Periodic Reporting for period 2 - EFFECTIVE (Exploiting Factory of the Future projects through Enhanced Clustering towards Technology Transfer, Innovation and Value creation for European industry.)
Reporting period: 2016-01-01 to 2016-12-31
The FoF PPP was one of three PPPs2 launched by the European Commission in 2008 to tackle directly the impending economic crisis and help EU manufacturers, in particular SMEs, to adapt to global competition and meet with increased success global consumer demands for greener, more customised and higher-quality products through advanced R&D and Technology Innovation activities
The aim of the EFFECTIVE project is to address the exploitation of technologies resulting from FoF-PPP projects, by integrating them into the innovation processes of relevant manufacturing industries through a human-centric and design-based approach. In this framework, the following stages have been carried out:
1. Creating a European network reaching a critical mass of all the most relevant stakeholders from key targeted industries and broad technology domains in the identified industries;
2. Identifying rules for clustering trends & challenges versus research and developed technologies to facilitate and speed up the industrial exploitation and future market success of research results;
3. Defining and illustrating through best practices and case studies key industrial success factors;
5. Disseminating the objectives, activities and results of the project so that a critical mass of industry, research and political stakeholders involved in industrial research and innovation in the identified sectors at EU, national and regional level becomes aware and whenever possible actively involved in this initiative.
Under the WP1 partners proceeded to produce:
• An analysis of Business Trends and Market prospects, both from the consumer and from the industrial side
• An Assessment of comprehensive and updated information on recent technological developments, publications, innovation programmes within the targeted technological areas
• 4 workshops with top-ranked international experts, for evaluation and validation of project results and leading to the elaboration of future FoF priorities. Two Workshop have been already organized.
Results: 1)Report on Business Trends and Market prospects 2) Reviews of recent technological developments, publications, international RTD and innovation programmes within the technological area of the clusters 3) Dissemination and Validation of project results through 4 International Workshops.
Under the WP2, partners developed and validated the EFFECTIVE industrial exploitation framework, and preliminary set-up of networks and alliances for FoF project activities exploitation, through:
• Definition of an EFFECTIVE industrial exploitation framework, including financing, IPR and standards
• Definition, identification, characterization and engagement of all the stakeholders to involve in networks and alliances for FoF project activities exploitation, with priorities and focus based on the concrete potential for future definition of exploitation strategies
• Iterative improvement of the EFFECTIVE industrial exploitation strategies and implementation of all required corrective actions on each Framework element
Major results: An Industrial Exploitation Framework including all elements to consider in defining exploitation strategies of FoF project results and a Industrial Exploitation Network. Both of them are potentially and concretely exploitable.
The activities carried out under the WP3 led to the conception of the EFFECTIVE clustering model. It aimed at aggregating FoF project results and facilitating their interlinking with existing technology transfer activities, based on the exploitation potential in a given application/sector. EFFECTIVE partners were involved in the analysis and clustering of the targeted project activities and results against the proposed reference model, and in the development of the EFFECTIVE Clustering database.
Result: Development of a Clustering Model and Database both of them exploitable
The project activities foresaw the realisation of 4 case studies towards effective exploitation of results in the addressed industrial application areas in Italy, Spain, Germany and Nederland. They were developed in the 3 industrial application areas: Consumer Goods (Low TI), Machinery and Production Systems (Medium TI), Medical Devices (High TI).
The case studies, implemented at regional level, served as pilot applications of the different elements developed in the previous WPs and aimed at providing continuous feedback for their iterative improvement:
• The EFFECTIVE FoF Clustering database was used to identify one or more FoF project results to use as technological enabler(s) of the exploitation case
• Members of the EFFECTIVE exploitation network were involved to cover specific roles in the exploitation life cycle
• The EFFECTIVE industrial exploitation guideline were used to define all necessary economic, strategic, legal elements.
The WP5 was meant to develop instruments for adequate monitoring of FoF activities clustering and exploitation during the project lifetime and beyond.It addressed also the roadmapping of needed further research and innovation actions through the identification of future FoF priorities within the technological areas of the addressed clusters.
The activities carried out under this Work Package led to:
• The definition of a strategy for the monitoring of dissemination, exploitation and technology transfer of FoF projects activities also beyond the project life cycle.
• Definition of a roadmap for further clustering and exploitation at European level in the addressed sectors
• Elaboration of future FoF priorities within the area of the identified clusters
In the framework of the Dissemination and Internationalisation Work Package, the following activities have been carried out:
• A collaborative Web Portal for project results has been developed.
• A Dissemination Plan was produced in the first three months of the project
• Three Newsletters
• An internationalisation Plan has been released including activities for dissemination and evaluation of possible exploitation of FoF results also in the international scenario.
• Four Strategic Workshops
• A Internationalisation Workshop
• A Final Pubblic Conference
1. speeding up industrial exploitation and take up of results of FoF PPP projects
2. stimulation of networks and alliances for further RTD and industrial innovation in the addressed technology and application areas, including the development and practical application of a clustering model
3. added value beyond the original scope of the FoF PPP projects by exploiting synergies and sharing best practice. Increased public presence and awareness of FoF PPP activities
4. more effective execution of activities of common interest, such as IPR management and standardisation
5. anticipation of business trends and market prospects
6. countries and regions involved in the case studies