Final Report Summary - MARE (Mediterranean Activities for Research and Innovation in the Energy sector)
Executive Summary:
Research & Innovation cooperation between the EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries is a critical factor for the development of a ‘Common Knowledge and Innovation Space’, in order to jointly tackle important global challenges. The ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ Societal Challenge is not only an EU’s critical priority towards H2020 for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system but is also essential for MPCs due to energy challenges they face especially because of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change. Current technology innovations and trends on the technology pillars of Renewable Energy (RE) Microgrids, RE Desalination and Energy Efficient (EE) interventions in buildings are crucial for tackling the above challenges. MARE project has brought together actors from the whole value chain of innovation (RTOs, Intermediaries, Business Parks, Clusters and SMEs) in order to foster cooperation for bridging the gap between research and innovation in the EUROMED area, towards the three technology pillars. MARE performed a set of activities which aimed to assist the market uptake of research results, improve competencies and mutual learning of organisations from both areas and finally identify fields on potential STI Cooperation between Member States and MPC counties under the H2020 and bi-regional programmes. Emphasis was given to enhancing the Common Knowledge and Innovation Space between EU and MPC and to supporting partnerships between Member States and MPC countries through market uptake of research results for global competitiveness and reach of new markets.
MARE main outcomes are:
* A market & technology opportunities report for the Euromed area with a focus on MARE 3 technological pillars
* A catalogue of 51 technologies, able to address the needs identified
* Exploitation plans for 9 promising technology cases with high commercialization potential
* An extensive report presenting the meta-region’s Research to Innovation System and identifying commonalities and challenges among participating countries
* A roadmap consolidating recommendations and methodologies for Research to Innovation in a modular toolbox for the Euromed area
* 8 twinning activities between EU and MPC organizations
* 5 study visits to innovative projects with a high replication potential in the region
* 76 company missions in order to demonstrate technologies and exploitation ideas and actively seek for creation of collaboration agreements
* Creation of a Euromed Energy Network of actors (119 actors)
* 7 training seminars that offered technical, commercial, financial and legal skills to beneficiaries on exploitation of research results (398 participants)
* 7 match-making events that covered the whole value chain from research ideas to innovation (320 participants)
* 1 MOU signed among project partners that included both EU and MPC organizations to extent their cooperation beyond MARE in the fields of their interest and in particular: innovation, technology transfer and smart specialization.
* 2 international workshops on research to innovation in the energy sector (142 participants)
* A catalogue of 47 available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project
* Clustering activities with other INCO projects leading to joint policy recommendations to the EU
Project Context and Objectives:
Research & Innovation cooperation between the EU and MPC areas is a critical factor for the development of a ‘Common Knowledge and Innovation Space’, in order to jointly tackle important global challenges. The ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ Societal Challenge is not only an EU’s critical priority towards H2020 for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system but is also essential for MPC countries due to energy challenges they face especially because of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change. Current technology innovations and trends on the technology pillars of RES Microgrids, RES Desalination and Energy Efficiency in Buildings are crucial for tackling the above challenges.
In order to enhance EU MPC’s cooperation on Research and Innovation, MARE project targeted 3 key objectives:
A. to support European competitiveness through strategic partnerships with third countries in selected fields of science and by engaging the best third countries scientists to work in and with Europe;
B. to facilitate contacts with partners in third countries with the aim of providing better access to research carried out elsewhere in the world;
C. to address specific problems that third countries face or that have a global character, on the basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit.
In the narrative below MARE activities implemented to achieve the 3 objectives are briefly described. Activities are listed under the objective they primarily address.
Objective A:
* Establish Network of Actors in the EUROMED Area:
MARE established and mobilised a network of actors in the EUROMED area for mutual learning and exchange of experience. The network was also used for spreading the outcomes of the projects and sensitize a wider audience. Furthermore, it was used throughout the project in order to disseminate project events and increase interest and participation from relevant stakeholders. Already 119 actors from all over the Mediterranean basin are members of the network. MARE partners have elaborated a sustainability plan for the network to remain active after the end of the project.
* Promote market uptake of energy innovation through focus on applied innovation: MARE has promoted market uptake of research results relevant to the topic addressed by the project in order not only to foster public-private partnership but to boost the transnational market of clean energy technologies. MARE consortium performed a detailed analysis of both market and technology opportunities in EUROMED area regarding the energy pillars addressed by the project, while it spotted suitable technologies and applications related to the opportunities identified. 51 promising technologies have been identified. Adding to the above, a solid matching procedure enabled technologies and needs to be matched. Innovative technologies were ranked according to their commercialization potential and an exploitation plan and market penetration strategy was elaborated for the 9 most promising technologies.
In parallel, MARE consortium worked on identifying innovation strengths (in terms of procedures, policies, financial tools, structures, etc.) and appropriate technology transfer models and action plans that will enable regional “cutting edge” technologies to find their way to the local or global market. The results have been published in two detailed reports, namely “R2I Systems Analysis” and “EUROMED TT Model”.
Finally, MARE brought together actors of the whole innovation value chain of the region (companies, technology centers, research and development institutes, research laboratories, universities, private companies, financing and funding agencies, etc.) through 8 match-making events around the Mediterranean and 76 targeted company missions, in order to “boost” regional market uptake of research results.
* Promote twinning between European and MPC organisations: This provided a new dimension to cooperation. MARE supported pilot initiatives for the twinning of MPC and European organisations, with the objective that these institutional partnerships will also lead to the identification of future joint initiatives. 8 twinning projects have been accomplished between 9 organizations in the EUROMED area. The success of this twinning activity is depicted in the MOU that these organizations have entered into, in order to further their collaboration beyond MARE.
* Encourage cooperation on framework conditions: MARE promoted a common understanding on key framework conditions for innovation for example related to intellectual property management, essential for the deployment of products and services as a result of cooperation. After an analysis of those aspects of framework conditions most relevant for cooperation, which require policy intervention, MARE, proposed appropriate initiatives. An analysis of market pull, technology push and policy framework as well as a SWOT analysis of the MARE technological pillars in the EUROMED area has been performed. Furthermore, an analysis of the meta-region’s research to innovation system has been prepared.
* Increase capacities of entrepreneurs, technology transfer professionals, Start Ups, organisations etc by providing innovation support services through training seminars: MARE provided high quality training by professionals to local , technology transfer professionals, Start Ups and other organisations on business, innovation and technology commercialisation topics in order improve competencies on local actors and organisations. 7 training seminars were organized by project partners in the participating countries, namely Greece, France, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, Morocco and Lebanon.
Objective B:
* Promote mutual learning by promoting exchange of best practices by study visits: MARE promoted mutual learning through study visits in best practices identified both in MPC and EU countries. 5 study visits at innovative RE and EE projects in Spain, Greece, Jordan, Morocco and France were implemented.
* Provide dissemination activities in order to diffuse the rationale and inform the research community and other target segments and integrate results to European and MPC policy: MARE implemented concrete activities for diffusing project results and rational into a wide community both in the EU and MPC countries. A project dissemination strategy was developed from the very start of the project and was updated and implemented throughout the project. Project website and LinkedIn account were set up. Project dissemination package was produced.
* Develop synergies with other INCO and BILAT Projects or initiatives, active in the area: MARE developed concrete synergies with other INCO, BILAT and other initiatives active in the area, in order to promote exchange of experience and target a wider audience through their mutual activities A direct result of the aforementioned clustering activity was the contribution to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation and the 2016-2016 H2020 Work Programme in particular. Furthermore, MARE developed a close collaboration with the other six R2Is in the Mediterranean and has signed an MOU with two of them. This collaboration has led to the successful organization of the Morocco “Innovation Week” that included workshops, training, roundtables and a brokerage event and the “Euro-Med innovation in sustainable energy” international conference held in February 2106 in Marseille.
Objective C:
* Jointly tackle the “Secure, clean and efficient energy” societal challenge: MARE’s consortium, jointly tackled the Global Societal Challenge of “Secure, clean and efficient energy” which is of high interest for both the EU and the MPC area through the facilitation of the technology transfer process with a special focus on technologies related to EE in buildings, RE desalination and RE microgrids.
* Encourage partnerships and activities for the generation of New knowledge and technologies on research for energy technologies: MARE encouraged cross border and international partnerships on research for mutual learning and providing better access to research carried out elsewhere. This process was facilitated through study visits and twinning activities as mentioned above. Furthermore, in order to enhance the cooperation between EU and MPC organizations, efforts were done to maximize the exchange of information for the identification of future needs, technology opportunities and priority setting for the near future. Therefore a comprehensive review was made of the available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project, namely EE in buildings, RE Water Desalination and RE Microgrids in the EUROMED area.
* Facilitate a Transnational and Linear Research to Innovation roadmap: MARE analysed all Research to Innovation Systems of the countries involved in order to identify obstacles and common points for jointly developing a “R2I and Technology Transfer” model, fully customised to the region. Synergies with existing initiatives were established in order to identify common structural weaknesses in the research and innovation chain. MARE contributed to the formulation of the “Strategy paper on EU-MED cooperation in Research and Innovation”, which was discussed at the CSA-R2I Clustering Meeting in Casablanca in March 2015.
Project Results:
The main S&T results of MARE project are analysed per Task in the following paragraphs.
Work Package 1
Task 1.1 Market dynamics and technological capacity pillars
Under this Task, an analysis of the market pull and technology push of MARE technological pillars, namely EE in buildings, RES desalination and RES microgrids, in the EUROMED area with a special focus on the 7 participating countries (Greece, Jordan, Morocco, France, Spain, Egypt and Lebanon) was performed. An analysis of the policy framework as well as a SWOT analysis for each one of the technology pillars was also performed. The aim was to enhance the standing ground of the project by providing a detailed analysis of both market and technology opportunities in EUROMED area regarding the energy pillars addressed by the project.
The report concluded with a set of policy recommendations and a conclusions-discussion section. The analysis has highlighted that all countries of the Mediterranean can benefit from closer ties and collaboration in the energy sector, where many complementarities and synergies exist. However, in order to maximize the benefits of any type of collaboration, this should not take place in an ad hoc basis. A concrete roadmap with explicit identification of strategies, steps and monitoring mechanism is required in order, not only to facilitate greater interregional collaboration, but also for creating a common vision and understanding between countries. This report was developed by Task leader (KiNNO), while it is available for download from the project website.
In addition to the regional report, 7 country reports were developed by national partners CRES (Greece), UAE (Morocco), RSS-NERC (Jordan), CCIAT (Lebanon), Capenergies (France), CCSev (Spain) and NRC (Egypt). These national reports provided a detailed analysis for each participating country and the background information for the regional report, while they were included as Annexes to the main report.
Task 1.2 Identification of suitable technologies, knowledge and methodologies tackling opportunities identified
The aim of this Task was to spot innovative technologies, applications, knowledge or methodologies related to the opportunities identified through Task 1.1. In line with Task requirements, project partners in Greece, France, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt worked in their countries to map and identify these technologies through their networks and their own knowledge. Target groups covered a wide range of technology developers including public and private research and technology centers, universities, spin-offs, start-ups and SMEs. However, the target group did not include big and/or international companies that as technology donors/developers have their own extensive networks and market penetration strategies and would not be particularly interested in services offered by MARE project.
In order to collect the technologies, Task leader EHBP with the assistance of KiNNO developed a “Technology Based Opportunity-TBO” form that aimed at collecting all necessary information from technology donors, in order to evaluate their technologies under Task 1.3 and facilitate contact with technology receivers. Simultaneously, this form was concise not requiring too much time and effort from technology donors to fill in.
Then each project partner initially compiled a list of potential technology donors based on his knowledge and networks. Past or on-going EU research projects were also reviewed in search of innovative technologies coming from the countries of interest. Partners followed a “door to door” approach in contacting potential technology donors both via email and phone calls. This Task proved to be effort intensive and time-consuming, since partners needed to contact organizations and companies especially form the private sector several times, in order to have them fill in the TBO form in a proper way. In addition, some technology donors appeared to be hesitant in submitting their technology and partners spent much time in discussing with them MARE project services and potential benefits for them.
EHBP as Task leader collected and reviewed all TBOs from project partners. TBOs that provided an inadequate technology description or included a technology that was irrelevant to MARE pillars were rejected. Finally, 51 innovative technologies were selected and their description was included in a catalogue (D1.2: Catalogue of technologies, able to address the needs identified). It is noted that technologies collected from the MPC countries came mostly from public research centers and universities, since the private sector in these countries mostly imports technologies from EU or other developed countries so that innovation is rarely found in the private sector, especially in the 3 technological pillars of MARE.
Task 1.3 Matching exercise to identify promising technology cases from each pillar
Under this Task the 51 technologies, which had been selected through Task 1.2 were ranked via a concrete methodology in order to identify the ones that presented the most promising business opportunities. Technology cases were evaluated against 16 criteria related amongst others to their innovative nature, transnational reach, maturity status and feasibility character. The most promising technologies were selected for developing an exploitation plan and market strategy and present them through targeted company missions.
More specifically, the following steps were followed:
a) CRES, KiNNO and EHBP developed a set of 16 criteria that were related to the commercialization potential of the technologies: novelty, safety/health factor, ease of manufacturing, durability, salability/trend of demand, potential competition, administrative burden, long life cycle/obsolescence, satisfying existing need, market size, development, incompatibility, market dependence, difficulty of distribution, difficulty of market penetration/crowded-wide open field, patent coverage.
b) Hinkel’s methodology was then used for specifying the criteria weights, which is a new, simple, and straightforward weighting system with a coherent methodological basis. The proposed method is based on the principle that when comparing one criterion to another, the decision maker is reluctant to change the most important criterion from the desirable state to the undesirable one.
c) MARE partners (9) were divided into three evaluation teams, with at least one RTO and one business support organization in each team. In this way each technology was assessed by different aspects, since research partners are specialized in different fields and have different perspectives than business oriented ones. Each team was given one third of the TBOs to evaluate. In this way each TBO received three different evaluations.
d) The last step was calculating the final ranking of the technologies. In order to do so, CRES applied an extension of TOPSIS method (Technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution), taking into account the weights and the evaluation of each team. TOPSIS method is a multiple attribute method to identify solutions from a finite set of alternatives. The basic principle is that the chosen alternative should have the shortest distance from the positive ideal solution and the farthest distance from the negative ideal solution. The extension of TOPSIS method was employed for ranking the technologies, given the fact that it solves group decision making problems.
A thorough description of the above multi-criteria methodology as well as the ranking results is included in “D1.3: Promising technology cases with high commercialization potential”.
Work Package 2
Task 2.1 Research to Innovation System Analysis
The MARE Project was established to help bridge the gap between research and innovation in the EUROMED area in the technological pillars of RE microgrids, RE desalination, and EE in buildings. MARE brought together nine organizations from seven EU and MPC countries covering the entire innovation chain including research and technology organizations, corporate business parks, chambers of commerce, innovation mediators, and clustering of firms with the target of bridging the gap between research and innovation for a sustainable EUROMED region.
In order to do so effectively, MARE should first study and assess the research to innovation system of these seven countries, namely France, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco. This analysis included the legislations and policies affecting the path from R&D to innovation, funding schemes and funding resources for R&D, science, and technology & innovation, commercialization of R&D in the academic sector, entrepreneurship as a path from R&D to innovation, and the clustering approach for innovation.
The Task 2.1 “R2I systems analysis” report reported on the research to innovation system of each of the seven countries studied, as well as compared these systems among each other within the context of each element of the system. MARE partners from the seven aforementioned countries of interest were provided with a template for a national report. The template ensured that each partner may successfully provide the required and relevant information within the correct context. Upon collecting the national reports, EHBP conducted an ad hoc analysis of all national research to innovation system reports. The author then recompiled the information therein along with personal expertise and further research into this report.
The performed analysis showed that certain parts of the national R2I systems of the seven countries assessed (both MCs and MPCs) readily support integration, such as namely patent protection and other industrial rights protection regulations, for example, appear sufficiently strong, with occasional discrepancies in enforcement. The areas that appear to cause the most concern from an integrated R2I system are directly related to scales of public sector support and private sector industrial activity. In these two critical elements of an effective system, MARE partners see the greatest discrepancies.
Interestingly, the Seventh Framework Program is highlighted as providing some measurable impact in achieving both R2I system development in MPCs as well as stronger EUROMED collaboration in R&D. Furthermore, emerging national initiatives and efforts from the public and private sectors as well as civil society are affecting change and gradually allowing the traditional economies of MPCs to modern knowledge economies.
As such, and in conclusion, it appears that the regulatory and policy groundwork has been laid, and so practical integration steps such as flow of public support, research funding, technologies, commerce and people would lead to the creation of a common knowledge area and an integrated R2I system across the EUROMED.
Furthermore, a ‘soft’ benchmarking of the EUROMED innovation system to the ones of global top innovation leaders, such as US and Japan, was designed and implemented through a mix of quantitative and qualitative data and methods. The benchmarking intended to provide a basis for future discussion with the research and innovation ecosystem (academia, research and technology organizations, business support organizations, technology transfer infrastructures, institutional actors and policy makers) on the future shape and scale of the Euro Mediterranean research and innovation system.
The analysis revealed the importance of:
* Supportive research to innovation policies for both technological and non-technological (‘hidden’) innovation
* The harmonization of such policies and funding mechanisms, where relevant and possible, with regards to research and innovation
* The harmonization of certain regulations
* Stable and fit for purpose intellectual property frameworks,
* Policymakers focus, not only in innovation strategies formulation but also in implementation, structured monitoring and evaluation, as well as corrective reforms through a well functioning mechanism
* Efforts to achieve complementarities among the national innovation system components, especially the structures and incentives that operate within the system
* Policy interventions for the stability of the broader environment (business, social, political and economic environment)
* FDI encouragement and efforts towards the balance of the economic capacity and sustainability of the EUROMED countries
* Greater public expenditure on R&D in MPCs coupled with KPIs, impact monitoring and governance
* The importance of Research to Innovation system integrity in a transnational level for the EUROMED macro-region as a whole
Despite the challenges, MARE consortium strongly believes that there are important gains to be made by focusing on the opportunities of closer research and innovation collaboration in the long term.
Task 2.2 Identification of modalities of innovation cooperation with the particular region and suitable models for Technology Transfer
Task 2.2 focused towards the development of an integrated Technology Transfer framework with respect to EUROMED conditions covering knowledge and people flows, evaluation & marketing of IP, operational and commercialization alternatives etc., feeding the analysis in order to position the project and create a common ground on technology transfer approaches in the EUROMED area.
The expected outcomes of the MARE Model were aiming to pave the way for:
* Strengthening the cooperation between enterprises, universities and research centers, and technology transfer professionals in order to develop new product and services, or support existing ones to achieve successful commercialization and increase regional competitiveness
* Enabling supportive structures to better assist technology and innovation and promote entrepreneurial actions.
* Capitalizing on the existing knowledge and experience and adjust them to the specific needs of the Euro-Mediterranean area.
In order to achieve these, MARE partners reviewed the technology transfer models, mechanisms, strategies and mediums in the existing literature, examining the building blocks of a EuroMediterranean technology transfer framework and their potential impact in the TT process.
The analysis positioned the project and created a common ground on technology transfer approaches in the EUROMED area, in view of the active technology transfer activities implemented with the MARE workplan (Exploitation Plans, Company missions, EUROMED network, B2B matchmaking events, Capacity Building seminars).
The analysis revealed the importance of:
* Capacity and skills development of the TT stakeholders (technical & non-technical)
* Supportive research to innovation policies, infrastructures (hard & soft) and financing schemes for both technological and non-technological (‘hidden’) innovation
* The impact and importance of all actors in the TT chain, apart from technology providers and technology recipients (institutional actors, business support structures, TT intermediaries etc.)
Task 2.3 Exploitation plans and market penetration strategy
In the framework of Task 2.3 detailed exploitation plans were developed for the 9 promising technology cases identified in WP1. The country of origin of the selected technologies follows:
3 from Greece
2 from France
1 from Morocco
1 form Jordan
1 from Egypt
1 from Spain
The aim of each Exploitation Plan was to identify the necessary actions in order to deploy a specific technology-based-opportunity to the market. Therefore, the exploitation plan followed a concrete structure in order to achieve the required output. An analysis of the innovative technology and the state of the art preceded, and then a market analysis took place, in order to define the target market and its main-key characteristics. The final output of this analysis was the identification of a set of potential actions that the owner of the technology could undertake in order to effectively commercialize, disseminate and finally sell the technology to the target-market. The ToC for these exploitation plans follows:
1. Introduction
2. Executive Summary
3. Introducing the Technology
4. Analysis of the Technology – State of the Art
5. Market Analysis in the EUROMED area
6. Commercialization and Marketing
7. Action Plan
The formulation of these exploitation plans was based on:
* the TBO forms that these companies/researchers have filled in in the framework of Task 1.2
* follow up communication of MARE partners with them
* research MARE partners have done (e.g. technology sate of the art, patent landscape, etc.)
In addition to the full reports, summary versions were also submitted to the EU. Full length reports were submitted as confidential due to the sensitive information contained therein.
Task 2.4 Market uptake through company missions and match-making events
A. Company Missions
Task 2.4 aimed on the active technology transfer implementation by promoting match of technologies identified to actual technology needs from private and public sector in order to bring technology donors and receivers into contact with each other and provide assistance to facilitate the transfer and adaptation process.
The partnership followed a flexible, multi-channel methodology to effectively reach the task’s objective through target selection and MARE dedicated visits, one-on-one meetings at B2B events and private meetings that spontaneously allowed adding the discussion on MARE TBOs in the agenda. These activities resulted in company missions in the seven countries of the Euro Mediterranean area represented in MARE, conducted with companies, start ups, individual researchers, clustering infrastructures and business support organizations. A methodology as well as detailed guidelines were developed and circulated to the partnership prior to the implementation of the activity, in order to effectively carry out the company missions.
The partnership implemented 76 company missions in total. The analysis of the company missions’ implementation, feedback and outcomes showed that a significant number of missions conducted reported low to high interest (~ 65% of the company missions’ outputs, in contrast to a 35% that reported no interest), revealing:
- The importance of the company missions’ methodology application
- The necessity of effective targeting prior to company missions selection
- The efficient TBO selection on behalf of the partnership
The follow up activities and further communications that will probably take place after the project finalization will provide evidence on the effectiveness of MARE approach as an active technology transfer method.
Furthermore, the preparation, implementation, reporting and follow up of the company missions, revealed many points for consideration, as well as notes and recommendations to potential technology brokers in the EUROMED area. The main points are presented here:
- More technical details were needed on most missions, thus initial contact should be followed by contact with the TBO responsible contact person.
- Issues regarding alignment of TBOs offer with EU and national legislation should be further examined.
- Initial contact with beneficiaries revealed significant interest in further investigating the proposed TBOs.
- The time devoted to matching beneficiaries to selected TBOs is crucial in success of missions.
- R&D Departments are ideal for initial contact. However approval by General management has to be granted
- Successful technology transfer to MNEs is quite difficult due to legislation & institutional framework
- The economic situation in Greece & EU hinders the successful technology transfer.
- As expected, the Euromed based approach to technology commercialization is more fruitful than the national approach in MPCs as it allows TBOs to tap into a more active R2I system in the EU
- Companies are generally more focused on their commercialization/business development
- When companies own a R&D department, they look for opportunities but distance and languages have a negative impact on the time and human capacity they have to do R&D activities.
B. Match-Making events
Adding to the above, match-making events were organized in order to bring together companies, technology centers, research and development institutes, research laboratories, universities and private researchers offering innovative technologies and know-how, looking for technological solutions or searching for partners for the European R&D project. Match-making events also included financing and funding agencies and actors (i.e. VCs, banks etc.). 7 successful match-making events were organized in the participating countries (Greece, Lebanon, Spain, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and France), while the total number of participating organizations summed up to 320.
A list of implemented match-making events follows:
1-France: “MARE Match-Making Event”, organized by Capenergies, took place in Marseille, France on June 3rd, 2016.
2-Greece: “Energy Company Mission to Greece” organized by CRES, took place in Athens, Greece on October 26th, 2015.
3-Egypt: “Research Innovation and Commercialization in Egypt"”, organized by NRC, took place in Cairo, Egypt, on May 12th, 2015.
4-Lebanon: “Supporting Green Initiatives in North Lebanon”, organized by the CCIAT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Water, and the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation, took place in Tripoli, Lebanon, on January 25th, 2015.
5-Morocco: Within the context of the Innovation week, the match-making event took place in Casablanca on March 3rd – 5th, 2015.
6-Spain: “Financing Innovative Projects and exporting activities”, organized by CCSev, took place in Seville on October 28th, 2015.
7-Jordan: “Business to Business Matchmaking Session”, organized by EHBP, took place in Amman, Jordan on February 2nd, 2016.
Work Package 3
Task 3.1 Twinning activities
Under this Task MARE partners worked in pairs on specific mini-projects, in order to improve competences and exchange best practices through twinning exercises. Twinning activities have strengthened cooperation ties between EU and MPC organizations and paved the way for the extension of their collaboration beyond the MARE project.
8 Twinning projects between the 9 partner organizations were implemented in total and are listed below:
1.
Partners: Chamber of Commerce of Seville (Spain) – Chamber of Commerce of Tripoli (Lebanon)
Title: Exchange visit program for renewable energy and water desalination
Brief description: An expert from Spain visited CCIAT to make an Energy Efficiency audit for their building.
2.
Partners: Chamber of Commerce of Seville (Spain) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Exchange visit program for renewable energy and water desalination
Brief description: A visit to Andalusia of a delegation from Egypt to meet the main stakeholders of the RE sector in this Region. During this 3 days visit the Egyptian delegation will able to meet the most promised businesses and technology in the RE sector and policy makers.
3.
Partners: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (Greece) – Royal Scientific Society, National Energy Research Center (Jordan)
Title: Investigation of solar powered drip irrigation in the Jordan Valley
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to investigate solar powered drip irrigation under local conditions in the area of Jordan Valley in Jordan, while the purpose was to extent the cooperation between the two organizations in the field of solar applications in agriculture.
4.
Partners: University of Abdelmalek Essaadi (Morocco) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Modeling and performance study of a continuous adsorption refrigeration system driven by parabolic trough solar collector.
Brief description: The project aimed to issue a complete detailed design of a solar cooling system to be used as a module for solar air-conditioning applications. This will be a very good tool to be utilized for mutual technology transfer via exchange visits between Moroccan and Egyptian partners and enhance human capacities in the field of solar cooling systems through training courses.
5.
Partners: Royal Scientific Society (Jordan) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Solar cooling technologies
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to exchange technology know-how and explore ways of cooperation between the two organizations in the field of solar cooling systems, which is an important parameter in energy efficiency in buildings.
6.
Partners: Capenergies (France) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Comparative study of 1 MW CSP and PV solar power plants
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to exchange technology know-how and data in the field of solar power generation and make a comparative study for 1 MW PV and CSP solar power plants.
7.
Partners: KiNNO (Greece) – EHBP/IPCO (Jordan)
Title: Training session development on business model innovation
Brief description: The cooperating partners worked together aiming to develop an integrated “hands-on” training session on Business Model Innovation, capitalizing on their expertise in the value chain from research & innovation to market uptake.
8.
Partners: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (Greece) – National Research Center (Jordan)
Title: Optimization of autonomous PV/RO seawater/brackish water desalination system: Case study at Egypt and Greece
Brief description: The aim of this project was to develop a methodology and to issue a design tool of autonomous RE desalination systems and assessing their feasibility taking into consideration the following parameters: salinity, capacity (from 1m3/d to 50m3/d), desalination technology, energy management techniques, power generation systems.
Task 3.2 Study visits
5 study visits were organized by both the EU and MPC partners. These study visits included on-site visits to successful energy projects or sites/areas with important potential, interviews and discussions with members of relevant stakeholders, etc. This activity allowed the exchange of experiences between all project members and beneficiaries via on-site visits to successful implementations. A list of the accomplished study visits follows:
1.
Country: Greece
Sites: (a) Karelas Office Park (energy efficient building – Gold LEED certificate); (b) PENA park of energy awareness (solar and wind desalination unit); (c) CRES experimental micro-grid station
2.
Country: France
Site: EuroMediterranee eco-district of Marseille
3.
Country: Morocco
Sites: (a) Wind Park of the Cement Plant of LAFARGE MAROC; (b) Energetic laboratory of Abdelmalek Essadi University (small wind turbine prototype, solar electric car, small house prototype for energy simulations)
4.
Country: Jordan
Sites: (a) RSS-NERC PV power plant; (b) Al Fujeij Wind Park
5.
Country: Spain
Sites: (a) Abengoa Solucar Complex (tower, parabolic rough and PV); (b) Abengoa’s campus Palmas Altas (energy efficient building - LEED platinum certification)
Task 3.3 Training & capacity building seminars
7 training seminars took place in the participating countries (1 at each participating country). These training seminars were addressed to start ups, researchers and entrepreneurs and offered technical, commercial, financial and legal skills to beneficiaries (partners, researchers, RTOs) on exploitation of research results. Moreover, emphasis was given to the “soft” side of innovation and the role of “human capital” on stimulating technology transfer from research to industry. Seminars organized aimed at building better technical and interpersonal skills within and outside the organization and involve SMEs, industrialists, clusters and technology poles. Training seminars were open to the public as well and invited guests from other relevant activities such as KICs and FP projects. Moreover, all training seminars were organized as a part of the clustering activities, meaning that speakers and attendees included representatives of other R2I projects, in order to share knowledge among the projects and final beneficiaries as well. In particular, the training seminar in Morocco was organized in close collaboration with the other Mediterranean R2I projects in the framework of the jointly organized “Innovation Week” in Casablanca.
The titles and dates of each partner’s training seminar may be found below:
* Greece: “Bridging Energy Research and Innovation in the EUROMED area", organized by CRES in collaboration with KiNNO, took place in Athens, Greece on December 5th, 2014.
* France: “R2I seminar”, organized by Capenergies, took place in Marseille on November 5th, 2014.
* Egypt: “R2I Training & Capacity Building Seminar for research , innovation and Commercialization in Egypt”, organized by NRC, took place in Cairo, Egypt, on May 11th, 2015.
* Lebanon: “Arab Green Economy Forum”, organized by the Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture in Lebanon, in collaboration with CCIAT, took place in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 1st, 2015.
* Morocco: “European Projects Boosting Innovation Potential of Morocco”, organized by UAE, took place in Casablanca, Morocco, March 3rd – 5th, 2015.
* Spain: “Financing Innovation and Internationalization of Companies”, organized by CCSev and in collaboration with ICEX (Spain Trade and Investment Agency), took place in Seville, Spain on October 28th, 2015
* Jordan: “Innovation, Commercialization and IP Training Day”, organized by EHBP, took place in Amman, Jordan on February 1st, 2016.
Task 3.4 Future collaboration towards H2020 and bi-regional programmes on innovation
MARE project partners worked closely with other ongoing INCO projects in the EU Eastern and Southern Neighborhood with the aim to capitalize on experiences gained and lessons learned in their projects and contribute to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation. This collaboration was coordinated and sustained through regular clustering meetings organized either by the EU DG Research and Innovation, the International Learning Network (ILN) and R2I (research to innovation) projects themselves.
One of the fields of cooperation between INCO projects was the identification of challenges as well as cooperation opportunities in research and innovation between the EU and its international partners. A first step was taken during the 9th ILN Workshop, where INCO coordinators, expressing concern for continued support under H2020 for INCO projects to advance EU’s international cooperation strategy, compiled a contribution to the drafting of the 2016-2017 work programme for the consideration of the Programme Committee. That submission contained a series of recommendations as well a set of proposed draft topics.
Furthermore, MARE project, in line with its strategic scope of promoting collaboration between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries on research and innovation, supported and actively participated in the CSA-R2I Clustering meeting organized by MED Dialogue project in Casablanca, Morocco on March 2, 2015, in the framework of the Innovation Week. 22 participants representing 13 CSA and R2I projects, attended the meeting, aiming to join forces for strengthening the cooperation activities between EU and MPC Countries in Research & Innovation
The second session of that meeting focused on the analysis of opportunities and barriers to R2I cooperation between EU and MPC stakeholders. A list of practical design characteristics that R2I should integrate to have more impact and be more successful were discussed, as well as a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and best practices as the basis of the formulation of a strategy paper for recommended next steps of EU-MPC cooperation, in an attempt to identify the opportunities as well as the challenges, which barriers were overcome and how, as well as to come up with proposals proposals on how to overcome remaining ones.
MARE project contributed to the formulation of the above strategy by submitting to the coordinator of the MED Dialogue project an “Analysis on barriers and opportunities of innovation across all R2I projects” that was drafted by project partner KiNNO. This contribution was based on work implemented by MARE consortium in the framework of WPs 1 and 2 and deliverables D1.1 “Market & Technology Opportunities” and D2.1 “R2I Systems Analysis” in particular. The result was the formulation of the “Strategy paper on EU-MED cooperation in Research and Innovation”, which can be downloaded at the MED Dialogue project website.
MARE project also participated in the regional workshop called “Research and Innovation in the MED: EU Different Instruments toward Shared Goals” organized by DG Research and Innovation and the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt on 27 May 2015 in Cairo. The workshop brought together participants in R&I clusters funded under different EU programmes (such as the FP7, CBC-MED, bilateral, RDI programmes) in the Euromed region aiming at exploring potential synergies and sharing experiences. The final part of the workshop was dedicated to roundtable discussions on identifying barriers and opportunities for further collaboration under the H2020 programme. Six roundtables in total were organized in the following topics: technology transfer, energy, food and agriculture, water, ICT and social innovation. MARE project actively participated in the “energy” roundtable and as also moderated the “water” roundtable. The outcomes of the roundtables will be used by DG Research and Innovation for further improving the cooperation framework between the EU and MPCs.
Finally, in order to enhance the cooperation between EU and MPC organizations, efforts were done to maximize the exchange of information for the identification of future needs, technology opportunities and priority setting for the near future. Therefore, a comprehensive review was made of the available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project, namely Energy Efficiency in buildings, RE Water Desalination and RE Micro Grids in the EUROMED area, which was published in a catalogue (D3.4 “Opportunities for future collaboration” report).
Work Package 4
Task 4.1 EUROMED network identification & operation
In Task 4.1 MARE partners mapped, identified and operated a network of important actors in the “knowledge value chain” such as national and regional innovation agencies, RTOs, SMEs, funding agencies and VCs, in order to facilitate exploitation of research results, improve competences and promote exchange of best practices, in the field of Energy with a special emphasis on topics addressed by the project.
This Task started with a survey of the existing initiatives in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and strategically position the MARE network. Potential complementarities and synergies with existing networks were identified. It was decided that the short-term (within project duration) network objective was to be used by project partners as a tool for project dissemination, networking and effective communication with MARE target groups allowing for a better and more effective project implementation.
To this purpose an online searchable database was constructed and hosted as “Euromed Energy Network” at MARE project website. Project partners agreed on the database structure and format (entry fields, technologies included, countries included, etc.). 63 members were registered on the Euromed database on line in November 2014. At the beginning of 2016, a higher number of members was active, reaching the number of 119.
MARE partners successfully animated this network of actors during project duration in the following ways:
- Newsletter distributed to registered members from the website
- LinkedIn group
- B2B matching events with other projects/initiatives
- Brokerage events
- Workshops on Research to Innovation in the Energy Sector
- Training days
After project duration the main objective of the created network will be to generate new cross Mediterranean projects of research, development, demonstration or innovative nature. According to the network’s sustainability plan elaborated by project partners, key issue for the Euromed Network sustainability, will be to involve national, regional and local stakeholders able to mobilize funding and investing companies, as well as capabilities to enlarge this funding, from the cooperation point of view, avoiding the actual situation of punctual funding and change into a continuous flow of funding, depending on the achieved objectives concerning innovation and real knowledge transfer. In other words, a clear definition of a road map or strategy to get funding from several existing entities, as well as a detailed feasibility study and a post-project marketing plan will be necessary. This was reflected in the action plan of the first two years after project completion, as part of the MoU signed between MARE partners.
Task 4.2 Dissemination and communication strategy & material
The first step towards the implementation of this Task and WP4 in general, was the formulation of the project’s dissemination and communication strategy. Project partners and Task leader CCIAT in particular worked on this from the very beginning of the project and project deliverable “D4.2 Dissemination & Communication Strategy” was submitted on time on 2/12/2013. This strategy actually described project goals and objectives, the target audience and means for both external and internal (between partners) effective communication. It also included an implementation action plan, specifying partners’ roles and finally, defined certain goals/indices by which to quantitatively evaluate the implementation performance of the communication plan. The strategy was updated on project months 15 and 30. Main project dissemination activities are described in Section 4 of the present report.
Task 4.3 Coordination with other projects & initiatives
MARE project partners worked closely with other ongoing INCO projects in the EU Eastern and Southern Neighborhood with the aim to capitalize on experiences gained and lessons learned in their projects. This collaboration was coordinated and sustained through regular clustering meetings organized either by the EU DG Research and Innovation, the International Learning Network (ILN) and R2I (research to innovation) projects themselves. In particular, MARE project actively participated in the following clustering events:
* “8th ILN Workshop: How to foster international cooperation: bridging the gap between research and innovation”. Budapest, 7-8 November 2013
* “R2I MED+EaP Cluster Meeting”. Brussels, 5 June 2014
* “9th ILN Workshop: International Cooperation in H2020”. Brussels, 27-28 November 2014.
* “R2I Cluster Meeting”. Barcelona, 20 January 2015.
* “Innovation Week - International cooperation coordination workshop”. Casablanca, 2 March 2015.
* “Research and Innovation in the MED: EU Different Instruments toward Shared Goals”. Cairo, 27 May 2015.
Apart from the cooperation developed with other INCO projects under the umbrella of ILN, MARE project developed a closer collaboration with the other ongoing R2I projects and in particular with those active in the Mediterranean region. Thus an “R2I cluster” was formed from the very beginning of the project that was initially animated by the EU DG Research and Innovation. Later, as the R2I cluster gained some momentum, R2I clustering meetings and common activities were organized by R2I projects themselves. A MOU that provided a collaboration framework was signed on July 2014 between MARE, MAGHRENOV and ETRERA_2020 project.
A direct result of the aforementioned clustering activity was the contribution to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation as described in detail in project Deliverable, D3.4 “Opportunities for Future Collaboration Report”.
Furthermore, an “Innovation Week” was jointly organized by the South R2I cluster from 3rd to the 5th of March 2015 in Casablanca in Morocco that included workshops, training, roundtables and a brokerage event. More information can be found in project Deliverables D3.4 “Opportunities for Future Collaboration Report”, D2.4 “Match-making events” and D3.3 “Training Seminars Activity Reports & Material”.
Furthermore, the “Euro-Med innovation in sustainable energy” international conference, organized by the consortium of MAGHRENOV project in close collaboration with MARE project, represented by Capenergies, took place on February 11 and 12, 2016 in the Villa Méditeranée, in Marseille. Additionally, the Mediterranean project called ERECI (Egyptian Renewable Energies Cluster Initiative) supported by the European RDI program, aims at developing the first Energy cluster in Egypt. In this context, Capenergies and another French ‘pôle de compétitivité (or competitiveness cluster) called SCS (Secured Communicating Solutions) has received a delegation of Egyptian representatives during their study visit in Marseille from the 8th to the 12th 2016.
Task 4.4 International workshops on research to innovation on the energy sector
Two international workshops on research to innovation on the energy sector were organized at the end of the project. One was organized in Athens, Greece and one in Amman, Jordan. A brief description of both events follows:
A)
Title: Cooperation Between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries in the Energy Sector: Challenges and Opportunities
Place: Amman, Jordan
Date: 2/2/2016
This international workshop focused on presenting existing modes of EU/MPC cooperation in energy, as well as identifying new and emerging cooperation pathways. Furthermore, delegates presented examples of projects and discussed perspectives on success factors and obstacles for cooperation. In order to maximize impact, this event was held as part of the “Energy Innovation Days” event which combined three MARE deliverables as follows:
Session 1: MARE Training on held of Feb 1st 2016
Session 2: MARE International Conference on the morning of Feb 2nd 2016
Session 3: MARE B2B event on the afternoon of Feb 2nd 2016
This event was held in a conference format as the second session of the aforementioned Energy Innovation Days MARE event, held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan.
This event was designed to present opportunities and obstacles for EU/MPC cooperation in the Energy Sector to a broad audience of industry players, researchers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and the public sector in a manner that is thought provoking and that encourages discussion and the exchange of views and best practice. As such, a conference setting was chosen where a diverse group of esteemed subject matter experts would share their own knowledge and personal experiences and perspectives. Approximately half the speakers were from Jordan with the others coming from across the Euromed. To add a further element of dialogue and deeper discussion, a discussion panel containing a number of thought leaders and experts was introduced to conclude the conference with an invitation for continued networking and discussion over a light lunch.
B)
Title: Cooperation between European Union and Mediterranean Partner Countries in the energy sector: Challenges and Opportunities
Place: Athens, Greece
Date: 22-23/2/2016
The “International Workshop on EU and MPCs Cooperation in the Energy Sector” was organised in Athens, Greece, on 22-23 February 2016. Its aim was to discuss the challenges and opportunities as well as barriers and threats to develop cooperation in the Energy Sector between the EU and MPC countries. The discussions were focused in the three project pillars: EE in Buildings, RES Desalination & RES Microgrids.
The exchange of information included identification of future needs, most promising cooperation sectors, technology gaps and priority setting, towards EU and MCP funding. Speakers both from EU partner countries and MPC ones were identified and invited further to the consortium members.
The workshop, which was mainly considered as a networking event, was addressed to companies, technology centres, research institutes, universities, policy makers, coordinators of projects in the project area, SMEs representatives amongst others. As such, it offered networking opportunities to participants.
Work Package 5
WP5 involved project management and coordination that aimed to ensure that project objective were achieved on time, with high quality and within the costs estimated. Project management also aimed at ensuring the excellent communication between partners and the exchange of information as well as the fulfillment of the contractual obligation of the consortium towards the EC. Project objectives were achieved and project activities were implemented successfully and within the foreseen timeplan and budget by the consortium.
MARE consortium comprises 9 partners coming from 7 countries from both sides of the Mediterranean (EU and MPC). Moreover, the partnership involves different types of organizations, including universities, research centers, private consulting firms, chambers of commerce, business support organizations and clusters. Therefore, it is evident that project management and coordination has been a demanding task.
Nevertheless, management has been effective and MARE project ran smoothly, meeting all milestones and deliverables. This was accomplished through the appointment of a dedicated project manager Dr. C. Perakis. Project manager monitored project implementation on a daily basis and reported to project coordinator on a weekly basis. Slight deviations from project plan where identified early enough to allow for corrective actions and measures to be taken in time. Furthermore, project manager maintained an open communication channel with all partners and especially with WP and Task leaders. Communication was realized through daily email exchanges and regular Skype meetings or phone calls. In this way project manager had a clear view of project progress and all partners of their duties and responsibilities in each step of project implementation.
Additionally, 5 project meetings (including the kick-off) were implemented during the project. Project meetings were an important tool for project coordination, since:
▪ allowed for a review of project’s progress and partners’ performance.
▪ project partners set a detailed time plan for project activities for the next 6 months.
▪ face to face communication and interaction between project partners strengthened relations between project partners and allowed for a better communication during the intermediate period
The details for the aforementioned project meetings are provided below:
- kick-off meeting: Organized by CRES on 30/9/2013 in Pikermi, Greece
- 2nd project meeting: Organized by Capenergies on 7/4/2014 in Aix-en-Provence, France
- 3rd project meeting: Organized by UAE on 21/10/2014 in Martil, Morocco
- 4th project meeting: Organized by RSS-NERC on 20/4/2015 in Amman, Jordan
- 5th project meeting: Organized by CCSev on 29/9/2015 in Seville, Spain
Potential Impact:
MARE project activities were designed and implemented, aiming not only to achieve the project objectives but having a direct and indirect impact in the Energy Innovation Ecosystem of EUROMED region.
MARE EU-MPC partnership collaborated towards tackling the societal challenge of “Secure, clean and efficient energy”, which has a twofold dimension and requires international cooperation. “Secure, clean and efficient energy” challenge refers a) not only to the EUs definitions and objective for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system, in the face of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change but also to the fact that b) MPC countries face extremely important energy challenges. MARE partnership from both Mediterranean Sides jointly defined common market, technology and societal challenges, examined the Research to Innovation systems in national, regional and macro-regional level, as well as provided solid suggestions towards tackling the specific subject by suggesting common areas of intervention towards a unified EUROMED Research to Innovation System.
MARE fully exploited technological challenges that do not only meet the societal challenge’s requirements but are also plausible to MPC countries for tackling their specific energy challenges. The three technological pillars which MARE addressed were and still are of critical importance in the EUROMED area while specific technologies identified and exploited took into account all specific characteristics of the area.
Specifically, MARE, through its concrete activities (technologies identification, evaluation of maturity, exploitation plans) and interactions between project partners with the regional innovation ecosystem key actors and policy makers (targeted company missions, dedicated matchmaking events, cooperation with relevant R2I projects and other initiatives and networks such as EEN, INCONET etc) contributed to the mobilization and enrichment of national, regional, EU & International market of energy related technologies, stimulating the market pull and technology push intersection.
MARE through its EUROMED Energy network built bridges among the EUROMED Energy Innovation Ecosystem actors (researchers, TT professionals, business support organizations, start ups and SMEs, MNEs, intermediaries and technology brokers, clusters etc) and worked towards their Research to Innovation capacities on business, innovation and technology commercialization topics, in order to improve competencies on local actors and organisations by providing training seminars on these issues in 7 countries.
MARE mobilized a large set of people and organizations through activities dedicated to experience sharing and learning. MARE promoted mutual learning through five study visits in best practices identified both in MPC and EU countries, while twinning activities between EU and MPC partners took place in order to provide a mutual learning dimension to cooperation, enhance EUROMED R2I collaboration opportunities and identification of innovative joint research topics and future joint initiatives.
The cooperation between the partners and the stakeholders in both sides of the Mediterranean will also continue after the project’s finalisation. The partners will also cooperate in the common goal of opening the market for the proposed technologies since this effort must be endless and surely continue after the end of the project. The networking and cooperation between the stakeholders identified during the project will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas towards the improvement of the technologies and methods and finding new applications as well as commercializing research products. The latter is critical for new entrepreneur and SMEs.
With regards to the socio-economic impact, MARE clearly contributed to tackling main societal problems by enhancing the utilization of solar and wind energy (as a clean and renewable energy source), preserving the resources (reduction of fossil energy sources) and reducing the dependence on energy imports. Public perception is changing: consumers are increasingly concerned on environmental effects from the use of fossil energy sources like the CO2 problematic and harmful emissions. Also energy independence and efficient use of the energy resources are increasingly gaining interest and importance in the society. The combination of RES such as solar and wind energy - CO2 neutral energy sources – leads to environmental friendly energy conversion systems which has the potential to improve the quality of life. MARE technologies exploited, network created and future collaboration opportunities identified were directly targeted to this approach.
In order to maximize the above impact MARE consortium has formulated a dissemination and communication strategy from the very beginning of the project. MARE communication plan defined the strategy upon which MARE partners sought to communicate MARE objectives, relay key messages and promote activities and successful results. Project communication highlighted the project results and linked those results to the societal challenges. Communication strategy actually described project goals and objectives, the target audience and means for both external and internal (between partners) effective communication. It also included an implementation action plan, specifying partners’ roles and finally, defined certain goals/indices by which to quantitatively evaluate the implementation performance of the communication plan. The strategy was updated on project months 15 and 30. A brief description of MARE main dissemination activities is provided below.
1. Project website: An electronic platform with an attractive design reflecting the image, logo and motto of MARE. MARE website provided information about the project progress, research information and results, achievements, relevant links, documents and resources, training material, projects events and other useful information. It also integrated the “Partners’ Portal”, the “EuroMed Network” database, and the “Linked-in” account.
2. Social media: A LinkedIn account for the project was created and animated. Project announcements and key messages were also posted on LinkedIn.
3. Promotional videos: 2 project videos were developed. The first one was an introduction to the MARE project, its activities and objectives, while the second one focused on project accomplishments. Project videos were uploaded on project website and Youtube and were used for introducing stakeholders to the project and presenting project results in a visual way.
4. e-Newsletter: MARE newsletter was developed at six months intervals throughout the project duration and distributed to all partners, stakeholders and network members by email. The newsletter was designed in order to provide a snapshot of MARE news and upcoming activities, while it also included links to relevant events organized in the Euromed area. It also provided links to MARE videos and subscription to the “Euromed Energy Network”.
5. Promotional material: A flash-memory device containing relevant materials (public deliverables, project videos) was distributed at MARE events for further multiplication of the project outcomes. Furthermore, partners distributed printed project leaflets during events hosted or organized by their organizations.
6. All MARE project events and activities were exploited by MARE partners as an opportunity to disseminate project activities and results and introduce new members to the MARE network. The following events/activities were accomplished in the framework of the MARE project: 7 training seminars, 7 match-making events, 76 company missions, 2 international conferences, 5 study visits, 1 international conference jointly organized with MAGHRENOV project.
7. Clustering with other projects: MARE project partners cooperated with other ongoing R2I projects in the EU Southern Neighborhood and INCO projects with the aim to:
- disseminate the message on the importance of Research and Innovation in Euro-Mediterranean Area and beyond, as well as of related policy issues;
- promote the R2I projects, including related outputs and material such as publications and other documentation in each project’s dissemination activities and web sites where appropriate;
- explore the possibility of co-organizing events in countries of common interest (e.g. Innovation Week in Morocco);
- exploit the respective human networks to promote particular project issues where appropriate;
- jointly develop recommendations regarding the definition of future EU-MPC bi-regional programmes.
8. Euromed Energy Network: This network was created in the beginning of the MARE project and included 119 members (RTOs, MSEs, funding agencies, VCs, chambers of commerce, innovation brokers, etc.) at the end of the project. All project activities were disseminated to the network. Project newsletters, that included important announcements and project news, were distributed to all network members. The EEN proved to be a powerful communication tool throughout the project.
9. Other dissemination activities: MARE partners that participated in events around the Mediterranean exploited the opportunity to promote MARE and to introduce new members to the Euromed Energy Network. Other promotion activities included posting news about MARE in local and national magazines or newsletters. Dissemination reports were forwarded to the dissemination leader CCIAT, while a comprehensive Table including all dissemination activities (53) of MARE partners that do not belong to MARE project core activities, has been included in Section 4.2 (Table A.2) of the project Final Report.
Finally, key MARE results with an exploitation potential are:
1.
Exploitable foreground: Development and pilot testing of a “screening methodology”, based on 16 criteria that are related to the commercialization potential of the technologies, assessing their maturity and business opportunity potential in the project area.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: Screening methodology
Sectors of application: R&D/All technology-related sectors
IPR exploitation: Recipients are allowed to use, modify and customize the methodology as long as they are quoting the project MARE and EC/FP7 as their source.
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: MARE partners
2.
Exploitable foreground: MARE Euromed R2I system analysis: An extensive report presenting the meta-region’s countries Research to Innovation Systems, identifying commonalities and challenges among participating countries, an in-depth analysis and macro-level comparison of the MARE Euro-Mediterranean countries, US and Japan innovation systems and policy recommendations towards the development of an integrated Euromed R2I System.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: EUROMED R2I benchmarking and Policy Recommendations
Sectors of application: R&D/All technology-related sectors
IPR exploitation: Recipients are allowed to use, modify and customize the methodology as long as they are quoting the project MARE and EC/FP7 as their source.
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: MARE partners
3.
Exploitable foreground: MARE technology based opportunities: 51 energy technologies suitable for commercialization in the Euromed area were identified, formulated in a technology offer concept and directly and indirectly supported towards market uptake through the key activities of MARE project.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: Technology Based Opportunities
Sectors of application: Energy
IPR exploitation: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Based Opportunities
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Based Opportunities
4.
Exploitable foreground: MARE technology exploitation plans: Detailed exploitation plans were developed for the 9 promising technology cases identified, paving the way for their market uptake.
Confidential: Yes
Exploitable products or measures: Technology Exploitation Plans
Sectors of application: Energy
IPR exploitation: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Exploitation Plans
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Exploitation Plans
Project coordinator: Christoforos Perakis, cperakis@cres.gr , tel. +302106607428, fax +30 2106603301
Research & Innovation cooperation between the EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries is a critical factor for the development of a ‘Common Knowledge and Innovation Space’, in order to jointly tackle important global challenges. The ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ Societal Challenge is not only an EU’s critical priority towards H2020 for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system but is also essential for MPCs due to energy challenges they face especially because of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change. Current technology innovations and trends on the technology pillars of Renewable Energy (RE) Microgrids, RE Desalination and Energy Efficient (EE) interventions in buildings are crucial for tackling the above challenges. MARE project has brought together actors from the whole value chain of innovation (RTOs, Intermediaries, Business Parks, Clusters and SMEs) in order to foster cooperation for bridging the gap between research and innovation in the EUROMED area, towards the three technology pillars. MARE performed a set of activities which aimed to assist the market uptake of research results, improve competencies and mutual learning of organisations from both areas and finally identify fields on potential STI Cooperation between Member States and MPC counties under the H2020 and bi-regional programmes. Emphasis was given to enhancing the Common Knowledge and Innovation Space between EU and MPC and to supporting partnerships between Member States and MPC countries through market uptake of research results for global competitiveness and reach of new markets.
MARE main outcomes are:
* A market & technology opportunities report for the Euromed area with a focus on MARE 3 technological pillars
* A catalogue of 51 technologies, able to address the needs identified
* Exploitation plans for 9 promising technology cases with high commercialization potential
* An extensive report presenting the meta-region’s Research to Innovation System and identifying commonalities and challenges among participating countries
* A roadmap consolidating recommendations and methodologies for Research to Innovation in a modular toolbox for the Euromed area
* 8 twinning activities between EU and MPC organizations
* 5 study visits to innovative projects with a high replication potential in the region
* 76 company missions in order to demonstrate technologies and exploitation ideas and actively seek for creation of collaboration agreements
* Creation of a Euromed Energy Network of actors (119 actors)
* 7 training seminars that offered technical, commercial, financial and legal skills to beneficiaries on exploitation of research results (398 participants)
* 7 match-making events that covered the whole value chain from research ideas to innovation (320 participants)
* 1 MOU signed among project partners that included both EU and MPC organizations to extent their cooperation beyond MARE in the fields of their interest and in particular: innovation, technology transfer and smart specialization.
* 2 international workshops on research to innovation in the energy sector (142 participants)
* A catalogue of 47 available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project
* Clustering activities with other INCO projects leading to joint policy recommendations to the EU
Project Context and Objectives:
Research & Innovation cooperation between the EU and MPC areas is a critical factor for the development of a ‘Common Knowledge and Innovation Space’, in order to jointly tackle important global challenges. The ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ Societal Challenge is not only an EU’s critical priority towards H2020 for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system but is also essential for MPC countries due to energy challenges they face especially because of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change. Current technology innovations and trends on the technology pillars of RES Microgrids, RES Desalination and Energy Efficiency in Buildings are crucial for tackling the above challenges.
In order to enhance EU MPC’s cooperation on Research and Innovation, MARE project targeted 3 key objectives:
A. to support European competitiveness through strategic partnerships with third countries in selected fields of science and by engaging the best third countries scientists to work in and with Europe;
B. to facilitate contacts with partners in third countries with the aim of providing better access to research carried out elsewhere in the world;
C. to address specific problems that third countries face or that have a global character, on the basis of mutual interest and mutual benefit.
In the narrative below MARE activities implemented to achieve the 3 objectives are briefly described. Activities are listed under the objective they primarily address.
Objective A:
* Establish Network of Actors in the EUROMED Area:
MARE established and mobilised a network of actors in the EUROMED area for mutual learning and exchange of experience. The network was also used for spreading the outcomes of the projects and sensitize a wider audience. Furthermore, it was used throughout the project in order to disseminate project events and increase interest and participation from relevant stakeholders. Already 119 actors from all over the Mediterranean basin are members of the network. MARE partners have elaborated a sustainability plan for the network to remain active after the end of the project.
* Promote market uptake of energy innovation through focus on applied innovation: MARE has promoted market uptake of research results relevant to the topic addressed by the project in order not only to foster public-private partnership but to boost the transnational market of clean energy technologies. MARE consortium performed a detailed analysis of both market and technology opportunities in EUROMED area regarding the energy pillars addressed by the project, while it spotted suitable technologies and applications related to the opportunities identified. 51 promising technologies have been identified. Adding to the above, a solid matching procedure enabled technologies and needs to be matched. Innovative technologies were ranked according to their commercialization potential and an exploitation plan and market penetration strategy was elaborated for the 9 most promising technologies.
In parallel, MARE consortium worked on identifying innovation strengths (in terms of procedures, policies, financial tools, structures, etc.) and appropriate technology transfer models and action plans that will enable regional “cutting edge” technologies to find their way to the local or global market. The results have been published in two detailed reports, namely “R2I Systems Analysis” and “EUROMED TT Model”.
Finally, MARE brought together actors of the whole innovation value chain of the region (companies, technology centers, research and development institutes, research laboratories, universities, private companies, financing and funding agencies, etc.) through 8 match-making events around the Mediterranean and 76 targeted company missions, in order to “boost” regional market uptake of research results.
* Promote twinning between European and MPC organisations: This provided a new dimension to cooperation. MARE supported pilot initiatives for the twinning of MPC and European organisations, with the objective that these institutional partnerships will also lead to the identification of future joint initiatives. 8 twinning projects have been accomplished between 9 organizations in the EUROMED area. The success of this twinning activity is depicted in the MOU that these organizations have entered into, in order to further their collaboration beyond MARE.
* Encourage cooperation on framework conditions: MARE promoted a common understanding on key framework conditions for innovation for example related to intellectual property management, essential for the deployment of products and services as a result of cooperation. After an analysis of those aspects of framework conditions most relevant for cooperation, which require policy intervention, MARE, proposed appropriate initiatives. An analysis of market pull, technology push and policy framework as well as a SWOT analysis of the MARE technological pillars in the EUROMED area has been performed. Furthermore, an analysis of the meta-region’s research to innovation system has been prepared.
* Increase capacities of entrepreneurs, technology transfer professionals, Start Ups, organisations etc by providing innovation support services through training seminars: MARE provided high quality training by professionals to local , technology transfer professionals, Start Ups and other organisations on business, innovation and technology commercialisation topics in order improve competencies on local actors and organisations. 7 training seminars were organized by project partners in the participating countries, namely Greece, France, Jordan, Egypt, Spain, Morocco and Lebanon.
Objective B:
* Promote mutual learning by promoting exchange of best practices by study visits: MARE promoted mutual learning through study visits in best practices identified both in MPC and EU countries. 5 study visits at innovative RE and EE projects in Spain, Greece, Jordan, Morocco and France were implemented.
* Provide dissemination activities in order to diffuse the rationale and inform the research community and other target segments and integrate results to European and MPC policy: MARE implemented concrete activities for diffusing project results and rational into a wide community both in the EU and MPC countries. A project dissemination strategy was developed from the very start of the project and was updated and implemented throughout the project. Project website and LinkedIn account were set up. Project dissemination package was produced.
* Develop synergies with other INCO and BILAT Projects or initiatives, active in the area: MARE developed concrete synergies with other INCO, BILAT and other initiatives active in the area, in order to promote exchange of experience and target a wider audience through their mutual activities A direct result of the aforementioned clustering activity was the contribution to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation and the 2016-2016 H2020 Work Programme in particular. Furthermore, MARE developed a close collaboration with the other six R2Is in the Mediterranean and has signed an MOU with two of them. This collaboration has led to the successful organization of the Morocco “Innovation Week” that included workshops, training, roundtables and a brokerage event and the “Euro-Med innovation in sustainable energy” international conference held in February 2106 in Marseille.
Objective C:
* Jointly tackle the “Secure, clean and efficient energy” societal challenge: MARE’s consortium, jointly tackled the Global Societal Challenge of “Secure, clean and efficient energy” which is of high interest for both the EU and the MPC area through the facilitation of the technology transfer process with a special focus on technologies related to EE in buildings, RE desalination and RE microgrids.
* Encourage partnerships and activities for the generation of New knowledge and technologies on research for energy technologies: MARE encouraged cross border and international partnerships on research for mutual learning and providing better access to research carried out elsewhere. This process was facilitated through study visits and twinning activities as mentioned above. Furthermore, in order to enhance the cooperation between EU and MPC organizations, efforts were done to maximize the exchange of information for the identification of future needs, technology opportunities and priority setting for the near future. Therefore a comprehensive review was made of the available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project, namely EE in buildings, RE Water Desalination and RE Microgrids in the EUROMED area.
* Facilitate a Transnational and Linear Research to Innovation roadmap: MARE analysed all Research to Innovation Systems of the countries involved in order to identify obstacles and common points for jointly developing a “R2I and Technology Transfer” model, fully customised to the region. Synergies with existing initiatives were established in order to identify common structural weaknesses in the research and innovation chain. MARE contributed to the formulation of the “Strategy paper on EU-MED cooperation in Research and Innovation”, which was discussed at the CSA-R2I Clustering Meeting in Casablanca in March 2015.
Project Results:
The main S&T results of MARE project are analysed per Task in the following paragraphs.
Work Package 1
Task 1.1 Market dynamics and technological capacity pillars
Under this Task, an analysis of the market pull and technology push of MARE technological pillars, namely EE in buildings, RES desalination and RES microgrids, in the EUROMED area with a special focus on the 7 participating countries (Greece, Jordan, Morocco, France, Spain, Egypt and Lebanon) was performed. An analysis of the policy framework as well as a SWOT analysis for each one of the technology pillars was also performed. The aim was to enhance the standing ground of the project by providing a detailed analysis of both market and technology opportunities in EUROMED area regarding the energy pillars addressed by the project.
The report concluded with a set of policy recommendations and a conclusions-discussion section. The analysis has highlighted that all countries of the Mediterranean can benefit from closer ties and collaboration in the energy sector, where many complementarities and synergies exist. However, in order to maximize the benefits of any type of collaboration, this should not take place in an ad hoc basis. A concrete roadmap with explicit identification of strategies, steps and monitoring mechanism is required in order, not only to facilitate greater interregional collaboration, but also for creating a common vision and understanding between countries. This report was developed by Task leader (KiNNO), while it is available for download from the project website.
In addition to the regional report, 7 country reports were developed by national partners CRES (Greece), UAE (Morocco), RSS-NERC (Jordan), CCIAT (Lebanon), Capenergies (France), CCSev (Spain) and NRC (Egypt). These national reports provided a detailed analysis for each participating country and the background information for the regional report, while they were included as Annexes to the main report.
Task 1.2 Identification of suitable technologies, knowledge and methodologies tackling opportunities identified
The aim of this Task was to spot innovative technologies, applications, knowledge or methodologies related to the opportunities identified through Task 1.1. In line with Task requirements, project partners in Greece, France, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt worked in their countries to map and identify these technologies through their networks and their own knowledge. Target groups covered a wide range of technology developers including public and private research and technology centers, universities, spin-offs, start-ups and SMEs. However, the target group did not include big and/or international companies that as technology donors/developers have their own extensive networks and market penetration strategies and would not be particularly interested in services offered by MARE project.
In order to collect the technologies, Task leader EHBP with the assistance of KiNNO developed a “Technology Based Opportunity-TBO” form that aimed at collecting all necessary information from technology donors, in order to evaluate their technologies under Task 1.3 and facilitate contact with technology receivers. Simultaneously, this form was concise not requiring too much time and effort from technology donors to fill in.
Then each project partner initially compiled a list of potential technology donors based on his knowledge and networks. Past or on-going EU research projects were also reviewed in search of innovative technologies coming from the countries of interest. Partners followed a “door to door” approach in contacting potential technology donors both via email and phone calls. This Task proved to be effort intensive and time-consuming, since partners needed to contact organizations and companies especially form the private sector several times, in order to have them fill in the TBO form in a proper way. In addition, some technology donors appeared to be hesitant in submitting their technology and partners spent much time in discussing with them MARE project services and potential benefits for them.
EHBP as Task leader collected and reviewed all TBOs from project partners. TBOs that provided an inadequate technology description or included a technology that was irrelevant to MARE pillars were rejected. Finally, 51 innovative technologies were selected and their description was included in a catalogue (D1.2: Catalogue of technologies, able to address the needs identified). It is noted that technologies collected from the MPC countries came mostly from public research centers and universities, since the private sector in these countries mostly imports technologies from EU or other developed countries so that innovation is rarely found in the private sector, especially in the 3 technological pillars of MARE.
Task 1.3 Matching exercise to identify promising technology cases from each pillar
Under this Task the 51 technologies, which had been selected through Task 1.2 were ranked via a concrete methodology in order to identify the ones that presented the most promising business opportunities. Technology cases were evaluated against 16 criteria related amongst others to their innovative nature, transnational reach, maturity status and feasibility character. The most promising technologies were selected for developing an exploitation plan and market strategy and present them through targeted company missions.
More specifically, the following steps were followed:
a) CRES, KiNNO and EHBP developed a set of 16 criteria that were related to the commercialization potential of the technologies: novelty, safety/health factor, ease of manufacturing, durability, salability/trend of demand, potential competition, administrative burden, long life cycle/obsolescence, satisfying existing need, market size, development, incompatibility, market dependence, difficulty of distribution, difficulty of market penetration/crowded-wide open field, patent coverage.
b) Hinkel’s methodology was then used for specifying the criteria weights, which is a new, simple, and straightforward weighting system with a coherent methodological basis. The proposed method is based on the principle that when comparing one criterion to another, the decision maker is reluctant to change the most important criterion from the desirable state to the undesirable one.
c) MARE partners (9) were divided into three evaluation teams, with at least one RTO and one business support organization in each team. In this way each technology was assessed by different aspects, since research partners are specialized in different fields and have different perspectives than business oriented ones. Each team was given one third of the TBOs to evaluate. In this way each TBO received three different evaluations.
d) The last step was calculating the final ranking of the technologies. In order to do so, CRES applied an extension of TOPSIS method (Technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution), taking into account the weights and the evaluation of each team. TOPSIS method is a multiple attribute method to identify solutions from a finite set of alternatives. The basic principle is that the chosen alternative should have the shortest distance from the positive ideal solution and the farthest distance from the negative ideal solution. The extension of TOPSIS method was employed for ranking the technologies, given the fact that it solves group decision making problems.
A thorough description of the above multi-criteria methodology as well as the ranking results is included in “D1.3: Promising technology cases with high commercialization potential”.
Work Package 2
Task 2.1 Research to Innovation System Analysis
The MARE Project was established to help bridge the gap between research and innovation in the EUROMED area in the technological pillars of RE microgrids, RE desalination, and EE in buildings. MARE brought together nine organizations from seven EU and MPC countries covering the entire innovation chain including research and technology organizations, corporate business parks, chambers of commerce, innovation mediators, and clustering of firms with the target of bridging the gap between research and innovation for a sustainable EUROMED region.
In order to do so effectively, MARE should first study and assess the research to innovation system of these seven countries, namely France, Spain, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Morocco. This analysis included the legislations and policies affecting the path from R&D to innovation, funding schemes and funding resources for R&D, science, and technology & innovation, commercialization of R&D in the academic sector, entrepreneurship as a path from R&D to innovation, and the clustering approach for innovation.
The Task 2.1 “R2I systems analysis” report reported on the research to innovation system of each of the seven countries studied, as well as compared these systems among each other within the context of each element of the system. MARE partners from the seven aforementioned countries of interest were provided with a template for a national report. The template ensured that each partner may successfully provide the required and relevant information within the correct context. Upon collecting the national reports, EHBP conducted an ad hoc analysis of all national research to innovation system reports. The author then recompiled the information therein along with personal expertise and further research into this report.
The performed analysis showed that certain parts of the national R2I systems of the seven countries assessed (both MCs and MPCs) readily support integration, such as namely patent protection and other industrial rights protection regulations, for example, appear sufficiently strong, with occasional discrepancies in enforcement. The areas that appear to cause the most concern from an integrated R2I system are directly related to scales of public sector support and private sector industrial activity. In these two critical elements of an effective system, MARE partners see the greatest discrepancies.
Interestingly, the Seventh Framework Program is highlighted as providing some measurable impact in achieving both R2I system development in MPCs as well as stronger EUROMED collaboration in R&D. Furthermore, emerging national initiatives and efforts from the public and private sectors as well as civil society are affecting change and gradually allowing the traditional economies of MPCs to modern knowledge economies.
As such, and in conclusion, it appears that the regulatory and policy groundwork has been laid, and so practical integration steps such as flow of public support, research funding, technologies, commerce and people would lead to the creation of a common knowledge area and an integrated R2I system across the EUROMED.
Furthermore, a ‘soft’ benchmarking of the EUROMED innovation system to the ones of global top innovation leaders, such as US and Japan, was designed and implemented through a mix of quantitative and qualitative data and methods. The benchmarking intended to provide a basis for future discussion with the research and innovation ecosystem (academia, research and technology organizations, business support organizations, technology transfer infrastructures, institutional actors and policy makers) on the future shape and scale of the Euro Mediterranean research and innovation system.
The analysis revealed the importance of:
* Supportive research to innovation policies for both technological and non-technological (‘hidden’) innovation
* The harmonization of such policies and funding mechanisms, where relevant and possible, with regards to research and innovation
* The harmonization of certain regulations
* Stable and fit for purpose intellectual property frameworks,
* Policymakers focus, not only in innovation strategies formulation but also in implementation, structured monitoring and evaluation, as well as corrective reforms through a well functioning mechanism
* Efforts to achieve complementarities among the national innovation system components, especially the structures and incentives that operate within the system
* Policy interventions for the stability of the broader environment (business, social, political and economic environment)
* FDI encouragement and efforts towards the balance of the economic capacity and sustainability of the EUROMED countries
* Greater public expenditure on R&D in MPCs coupled with KPIs, impact monitoring and governance
* The importance of Research to Innovation system integrity in a transnational level for the EUROMED macro-region as a whole
Despite the challenges, MARE consortium strongly believes that there are important gains to be made by focusing on the opportunities of closer research and innovation collaboration in the long term.
Task 2.2 Identification of modalities of innovation cooperation with the particular region and suitable models for Technology Transfer
Task 2.2 focused towards the development of an integrated Technology Transfer framework with respect to EUROMED conditions covering knowledge and people flows, evaluation & marketing of IP, operational and commercialization alternatives etc., feeding the analysis in order to position the project and create a common ground on technology transfer approaches in the EUROMED area.
The expected outcomes of the MARE Model were aiming to pave the way for:
* Strengthening the cooperation between enterprises, universities and research centers, and technology transfer professionals in order to develop new product and services, or support existing ones to achieve successful commercialization and increase regional competitiveness
* Enabling supportive structures to better assist technology and innovation and promote entrepreneurial actions.
* Capitalizing on the existing knowledge and experience and adjust them to the specific needs of the Euro-Mediterranean area.
In order to achieve these, MARE partners reviewed the technology transfer models, mechanisms, strategies and mediums in the existing literature, examining the building blocks of a EuroMediterranean technology transfer framework and their potential impact in the TT process.
The analysis positioned the project and created a common ground on technology transfer approaches in the EUROMED area, in view of the active technology transfer activities implemented with the MARE workplan (Exploitation Plans, Company missions, EUROMED network, B2B matchmaking events, Capacity Building seminars).
The analysis revealed the importance of:
* Capacity and skills development of the TT stakeholders (technical & non-technical)
* Supportive research to innovation policies, infrastructures (hard & soft) and financing schemes for both technological and non-technological (‘hidden’) innovation
* The impact and importance of all actors in the TT chain, apart from technology providers and technology recipients (institutional actors, business support structures, TT intermediaries etc.)
Task 2.3 Exploitation plans and market penetration strategy
In the framework of Task 2.3 detailed exploitation plans were developed for the 9 promising technology cases identified in WP1. The country of origin of the selected technologies follows:
3 from Greece
2 from France
1 from Morocco
1 form Jordan
1 from Egypt
1 from Spain
The aim of each Exploitation Plan was to identify the necessary actions in order to deploy a specific technology-based-opportunity to the market. Therefore, the exploitation plan followed a concrete structure in order to achieve the required output. An analysis of the innovative technology and the state of the art preceded, and then a market analysis took place, in order to define the target market and its main-key characteristics. The final output of this analysis was the identification of a set of potential actions that the owner of the technology could undertake in order to effectively commercialize, disseminate and finally sell the technology to the target-market. The ToC for these exploitation plans follows:
1. Introduction
2. Executive Summary
3. Introducing the Technology
4. Analysis of the Technology – State of the Art
5. Market Analysis in the EUROMED area
6. Commercialization and Marketing
7. Action Plan
The formulation of these exploitation plans was based on:
* the TBO forms that these companies/researchers have filled in in the framework of Task 1.2
* follow up communication of MARE partners with them
* research MARE partners have done (e.g. technology sate of the art, patent landscape, etc.)
In addition to the full reports, summary versions were also submitted to the EU. Full length reports were submitted as confidential due to the sensitive information contained therein.
Task 2.4 Market uptake through company missions and match-making events
A. Company Missions
Task 2.4 aimed on the active technology transfer implementation by promoting match of technologies identified to actual technology needs from private and public sector in order to bring technology donors and receivers into contact with each other and provide assistance to facilitate the transfer and adaptation process.
The partnership followed a flexible, multi-channel methodology to effectively reach the task’s objective through target selection and MARE dedicated visits, one-on-one meetings at B2B events and private meetings that spontaneously allowed adding the discussion on MARE TBOs in the agenda. These activities resulted in company missions in the seven countries of the Euro Mediterranean area represented in MARE, conducted with companies, start ups, individual researchers, clustering infrastructures and business support organizations. A methodology as well as detailed guidelines were developed and circulated to the partnership prior to the implementation of the activity, in order to effectively carry out the company missions.
The partnership implemented 76 company missions in total. The analysis of the company missions’ implementation, feedback and outcomes showed that a significant number of missions conducted reported low to high interest (~ 65% of the company missions’ outputs, in contrast to a 35% that reported no interest), revealing:
- The importance of the company missions’ methodology application
- The necessity of effective targeting prior to company missions selection
- The efficient TBO selection on behalf of the partnership
The follow up activities and further communications that will probably take place after the project finalization will provide evidence on the effectiveness of MARE approach as an active technology transfer method.
Furthermore, the preparation, implementation, reporting and follow up of the company missions, revealed many points for consideration, as well as notes and recommendations to potential technology brokers in the EUROMED area. The main points are presented here:
- More technical details were needed on most missions, thus initial contact should be followed by contact with the TBO responsible contact person.
- Issues regarding alignment of TBOs offer with EU and national legislation should be further examined.
- Initial contact with beneficiaries revealed significant interest in further investigating the proposed TBOs.
- The time devoted to matching beneficiaries to selected TBOs is crucial in success of missions.
- R&D Departments are ideal for initial contact. However approval by General management has to be granted
- Successful technology transfer to MNEs is quite difficult due to legislation & institutional framework
- The economic situation in Greece & EU hinders the successful technology transfer.
- As expected, the Euromed based approach to technology commercialization is more fruitful than the national approach in MPCs as it allows TBOs to tap into a more active R2I system in the EU
- Companies are generally more focused on their commercialization/business development
- When companies own a R&D department, they look for opportunities but distance and languages have a negative impact on the time and human capacity they have to do R&D activities.
B. Match-Making events
Adding to the above, match-making events were organized in order to bring together companies, technology centers, research and development institutes, research laboratories, universities and private researchers offering innovative technologies and know-how, looking for technological solutions or searching for partners for the European R&D project. Match-making events also included financing and funding agencies and actors (i.e. VCs, banks etc.). 7 successful match-making events were organized in the participating countries (Greece, Lebanon, Spain, Jordan, Morocco, Egypt and France), while the total number of participating organizations summed up to 320.
A list of implemented match-making events follows:
1-France: “MARE Match-Making Event”, organized by Capenergies, took place in Marseille, France on June 3rd, 2016.
2-Greece: “Energy Company Mission to Greece” organized by CRES, took place in Athens, Greece on October 26th, 2015.
3-Egypt: “Research Innovation and Commercialization in Egypt"”, organized by NRC, took place in Cairo, Egypt, on May 12th, 2015.
4-Lebanon: “Supporting Green Initiatives in North Lebanon”, organized by the CCIAT, in collaboration with the Ministry of Energy and Water, and the Lebanese Center for Energy Conservation, took place in Tripoli, Lebanon, on January 25th, 2015.
5-Morocco: Within the context of the Innovation week, the match-making event took place in Casablanca on March 3rd – 5th, 2015.
6-Spain: “Financing Innovative Projects and exporting activities”, organized by CCSev, took place in Seville on October 28th, 2015.
7-Jordan: “Business to Business Matchmaking Session”, organized by EHBP, took place in Amman, Jordan on February 2nd, 2016.
Work Package 3
Task 3.1 Twinning activities
Under this Task MARE partners worked in pairs on specific mini-projects, in order to improve competences and exchange best practices through twinning exercises. Twinning activities have strengthened cooperation ties between EU and MPC organizations and paved the way for the extension of their collaboration beyond the MARE project.
8 Twinning projects between the 9 partner organizations were implemented in total and are listed below:
1.
Partners: Chamber of Commerce of Seville (Spain) – Chamber of Commerce of Tripoli (Lebanon)
Title: Exchange visit program for renewable energy and water desalination
Brief description: An expert from Spain visited CCIAT to make an Energy Efficiency audit for their building.
2.
Partners: Chamber of Commerce of Seville (Spain) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Exchange visit program for renewable energy and water desalination
Brief description: A visit to Andalusia of a delegation from Egypt to meet the main stakeholders of the RE sector in this Region. During this 3 days visit the Egyptian delegation will able to meet the most promised businesses and technology in the RE sector and policy makers.
3.
Partners: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (Greece) – Royal Scientific Society, National Energy Research Center (Jordan)
Title: Investigation of solar powered drip irrigation in the Jordan Valley
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to investigate solar powered drip irrigation under local conditions in the area of Jordan Valley in Jordan, while the purpose was to extent the cooperation between the two organizations in the field of solar applications in agriculture.
4.
Partners: University of Abdelmalek Essaadi (Morocco) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Modeling and performance study of a continuous adsorption refrigeration system driven by parabolic trough solar collector.
Brief description: The project aimed to issue a complete detailed design of a solar cooling system to be used as a module for solar air-conditioning applications. This will be a very good tool to be utilized for mutual technology transfer via exchange visits between Moroccan and Egyptian partners and enhance human capacities in the field of solar cooling systems through training courses.
5.
Partners: Royal Scientific Society (Jordan) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Solar cooling technologies
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to exchange technology know-how and explore ways of cooperation between the two organizations in the field of solar cooling systems, which is an important parameter in energy efficiency in buildings.
6.
Partners: Capenergies (France) – National Research Center (Egypt)
Title: Comparative study of 1 MW CSP and PV solar power plants
Brief description: The scope of the twinning activity was to exchange technology know-how and data in the field of solar power generation and make a comparative study for 1 MW PV and CSP solar power plants.
7.
Partners: KiNNO (Greece) – EHBP/IPCO (Jordan)
Title: Training session development on business model innovation
Brief description: The cooperating partners worked together aiming to develop an integrated “hands-on” training session on Business Model Innovation, capitalizing on their expertise in the value chain from research & innovation to market uptake.
8.
Partners: Centre for Renewable Energy Sources and Saving (Greece) – National Research Center (Jordan)
Title: Optimization of autonomous PV/RO seawater/brackish water desalination system: Case study at Egypt and Greece
Brief description: The aim of this project was to develop a methodology and to issue a design tool of autonomous RE desalination systems and assessing their feasibility taking into consideration the following parameters: salinity, capacity (from 1m3/d to 50m3/d), desalination technology, energy management techniques, power generation systems.
Task 3.2 Study visits
5 study visits were organized by both the EU and MPC partners. These study visits included on-site visits to successful energy projects or sites/areas with important potential, interviews and discussions with members of relevant stakeholders, etc. This activity allowed the exchange of experiences between all project members and beneficiaries via on-site visits to successful implementations. A list of the accomplished study visits follows:
1.
Country: Greece
Sites: (a) Karelas Office Park (energy efficient building – Gold LEED certificate); (b) PENA park of energy awareness (solar and wind desalination unit); (c) CRES experimental micro-grid station
2.
Country: France
Site: EuroMediterranee eco-district of Marseille
3.
Country: Morocco
Sites: (a) Wind Park of the Cement Plant of LAFARGE MAROC; (b) Energetic laboratory of Abdelmalek Essadi University (small wind turbine prototype, solar electric car, small house prototype for energy simulations)
4.
Country: Jordan
Sites: (a) RSS-NERC PV power plant; (b) Al Fujeij Wind Park
5.
Country: Spain
Sites: (a) Abengoa Solucar Complex (tower, parabolic rough and PV); (b) Abengoa’s campus Palmas Altas (energy efficient building - LEED platinum certification)
Task 3.3 Training & capacity building seminars
7 training seminars took place in the participating countries (1 at each participating country). These training seminars were addressed to start ups, researchers and entrepreneurs and offered technical, commercial, financial and legal skills to beneficiaries (partners, researchers, RTOs) on exploitation of research results. Moreover, emphasis was given to the “soft” side of innovation and the role of “human capital” on stimulating technology transfer from research to industry. Seminars organized aimed at building better technical and interpersonal skills within and outside the organization and involve SMEs, industrialists, clusters and technology poles. Training seminars were open to the public as well and invited guests from other relevant activities such as KICs and FP projects. Moreover, all training seminars were organized as a part of the clustering activities, meaning that speakers and attendees included representatives of other R2I projects, in order to share knowledge among the projects and final beneficiaries as well. In particular, the training seminar in Morocco was organized in close collaboration with the other Mediterranean R2I projects in the framework of the jointly organized “Innovation Week” in Casablanca.
The titles and dates of each partner’s training seminar may be found below:
* Greece: “Bridging Energy Research and Innovation in the EUROMED area", organized by CRES in collaboration with KiNNO, took place in Athens, Greece on December 5th, 2014.
* France: “R2I seminar”, organized by Capenergies, took place in Marseille on November 5th, 2014.
* Egypt: “R2I Training & Capacity Building Seminar for research , innovation and Commercialization in Egypt”, organized by NRC, took place in Cairo, Egypt, on May 11th, 2015.
* Lebanon: “Arab Green Economy Forum”, organized by the Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry & Agriculture in Lebanon, in collaboration with CCIAT, took place in Beirut, Lebanon, on December 1st, 2015.
* Morocco: “European Projects Boosting Innovation Potential of Morocco”, organized by UAE, took place in Casablanca, Morocco, March 3rd – 5th, 2015.
* Spain: “Financing Innovation and Internationalization of Companies”, organized by CCSev and in collaboration with ICEX (Spain Trade and Investment Agency), took place in Seville, Spain on October 28th, 2015
* Jordan: “Innovation, Commercialization and IP Training Day”, organized by EHBP, took place in Amman, Jordan on February 1st, 2016.
Task 3.4 Future collaboration towards H2020 and bi-regional programmes on innovation
MARE project partners worked closely with other ongoing INCO projects in the EU Eastern and Southern Neighborhood with the aim to capitalize on experiences gained and lessons learned in their projects and contribute to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation. This collaboration was coordinated and sustained through regular clustering meetings organized either by the EU DG Research and Innovation, the International Learning Network (ILN) and R2I (research to innovation) projects themselves.
One of the fields of cooperation between INCO projects was the identification of challenges as well as cooperation opportunities in research and innovation between the EU and its international partners. A first step was taken during the 9th ILN Workshop, where INCO coordinators, expressing concern for continued support under H2020 for INCO projects to advance EU’s international cooperation strategy, compiled a contribution to the drafting of the 2016-2017 work programme for the consideration of the Programme Committee. That submission contained a series of recommendations as well a set of proposed draft topics.
Furthermore, MARE project, in line with its strategic scope of promoting collaboration between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries on research and innovation, supported and actively participated in the CSA-R2I Clustering meeting organized by MED Dialogue project in Casablanca, Morocco on March 2, 2015, in the framework of the Innovation Week. 22 participants representing 13 CSA and R2I projects, attended the meeting, aiming to join forces for strengthening the cooperation activities between EU and MPC Countries in Research & Innovation
The second session of that meeting focused on the analysis of opportunities and barriers to R2I cooperation between EU and MPC stakeholders. A list of practical design characteristics that R2I should integrate to have more impact and be more successful were discussed, as well as a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and best practices as the basis of the formulation of a strategy paper for recommended next steps of EU-MPC cooperation, in an attempt to identify the opportunities as well as the challenges, which barriers were overcome and how, as well as to come up with proposals proposals on how to overcome remaining ones.
MARE project contributed to the formulation of the above strategy by submitting to the coordinator of the MED Dialogue project an “Analysis on barriers and opportunities of innovation across all R2I projects” that was drafted by project partner KiNNO. This contribution was based on work implemented by MARE consortium in the framework of WPs 1 and 2 and deliverables D1.1 “Market & Technology Opportunities” and D2.1 “R2I Systems Analysis” in particular. The result was the formulation of the “Strategy paper on EU-MED cooperation in Research and Innovation”, which can be downloaded at the MED Dialogue project website.
MARE project also participated in the regional workshop called “Research and Innovation in the MED: EU Different Instruments toward Shared Goals” organized by DG Research and Innovation and the Delegation of the European Union to Egypt on 27 May 2015 in Cairo. The workshop brought together participants in R&I clusters funded under different EU programmes (such as the FP7, CBC-MED, bilateral, RDI programmes) in the Euromed region aiming at exploring potential synergies and sharing experiences. The final part of the workshop was dedicated to roundtable discussions on identifying barriers and opportunities for further collaboration under the H2020 programme. Six roundtables in total were organized in the following topics: technology transfer, energy, food and agriculture, water, ICT and social innovation. MARE project actively participated in the “energy” roundtable and as also moderated the “water” roundtable. The outcomes of the roundtables will be used by DG Research and Innovation for further improving the cooperation framework between the EU and MPCs.
Finally, in order to enhance the cooperation between EU and MPC organizations, efforts were done to maximize the exchange of information for the identification of future needs, technology opportunities and priority setting for the near future. Therefore, a comprehensive review was made of the available and future open calls for research and innovation projects in the area of MARE project, namely Energy Efficiency in buildings, RE Water Desalination and RE Micro Grids in the EUROMED area, which was published in a catalogue (D3.4 “Opportunities for future collaboration” report).
Work Package 4
Task 4.1 EUROMED network identification & operation
In Task 4.1 MARE partners mapped, identified and operated a network of important actors in the “knowledge value chain” such as national and regional innovation agencies, RTOs, SMEs, funding agencies and VCs, in order to facilitate exploitation of research results, improve competences and promote exchange of best practices, in the field of Energy with a special emphasis on topics addressed by the project.
This Task started with a survey of the existing initiatives in order to identify their strengths and weaknesses and strategically position the MARE network. Potential complementarities and synergies with existing networks were identified. It was decided that the short-term (within project duration) network objective was to be used by project partners as a tool for project dissemination, networking and effective communication with MARE target groups allowing for a better and more effective project implementation.
To this purpose an online searchable database was constructed and hosted as “Euromed Energy Network” at MARE project website. Project partners agreed on the database structure and format (entry fields, technologies included, countries included, etc.). 63 members were registered on the Euromed database on line in November 2014. At the beginning of 2016, a higher number of members was active, reaching the number of 119.
MARE partners successfully animated this network of actors during project duration in the following ways:
- Newsletter distributed to registered members from the website
- LinkedIn group
- B2B matching events with other projects/initiatives
- Brokerage events
- Workshops on Research to Innovation in the Energy Sector
- Training days
After project duration the main objective of the created network will be to generate new cross Mediterranean projects of research, development, demonstration or innovative nature. According to the network’s sustainability plan elaborated by project partners, key issue for the Euromed Network sustainability, will be to involve national, regional and local stakeholders able to mobilize funding and investing companies, as well as capabilities to enlarge this funding, from the cooperation point of view, avoiding the actual situation of punctual funding and change into a continuous flow of funding, depending on the achieved objectives concerning innovation and real knowledge transfer. In other words, a clear definition of a road map or strategy to get funding from several existing entities, as well as a detailed feasibility study and a post-project marketing plan will be necessary. This was reflected in the action plan of the first two years after project completion, as part of the MoU signed between MARE partners.
Task 4.2 Dissemination and communication strategy & material
The first step towards the implementation of this Task and WP4 in general, was the formulation of the project’s dissemination and communication strategy. Project partners and Task leader CCIAT in particular worked on this from the very beginning of the project and project deliverable “D4.2 Dissemination & Communication Strategy” was submitted on time on 2/12/2013. This strategy actually described project goals and objectives, the target audience and means for both external and internal (between partners) effective communication. It also included an implementation action plan, specifying partners’ roles and finally, defined certain goals/indices by which to quantitatively evaluate the implementation performance of the communication plan. The strategy was updated on project months 15 and 30. Main project dissemination activities are described in Section 4 of the present report.
Task 4.3 Coordination with other projects & initiatives
MARE project partners worked closely with other ongoing INCO projects in the EU Eastern and Southern Neighborhood with the aim to capitalize on experiences gained and lessons learned in their projects. This collaboration was coordinated and sustained through regular clustering meetings organized either by the EU DG Research and Innovation, the International Learning Network (ILN) and R2I (research to innovation) projects themselves. In particular, MARE project actively participated in the following clustering events:
* “8th ILN Workshop: How to foster international cooperation: bridging the gap between research and innovation”. Budapest, 7-8 November 2013
* “R2I MED+EaP Cluster Meeting”. Brussels, 5 June 2014
* “9th ILN Workshop: International Cooperation in H2020”. Brussels, 27-28 November 2014.
* “R2I Cluster Meeting”. Barcelona, 20 January 2015.
* “Innovation Week - International cooperation coordination workshop”. Casablanca, 2 March 2015.
* “Research and Innovation in the MED: EU Different Instruments toward Shared Goals”. Cairo, 27 May 2015.
Apart from the cooperation developed with other INCO projects under the umbrella of ILN, MARE project developed a closer collaboration with the other ongoing R2I projects and in particular with those active in the Mediterranean region. Thus an “R2I cluster” was formed from the very beginning of the project that was initially animated by the EU DG Research and Innovation. Later, as the R2I cluster gained some momentum, R2I clustering meetings and common activities were organized by R2I projects themselves. A MOU that provided a collaboration framework was signed on July 2014 between MARE, MAGHRENOV and ETRERA_2020 project.
A direct result of the aforementioned clustering activity was the contribution to the definition of future bi-regional programmes on innovation as described in detail in project Deliverable, D3.4 “Opportunities for Future Collaboration Report”.
Furthermore, an “Innovation Week” was jointly organized by the South R2I cluster from 3rd to the 5th of March 2015 in Casablanca in Morocco that included workshops, training, roundtables and a brokerage event. More information can be found in project Deliverables D3.4 “Opportunities for Future Collaboration Report”, D2.4 “Match-making events” and D3.3 “Training Seminars Activity Reports & Material”.
Furthermore, the “Euro-Med innovation in sustainable energy” international conference, organized by the consortium of MAGHRENOV project in close collaboration with MARE project, represented by Capenergies, took place on February 11 and 12, 2016 in the Villa Méditeranée, in Marseille. Additionally, the Mediterranean project called ERECI (Egyptian Renewable Energies Cluster Initiative) supported by the European RDI program, aims at developing the first Energy cluster in Egypt. In this context, Capenergies and another French ‘pôle de compétitivité (or competitiveness cluster) called SCS (Secured Communicating Solutions) has received a delegation of Egyptian representatives during their study visit in Marseille from the 8th to the 12th 2016.
Task 4.4 International workshops on research to innovation on the energy sector
Two international workshops on research to innovation on the energy sector were organized at the end of the project. One was organized in Athens, Greece and one in Amman, Jordan. A brief description of both events follows:
A)
Title: Cooperation Between EU and Mediterranean Partner Countries in the Energy Sector: Challenges and Opportunities
Place: Amman, Jordan
Date: 2/2/2016
This international workshop focused on presenting existing modes of EU/MPC cooperation in energy, as well as identifying new and emerging cooperation pathways. Furthermore, delegates presented examples of projects and discussed perspectives on success factors and obstacles for cooperation. In order to maximize impact, this event was held as part of the “Energy Innovation Days” event which combined three MARE deliverables as follows:
Session 1: MARE Training on held of Feb 1st 2016
Session 2: MARE International Conference on the morning of Feb 2nd 2016
Session 3: MARE B2B event on the afternoon of Feb 2nd 2016
This event was held in a conference format as the second session of the aforementioned Energy Innovation Days MARE event, held under the patronage of Her Royal Highness Princess Sumaya Bint El Hassan.
This event was designed to present opportunities and obstacles for EU/MPC cooperation in the Energy Sector to a broad audience of industry players, researchers, entrepreneurs, innovators, and the public sector in a manner that is thought provoking and that encourages discussion and the exchange of views and best practice. As such, a conference setting was chosen where a diverse group of esteemed subject matter experts would share their own knowledge and personal experiences and perspectives. Approximately half the speakers were from Jordan with the others coming from across the Euromed. To add a further element of dialogue and deeper discussion, a discussion panel containing a number of thought leaders and experts was introduced to conclude the conference with an invitation for continued networking and discussion over a light lunch.
B)
Title: Cooperation between European Union and Mediterranean Partner Countries in the energy sector: Challenges and Opportunities
Place: Athens, Greece
Date: 22-23/2/2016
The “International Workshop on EU and MPCs Cooperation in the Energy Sector” was organised in Athens, Greece, on 22-23 February 2016. Its aim was to discuss the challenges and opportunities as well as barriers and threats to develop cooperation in the Energy Sector between the EU and MPC countries. The discussions were focused in the three project pillars: EE in Buildings, RES Desalination & RES Microgrids.
The exchange of information included identification of future needs, most promising cooperation sectors, technology gaps and priority setting, towards EU and MCP funding. Speakers both from EU partner countries and MPC ones were identified and invited further to the consortium members.
The workshop, which was mainly considered as a networking event, was addressed to companies, technology centres, research institutes, universities, policy makers, coordinators of projects in the project area, SMEs representatives amongst others. As such, it offered networking opportunities to participants.
Work Package 5
WP5 involved project management and coordination that aimed to ensure that project objective were achieved on time, with high quality and within the costs estimated. Project management also aimed at ensuring the excellent communication between partners and the exchange of information as well as the fulfillment of the contractual obligation of the consortium towards the EC. Project objectives were achieved and project activities were implemented successfully and within the foreseen timeplan and budget by the consortium.
MARE consortium comprises 9 partners coming from 7 countries from both sides of the Mediterranean (EU and MPC). Moreover, the partnership involves different types of organizations, including universities, research centers, private consulting firms, chambers of commerce, business support organizations and clusters. Therefore, it is evident that project management and coordination has been a demanding task.
Nevertheless, management has been effective and MARE project ran smoothly, meeting all milestones and deliverables. This was accomplished through the appointment of a dedicated project manager Dr. C. Perakis. Project manager monitored project implementation on a daily basis and reported to project coordinator on a weekly basis. Slight deviations from project plan where identified early enough to allow for corrective actions and measures to be taken in time. Furthermore, project manager maintained an open communication channel with all partners and especially with WP and Task leaders. Communication was realized through daily email exchanges and regular Skype meetings or phone calls. In this way project manager had a clear view of project progress and all partners of their duties and responsibilities in each step of project implementation.
Additionally, 5 project meetings (including the kick-off) were implemented during the project. Project meetings were an important tool for project coordination, since:
▪ allowed for a review of project’s progress and partners’ performance.
▪ project partners set a detailed time plan for project activities for the next 6 months.
▪ face to face communication and interaction between project partners strengthened relations between project partners and allowed for a better communication during the intermediate period
The details for the aforementioned project meetings are provided below:
- kick-off meeting: Organized by CRES on 30/9/2013 in Pikermi, Greece
- 2nd project meeting: Organized by Capenergies on 7/4/2014 in Aix-en-Provence, France
- 3rd project meeting: Organized by UAE on 21/10/2014 in Martil, Morocco
- 4th project meeting: Organized by RSS-NERC on 20/4/2015 in Amman, Jordan
- 5th project meeting: Organized by CCSev on 29/9/2015 in Seville, Spain
Potential Impact:
MARE project activities were designed and implemented, aiming not only to achieve the project objectives but having a direct and indirect impact in the Energy Innovation Ecosystem of EUROMED region.
MARE EU-MPC partnership collaborated towards tackling the societal challenge of “Secure, clean and efficient energy”, which has a twofold dimension and requires international cooperation. “Secure, clean and efficient energy” challenge refers a) not only to the EUs definitions and objective for making the transition to a reliable, sustainable and competitive energy system, in the face of increasingly scarce resources, increasing energy needs and climate change but also to the fact that b) MPC countries face extremely important energy challenges. MARE partnership from both Mediterranean Sides jointly defined common market, technology and societal challenges, examined the Research to Innovation systems in national, regional and macro-regional level, as well as provided solid suggestions towards tackling the specific subject by suggesting common areas of intervention towards a unified EUROMED Research to Innovation System.
MARE fully exploited technological challenges that do not only meet the societal challenge’s requirements but are also plausible to MPC countries for tackling their specific energy challenges. The three technological pillars which MARE addressed were and still are of critical importance in the EUROMED area while specific technologies identified and exploited took into account all specific characteristics of the area.
Specifically, MARE, through its concrete activities (technologies identification, evaluation of maturity, exploitation plans) and interactions between project partners with the regional innovation ecosystem key actors and policy makers (targeted company missions, dedicated matchmaking events, cooperation with relevant R2I projects and other initiatives and networks such as EEN, INCONET etc) contributed to the mobilization and enrichment of national, regional, EU & International market of energy related technologies, stimulating the market pull and technology push intersection.
MARE through its EUROMED Energy network built bridges among the EUROMED Energy Innovation Ecosystem actors (researchers, TT professionals, business support organizations, start ups and SMEs, MNEs, intermediaries and technology brokers, clusters etc) and worked towards their Research to Innovation capacities on business, innovation and technology commercialization topics, in order to improve competencies on local actors and organisations by providing training seminars on these issues in 7 countries.
MARE mobilized a large set of people and organizations through activities dedicated to experience sharing and learning. MARE promoted mutual learning through five study visits in best practices identified both in MPC and EU countries, while twinning activities between EU and MPC partners took place in order to provide a mutual learning dimension to cooperation, enhance EUROMED R2I collaboration opportunities and identification of innovative joint research topics and future joint initiatives.
The cooperation between the partners and the stakeholders in both sides of the Mediterranean will also continue after the project’s finalisation. The partners will also cooperate in the common goal of opening the market for the proposed technologies since this effort must be endless and surely continue after the end of the project. The networking and cooperation between the stakeholders identified during the project will facilitate the exchange of knowledge and ideas towards the improvement of the technologies and methods and finding new applications as well as commercializing research products. The latter is critical for new entrepreneur and SMEs.
With regards to the socio-economic impact, MARE clearly contributed to tackling main societal problems by enhancing the utilization of solar and wind energy (as a clean and renewable energy source), preserving the resources (reduction of fossil energy sources) and reducing the dependence on energy imports. Public perception is changing: consumers are increasingly concerned on environmental effects from the use of fossil energy sources like the CO2 problematic and harmful emissions. Also energy independence and efficient use of the energy resources are increasingly gaining interest and importance in the society. The combination of RES such as solar and wind energy - CO2 neutral energy sources – leads to environmental friendly energy conversion systems which has the potential to improve the quality of life. MARE technologies exploited, network created and future collaboration opportunities identified were directly targeted to this approach.
In order to maximize the above impact MARE consortium has formulated a dissemination and communication strategy from the very beginning of the project. MARE communication plan defined the strategy upon which MARE partners sought to communicate MARE objectives, relay key messages and promote activities and successful results. Project communication highlighted the project results and linked those results to the societal challenges. Communication strategy actually described project goals and objectives, the target audience and means for both external and internal (between partners) effective communication. It also included an implementation action plan, specifying partners’ roles and finally, defined certain goals/indices by which to quantitatively evaluate the implementation performance of the communication plan. The strategy was updated on project months 15 and 30. A brief description of MARE main dissemination activities is provided below.
1. Project website: An electronic platform with an attractive design reflecting the image, logo and motto of MARE. MARE website provided information about the project progress, research information and results, achievements, relevant links, documents and resources, training material, projects events and other useful information. It also integrated the “Partners’ Portal”, the “EuroMed Network” database, and the “Linked-in” account.
2. Social media: A LinkedIn account for the project was created and animated. Project announcements and key messages were also posted on LinkedIn.
3. Promotional videos: 2 project videos were developed. The first one was an introduction to the MARE project, its activities and objectives, while the second one focused on project accomplishments. Project videos were uploaded on project website and Youtube and were used for introducing stakeholders to the project and presenting project results in a visual way.
4. e-Newsletter: MARE newsletter was developed at six months intervals throughout the project duration and distributed to all partners, stakeholders and network members by email. The newsletter was designed in order to provide a snapshot of MARE news and upcoming activities, while it also included links to relevant events organized in the Euromed area. It also provided links to MARE videos and subscription to the “Euromed Energy Network”.
5. Promotional material: A flash-memory device containing relevant materials (public deliverables, project videos) was distributed at MARE events for further multiplication of the project outcomes. Furthermore, partners distributed printed project leaflets during events hosted or organized by their organizations.
6. All MARE project events and activities were exploited by MARE partners as an opportunity to disseminate project activities and results and introduce new members to the MARE network. The following events/activities were accomplished in the framework of the MARE project: 7 training seminars, 7 match-making events, 76 company missions, 2 international conferences, 5 study visits, 1 international conference jointly organized with MAGHRENOV project.
7. Clustering with other projects: MARE project partners cooperated with other ongoing R2I projects in the EU Southern Neighborhood and INCO projects with the aim to:
- disseminate the message on the importance of Research and Innovation in Euro-Mediterranean Area and beyond, as well as of related policy issues;
- promote the R2I projects, including related outputs and material such as publications and other documentation in each project’s dissemination activities and web sites where appropriate;
- explore the possibility of co-organizing events in countries of common interest (e.g. Innovation Week in Morocco);
- exploit the respective human networks to promote particular project issues where appropriate;
- jointly develop recommendations regarding the definition of future EU-MPC bi-regional programmes.
8. Euromed Energy Network: This network was created in the beginning of the MARE project and included 119 members (RTOs, MSEs, funding agencies, VCs, chambers of commerce, innovation brokers, etc.) at the end of the project. All project activities were disseminated to the network. Project newsletters, that included important announcements and project news, were distributed to all network members. The EEN proved to be a powerful communication tool throughout the project.
9. Other dissemination activities: MARE partners that participated in events around the Mediterranean exploited the opportunity to promote MARE and to introduce new members to the Euromed Energy Network. Other promotion activities included posting news about MARE in local and national magazines or newsletters. Dissemination reports were forwarded to the dissemination leader CCIAT, while a comprehensive Table including all dissemination activities (53) of MARE partners that do not belong to MARE project core activities, has been included in Section 4.2 (Table A.2) of the project Final Report.
Finally, key MARE results with an exploitation potential are:
1.
Exploitable foreground: Development and pilot testing of a “screening methodology”, based on 16 criteria that are related to the commercialization potential of the technologies, assessing their maturity and business opportunity potential in the project area.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: Screening methodology
Sectors of application: R&D/All technology-related sectors
IPR exploitation: Recipients are allowed to use, modify and customize the methodology as long as they are quoting the project MARE and EC/FP7 as their source.
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: MARE partners
2.
Exploitable foreground: MARE Euromed R2I system analysis: An extensive report presenting the meta-region’s countries Research to Innovation Systems, identifying commonalities and challenges among participating countries, an in-depth analysis and macro-level comparison of the MARE Euro-Mediterranean countries, US and Japan innovation systems and policy recommendations towards the development of an integrated Euromed R2I System.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: EUROMED R2I benchmarking and Policy Recommendations
Sectors of application: R&D/All technology-related sectors
IPR exploitation: Recipients are allowed to use, modify and customize the methodology as long as they are quoting the project MARE and EC/FP7 as their source.
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: MARE partners
3.
Exploitable foreground: MARE technology based opportunities: 51 energy technologies suitable for commercialization in the Euromed area were identified, formulated in a technology offer concept and directly and indirectly supported towards market uptake through the key activities of MARE project.
Confidential: No
Exploitable products or measures: Technology Based Opportunities
Sectors of application: Energy
IPR exploitation: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Based Opportunities
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Based Opportunities
4.
Exploitable foreground: MARE technology exploitation plans: Detailed exploitation plans were developed for the 9 promising technology cases identified, paving the way for their market uptake.
Confidential: Yes
Exploitable products or measures: Technology Exploitation Plans
Sectors of application: Energy
IPR exploitation: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Exploitation Plans
Owner & other beneficiaries involved: Technology owners are the sole owners of their Technology Exploitation Plans
Project coordinator: Christoforos Perakis, cperakis@cres.gr , tel. +302106607428, fax +30 2106603301