Welcome to the second episode of #ENRIITCyourCoffee from our 4^th season! This time we learned more about the “Innovation and Industry Services Central Support Hub”, the core activity aimed to provide advice and support to all manner of Research Infrastructures (RIs) in their engagement with industry. This concept in the making was introduced to us by regulars of our coffee breaks: Nikolaj Zangenberg, Centre Manager at Danish Technological Institute (DTI) and ILO for European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and XFEL, together with Marco Galeotti, Head of Communications at EMSO ERIC.

Nikolaj and Marco started this interactive episode off with a Mentimeter poll on the geographical location of the participants that joined us on this Thursday afternoon which revealed a rather balanced distribution across Europe.

Next up was Marco who gave us an insight to the ENRIITC work package 3 deliverable, which is a research infrastructure innovation preparedness roadmap in its core. Read more about WP3 here.

The main aim of the roadmap is to provide RIs with a comprehensive, common system and support framework for proactively pursuing successful innovation relationships with industry across Europe.

From 05:19 in the video below, you can see Marco explain the 5 action items, which are the main components of the roadmap:

1. Establish a pan-European Innovation and Industry Services Support Central Hub
2. Adopt a set of core competencies for ICOs and ILOs
3. Each Ri should review and implement specific key actions
4. Explore building a strategic alliance relationship between the “Innovation and industry Services Support Central Hub” and relevant entities.
5. Develop a European Knowledge Exchange Strategy between RIs and Industry.

Next up, Nikolaj pulled out another handy Mentimeter poll to assess the audience’s sentiment on the Hub in statements such as “The hub should be a meeting point for ICOs and ILOs” and “The Hub should offer training courses for ILOs and ICOs.” See all 7 statements and the audience’s responses in the video starting at 12:15.

Nikolaj seamlessly introduced the discussion portion of our coffee break with a Mentimeter open-ended question: “Which resources would you like to have available in a common hub?” The comments sparked a discussion on the necessity of networking and having a permanent staff amongst other nuggets of wisdom. Watch the comments flow in from 14:10 in the recording below.

The first episode of our fourth season welcomed us back to the office with Jimmy Andersen from European Spallation Source (ESS) on the topic of innovation ecosystems on the example of ESS.

Jimmy shared with us his pandemic activity, which was a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) course on corporate innovative ecosystems. This episode took the approach of reviewing definitions and views on what exactly is innovation on the example of the ESS Innovation Ecosystem, that is currently being developed.  Jimmy referred us to a great definition of such an abstract term as innovation is already given by MIT scholars here in this video. Jimmy emphasises that innovation is the process of taking ideas from inception to impact and overall unpacks the abstract nature of innovation.

A key takeaway is that technology is the enabler, not the innovation itself.

Another key point is that a successful and sustainable innovation ecosystem consists of its anchoring point and i-loops. I-loops stand for innovation loops of experimentation and evaluation, which often form out of smaller innovation loops. Hear Jimmy elaborate it with a drawing at 08:20 in the video. Additionally, innovation can be triggered both by a solution and a problem meaning, a problem will make one think outside of the box and a solution can trigger a tech transfer like with the non-invasive beam monitoring system in ESS.

The five stakeholder model of MIT is the reference for the foundation of the ESS innovation ecosystem:

• Corporate
• Entrepreneurs
• Academia
• Risk capital
• Government

Jimmy compares the ESS model with the MIT model and adds that ESS could not facilitate all stakeholders so the innovation ecosystem at ESS will be an open and collaborative one.

Lastly, Jimmy outlines the innovation opportunity space at ESS by approaching it from a problem and solution novelty matrix, which can be best seen at 14:25 in the video. Make sure you check it out to see if your novel problem needs a simple solution and what are the necessary steps to innovation.

The discussion starts at 17:52 and covers questions on intellectual property in innovation ecosystems and the user’s place in the stakeholders lineup.

EMBL and the University of Tartu have signed a memorandum of understanding to foster scientific collaboration in the life sciences.

Since June 2019, Estonia has been a prospect member state of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has now been signed between EMBL and the University of Tartu, a leading centre of research and training. The MoU aims to strengthen cooperation between EMBL and the life science research community in Estonia, building on the very successful links in the context of the prospect membership.

This MoU also formalises previous exchanges and research collaborations between the two institutions. In February 2021, EMBL and the Estonian Research Council organised a joint workshop in which many Estonian researchers were actively involved, including participants and speakers from the University of Tartu. On this occasion, EMBL Director General Edith Heard presented the next EMBL Programme, Molecules to Ecosystems, which has the aim of understanding life in its natural context. EMBL’s scientific plans for the next five years (2022–2026) is the first pan-European molecular biology programme for environmental and human health and has collaboration across disciplines and sectors at its core.

During the workshop in February, EMBL Deputy Director General Ewan Birney highlighted the work of EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in human genetics and personalised medicine. Other talks by EMBL Heads of Faculty touched upon bioinformatics training opportunities and some of the themes in the new EMBL Programme. Possibilities for joint collaboration were also discussed, particularly on several of the programme’s new transversal themes, such as Human Ecosystems, Planetary Biology, Microbial Ecosystems, and Data Science.

Read more here.

Read more here.

© CERN | Priyanka Dasgupta

Having good safety measures at schools is very important as children start going back to the classroom. But which measures are most effective at optimising health and safety conditions and preventing the spread of COVID-19 in school settings?

In a new study, researchers from various institutes including the Institute of Global Health (IGH) at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and CERN used the CARA tool to model the concentration profiles of potential airborne viruses in a classroom of 160 m³ containing one infectious individual. A comprehensive analysis was conducted in order to find optimal solutions in different scenarios. It found, for instance, that natural ventilation – while a necessary measure – is more effective in winter than in summer.

CARA was initially used at CERN to inform space-management decisions on the CERN sites. “CARA is an easy-to-use tool, which CERN has made openly available. The original idea of CARA came from wanting to investigate the risks of working in shared spaces. Over time, the tool was further optimised thanks to the expertise of different departments at CERN and with the help of worldwide experts in infectious diseases,” says Andre Henriques, head developer of CARA from the Occupational Health and Safety and Environmental Protection (HSE) unit at CERN.

CERN’s know-how was key in developing the physical model of CARA, but with institutes like IGH bringing their extensive expertise in epidemiology and public health to the table, it is possible to exploit the potential of the tool for wider applications.

“With CERN’s technological expertise and our experience in health studies, the results from the study will be highly useful in deciding on targeted technical solutions that can help balance safety with a better school going experience,” says Jennifer Villers, an MSc student at UNIGE and the main author of the study.

Read more here.