The mission of INNO4COV-19 is to create a lab-to-fab platform and a collaboration resource where companies and reference laboratories will find the tools for developing and implementing innovative technologies - from idea assessment to market exploitation. The Inno4cov-19 lab-to-fab platform is composed of 4 subplatforms (SP) in 4 different technological areas. Each SP include the offer of a vast range of services from technical to regulatory and business development support, and was build up using the same backbone process to promote the harmonization of services among the different areas, so that we deliver a unique catalogue of services.
INNO4COVID-19 was also committed to support the route to market of 30 new products for combatting COVID-19. This timely introduction of solutions to solve some of the challenges we were facing during the worst times of the pandemic was a major focus of our consortia. Having this in mind, during the first year of the project the consortium was engaged in launching and managing the Open Call. From these activities we have gathered some best practices and we can deliver an “Open Call Tool Kit” as guidelines for cascade funding. The third party projects have become the benchmark of INNO4COV-19, playing a major role in further developing the lab-to-fab platform in order to make sure that all the capacity building in each technology SP is aligned with the real needs and expectations of potential users. Besides the testing of the lab-to-fab platform, the second year of the project was also dedicated to the monitoring and support (especially regarding regulatory and business issues) of the third party projects. The continuous and direct support given to the third party projects is done through a central figure - the Project Delivery Manager (PDM), following a “reply-to-a-need” model. The PDM followed the development of the third parties’ technologies development during the whole duration of the Inno4cov-19 project, which sometimes went beyond the third party projects.
Finally, once the services were defined and all the goals of the project were being reached-out, the consortia started to focus on the sustainability plan and performed crucial activities to optimize the project impact and sustainability beyond its timeframe.
