manager for Instruct-ERIC) and Johanna Bischof (Scientific Project Manager for Euro-BioImaging).

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, research infrastructures supported their users’ research by providing them open access to their facilities’ and service providers instruments and providing hands-on training. However with the current restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they have had to be innovative in their ways of working to provide users with remote access and coordinate the many logistical challenges that come along with it.

The event started with Claudia giving an introduction to the Instruct-ERIC services and techniques. She outlined what the pre-pandemic working conditions were like and then how the landscape has changed with the need for remote working. Before the pandemic, Instruct-ERIC offered a plethora of hands-on training. At the start of the pandemic, many training sessions were postponed, but they have now been fully transferred to remote training sessions. Claudia showed the group an example of a remote training setup with four cameras from inside a laboratory in the Astbury Centre (UK). She also talked about the Instruct-ERIC ‘Resource Centre’ that was charted for their community, amongst other initiatives to address the new remote working conditions.

Via a smooth segway of cross-discipline similarities, Johanna Bischof from Euro-BioImaging then took the floor. She started with an overview of Euro-BioImaging services, and noted that training and access to their facilities is a large part of their offering. Similarly to Claudia’s experience at Instruct-ERIC, Euro-BioImaging has been significantly impacted by the pandemic, and the need for a pivot to remote access became clear. Euro-BioImaging now offers full service remote access. Again, there was a need for a sophisticated film setup for the training.

Johanna presented a number of elements that were crucial for Euro-BioImaging’s transition to remote working. Industry partners exchange of experience was critical, as was collecting training resources, sharing experience between industry and acedia, setting up an expert working group and sharing experiences across domains.

Following the presentation there was an interactive session with a series of fascinating questions and comments from attendees. Topics included the changing nature and volume of workloads as a result of the pivot to remote working. There was also discussion about the differences between face-to-face and online training, and the long-term opportunities (and challenges) once travel restrictions are lifted. A question from another attendee sparked a conversation about sample preparation handling and logistics in a remote context. There were also questions on the new technical developments in improving control software for remote operation of instruments by scientific staff and users.

In summary, this first #ENRIITCyourCoffee episode of Season 2 was a insightful, stimulating and engaging session. We then moved over to the LinkedIn group “ENRIITCyourNetwork” to continue the discussion.

The next #ENRIITCyourCoffee session will be on Thursday 4 February 2021, hosted by Ilaria Nardello on the topic of “Portals of opportunities for technology/knowledge transfer between industries and RIs”.

More about Season 2 of #ENRIITCyourCoffee

Season 2 of #ENRIITCyourCoffee is dedicated to our more than 60 Associate members, who will take a seat at the coffee table to present their upcoming activities and/or address current key topics.

The host(s) of the sessions will present their material, and then the floor will be opened up for the participants to share their thoughts, ideas and experiences. The sessions are 30 minutes and aim to give the participants a quick glance into the Associates’ activities and provide a platform for best practice exchange among our Network members. Are you interested in hosting an episode? We’d love to hear from you!

Watch the episode below!

ENRIITC is hiring!

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We are now looking for a Communications, Social Media and Events Support Assistant to join our team!

 

Content & Job Description

This position’s main missions will be the following:

  • to communicate and disseminate ENRIITC results via the project’s social media channels in a clear and effectiveway, taking into consideration the specific needs of the various target groups
  • to support events organisation, both networking within the project and in test industry engagement events
  • to develop strategies to increase ENRIITC follower count whilst adhering to the guidelines provided in the communication plan regarding objectives, goals and KPIs
  • to stay up-to-date on our partner organisations’ activities and share their content with the wider community via ENRIITC social media platforms.

Further to ENRIITC, you may be called upon to support similar work in other European projects.

Expected Profile

  • Bachelor or equivalent diploma (worth at least 180 ECTS) in communication, digital marketing, media
  • At least two years’ experience or on-the-job training in a similar position
  • Excellent written communication and editing skills in English are essential
  • Past experience managing a professional Twitter and LinkedIn account for a company, organization or EU project and a thorough understanding of social media platform functionalities
  • Ability to take initiative and deliver original ideas to make the ENRIITC social media channels and events standout
  • Professionalism, trustworthiness, self-motivation and the ability to work both independently and collaboratively
  • A basic understanding or experience of the European Research Infrastructure landscape is an asset.

To read more about the position and expected profile, and to fill out an application, please visit the ESRF website here. 

ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 1: Episode 5 – “Intellectual property”

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We had a wonderful discussion in the #ENRIITCyourCoffee session today hosted by Ed Mitchell, Head of Business Development Office at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility.

It was the fifth and final episode of 2020 that delved into the topic of intellectual property, with a specific focus on the ILO and ICO view on the drivers and barriers for industry and research infrastructures.

Ed opened the session with a calibration check by asking whether Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are a real issue or “just a load of hot air.” Ed provocatively put forward the argument for the later but then consensus built around the former: IPR is a real issue.

It paved the way for a discussion around the IPR issues which can get in the way of a RI-industry relationship. The issues that were raised included: ownership, clarity of understanding, scientific recognition, milestone payments, innovation, data-access restrictions, greediness, technology transfer and researcher co-operation. Ownership received the largest number of mentions.

Using the Mentimeter platform, Ed then seamlessly steered the conversation to talk about experiences of IPR with regards to the timing and nature of an agreement that is put in place. It was suggested that IPR for industry is not interesting for research infrastructures. Other points that were raised included input resources, 50-50 splits, exclusive and non-exclusive agreements, different fields of use and advanced vs retrospective agreements.

Ed then proposed to the group that “patents are a waste of time, money and admin resources”, and asked participants if they agreed. Most people disagreed with Ed and felt that they were “really useful.” Early stage patents were stated to be relatively inexpensive, but further down the line the costs ramp up (e.g. at national level and beyond). Nigel Wagstaff from EATRIS suggested that a way to address this is to team up with a partner that will take up the costs and give you a return on the investment. This would usually be in the form of an industry partner. This way there is a clear structure for how the costs would be paid over time. Consensus was given that this was a good approach. A distinction was then made (also by Nigel) that for *distributed* RI’s the IPR is held by individual institutes and facilities rather than the RI central co-ordination hub itself.

The discussion then moved on to staff rewards for generating IPR (e.g. a patent or licence). There was agreement that it should be recognised, but various different approaches exist. Some offer income renumeration (e.g. in the form of a cash bonus), percentage of license income (can be very difficult to manage though), inventor keeps their personal IRP, and others stated that there were no rewards where they are based.

The group agreed that it was an interesting and constructive discussion. You can also join the conversation on our LinkedIn group “#ENRIITCyourNetwork” here: www.linkedin.com/groups/8992845

If you’re interested to host a session, please contact enriitc@ess.eu.

The ENRIITC team wishes you all the best for the holidays and a happy and fruitful 2021!

 

The Global Plant Phenotyping Survey Needs You

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The plant phenotyping initiatives IPPN and EMPHASIS have recently launched the Global Plant Phenotyping Survey 2021, which addresses participants from all geographic regions and in all professional disciplines in any way related to plant phenotyping. The survey is open until 9 February 2021.

For the past six years, IPPN and EMPHASIS IPPN and EMPHASIS have carried out their bi-annual Plant Phenotyping Surveys covering basic and advanced questions related to plant phenotyping for the purpose of assessing the status of global plant phenotyping and emerging fields, to identify potential gaps and understand the demands of the community. Participating in these surveys empowers everyone who contributes to add to the big picture of how plant phenotyping is applied and viewed.

Results will be made available online, and in the past, survey results have been extensively used for analyzing the global status of plant phenotyping (e.g. in this review by Yang et.al.).

ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 1: Episode 4 “RIs and Logistic – what are the key challenges?”

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We had a fantastic discussion in the #ENRIITCyourCoffee session today hosted by Ute Gunsenheimer, who is Head of External Relations and EU Projects at ESS and is the project coordinator for ENRIITC.

After introductions using the Menti platform, Ute opened in a fun and engaging manner by asking attendees “What is your favourite road trip movie?”. Needless to say, the amusing responses came flooding in with Little Miss Sunshine and Thelma and Louise receiving the most votes. Ute then skilfully steered the conversation back to the logistics: “What comes to your mind when you think about logistics?” A discussion evolved with mentions of paperwork, VAT, planning, supply chain, movement and transportation, amongst others. Anton Ussi, Operations & Finance Director at EATRIS, mentioned that research infrastructures C&S teams tend not to be too heavily involved in logistics as it is most commonly the institutes themselves that are responsible for their own logistics.

We then heard from Ute about the ESS “Brightness” project. On the supply side: ESS is in the peak of the Construction Phase. Equipment from IKP Partners and suppliers is arriving to the site daily from all over Europe. Deliveries include large-sized, unique items (e.g. the Target Wheel Vessel) and items in high quantities (e.g. 6 lorries of port beam blocks). Ute then flagged that there is currently no forum in Europe where one can learn from others to develop common strategies about dealing with suppliers, authorities and logistics companies.

On the user side: COVID-19 has had a significant impact on access to user facilities. For instance, there are increasing requests for remote access modes (including from abroad) that require mailing-in of samples. Similarly to the supply-side, Ute noted that there is no forum in Europe for exchanging best practices when it comes to the user side.

On the question of whether logistics play a role in the attendees wider daily professional routines, there was a mixture of yes and no responses. Those who answered yes to having logistics as a role in their daily professional routines shared with the group the logistic aspects in detail. There was mention of sending material parts to partners, claim management of broken components, civil construction related intra-logistics and organising physical events (e.g. physical roundtable discussions, online participation). A number of attendees also shared that, as part of their work, they are involved in co-ordinating beamtime samples for experiments and measures, coordinating the transportation issues and timing with the overall construction deadlines and document preparation for customs issues.

An organic conversation then followed about where in the supply chain the responsibility changes. The discussion indicated that this is down to what is specified in the legal contract from the start. The arrangement changes depending on how the project is structured.

Ute then wrapped up the session by asking what topics attendees would be interested to learn more about. Lots of ideas emerged. Responses included learning about other peoples successes and failures, how to keep the information on the delivery schedule up to date, best practice on samples, use of visualisation tools, customs processes, smooth industry access (what are the learnings across facilities?), built up intra-campus logistics and spare parts handling and customs processes.

The group agreed that it was a very lively, helpful and useful discussion. There was an appetite for a forum where best practice could be exchanged. If you missed the session and want to add your thoughts (or indeed favourite road trip movie) to the discussion, then head over to our LinkedIn group “#ENRIITCyourNetwork” to engage in the discussion.

ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 1: Episode 3 – “How should RIs be organized internally to promote an innovation mentality?”

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We had a fantastic discussion in the #ENRIITCyourCoffee session today hosted by Nikolaj Zangenberg, who is the Centre Manager at DTI, the Industrial Liaison Officer for CERN and XFEL, and the Purchasing Advisor for ESRF. He is also leading ENRIITC WP3 “Development and Refining of Strategies for Innovation, Training and Outreach“.

Nikolaj started the session by asking about which skills and traits ILO or ICO need to have to unlock the innovation potential of a RI. The conversation used the survey results from a similar question at the ENRIITC Network Meeting in October. Excellent communication skills and an extensive network of key contacts were flagged at the top two traits. There was consensus that not ‘one size fits all’ when it comes to RIs and traits for ILOs and ICOs. A discussion then touched upon the scope of RIs (i.e. what is being referred to can differ), and the definition of innovation (which can also mean many things).

John Picard from EMSO ERIC commented that perhaps one common trait across all ICO/ILO needs is ‘knowing what the industry needs’. Do you agree? Head over to our LinkedIn group “#ENRIITCyourNetwork” to engage in the discussion.

Nikolaj then presented some findings from the ENRIITC Network Meeting data about whether RI prioritise ICOs. Are they full-time, part-time? In summary, the discussion indicated that there seems to be considerable variation between RIs regarding their resource allocation to ICOs.

General agreement was given to the idea of developing a framework, scheme or model for how the ICO needs to operate, and showcase the success stories that follow. This way, expenditure on an industry advisory committee and ICO can be justified.

The discussion illustrated the need for a well structured dialogue between research and industry. It was suggested that you need many officers with different qualities, perhaps a central office with an ICO with different traits. Another idea was to have a hub and spoke structure that has a central co-ordination point. Something that pools across the infrastructures where we can become more visible… to share resources for common issues – communications, procurement, outreach, logistics, technical, innovation, and more.

Communication is key for a common language dialogue, and there is significant work to be done to communicate the value of the infrastructures.

Tune in next week (Tuesday 8th December at 11:00 CET) for a 30 minute coffee discussion led by Ute Gunsenheimer – Head of External Relations and EU Projects at ESS and is the project coordinator for ENRIITC.

ENRIITCyourCoffee Season 1: Episode 2 -“How ILOs and ICOs can collaborate: the ICO perspective”

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We had a fantastic discussion in the #ENRIITCyourCoffee session today hosted by Chris Tieken, Business Development Manager at EATRIS.

Chris expertly navigated a conversation that covered questions like “What does a RI offer to industry?” and “How do you promote/reach out to industry?” There was also an exchange about whether academia and industry have different incentives. Is one about publications and the other about finances?

We also heard an explanation of what “Beamtime” is (do you know? Join our LinkedIn group “#ENRIITCyourNetwork” here to find out more), and the idea that academia and industry has the potential to be a greatest love story ever written.

Tune in next week (Tuesday 1st December at 11:00 CET) for a 30 minute coffee discussion with Nikolaj Zangenberg – Centre Manager at DTI, the Industrial Liaison Officer for CERN and XFEL, and the Purchasing Advisor for ESRF.

 

ENRIITCyourCoffee session on the ILO perspective

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Our new #ENRIITCyourCoffee mini-webinar series has launched with an engaging session about how ICOs and ILOs can collaborate.

Coordinator of the Network of Industry Liaison Officers in the Netherlands – Gerard Cornet – expertly hosted the session. Gerard, who is part of the ENRIITC consortium, gave an interactive presentation where 26 members of the session contributed to the discussion via the menti.com platform and open questions on the zoom video call. 

There was a discussion about the tasks of an ILO, the main competences of ILOs to be able to properly engage with RIs and ICOs, the differences between social sciences ILO’s and physical science ILO’s and common ground between ILOs and ICOs.

Our next session will be on Tuesday 24th November at 11:00 CET on Zoom. It will be on the topic of “How ICOs and ILOs can collaborate: the ICO perspective”.

Find out more and register here: https://enriitc.eu/theevents/

#ENRIITCyourCoffee series launches TODAY!

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Our new mini-webinar series called #ENRIITCyourCoffee launches today! Episode one: “How ICOs and ILOs can collaborate: the ILO perspective” will take place today, 17 November at 11:00 – 11:20 CET, and will be led by Gerard Cornet, Coordinator of the Network of Industry Liaison Officers in the Netherlands.

Didn’t manage to register in time? Don’t fret! You can still join us for the discussion by following the ZOOM link provided below.

 

https://ess-eu.zoom.us/j/63326374405?pwd=WithRFZOcTI1eGUyWlNBNVdQejdMZz09

Meeting ID: 633 2637 4405

Passcode: 553411

 

We look forward to seeing you there for a fruitful networking experience!