Periodic Reporting for period 2 - CommBeBiz (CommBeBiz - Communicating and Bridging BioEconomy Research to Business)
Período documentado: 2016-09-01 hasta 2018-02-28
CommBeBiz re-oriented its focus when it became clear that the objectives of bringing new products to market & establishment of new businesses were not achievable due to external factors. CommBeBiz took appropriate proactive action when that risk (already identified in the proposal) became a reality. The project worked to ensure (1) projects delivering social, policy & scientific innovation were welcomed & catered for alongside those with a focus on commercialisation; (2) individual researchers were targeted by offering skills development and networking opportunities
Due to on-going challenges throughout the project of engaging with funded projects, CommBeBiz focused its attention as much on attracting individual researchers to engage, attend & contribute to the range of activities as well as on projects. This change in strategy, supported by intensive promotion, new & revised actions, resulted in improved on-line membership & take up of face-to-face opportunities, which have driven skills development and linked projects to external stakeholders across industry, policy and media.
CommBeBiz partners worked to achieve the over-arching objective of engagement by understanding the needs of the projects & researchers involved, engaging them via activities that met those needs, and most importantly evaluating the effectiveness of those actions, so that not only the project itself but also other actors offering support to projects can learn from the experiences of CommBeBiz. The research work undertaken with CommBeBiz Award winners to identify the motivations and behaviour of researchers, with regard to engagement and outreach, helped underpin the project’s understanding of what might work best.
The final core deliverable of the project, the BeBizBlueprint, was published online and available in hard copy from 28 February 2018.
Project partners reinvigorated their efforts to engage with the bioeconomy research community, endeavouring to make it easy for more individuals to say ‘yes’ to participation by providing reshaped opportunities to develop understanding and skills.
From Awards to Bursaries (WP5) Instead of participation in a competition, projects were invited to request a bursary to attend one of five Academies.
Website development (WP2, WP3): the development of the web platform and assessment of its ability to support recruitment and retention continued throughout Period 2. There were 68,969 website page views up to February 2018.
Media and social media (WP2, WP4): Pracsis and Minerva discussed and agreed tactics to increase media engagement, which remained problematic. Social media CommBeBiz utilized the two most appropriate social media channels for science and researchers – Twitter and LinkedIn. Research by Teagasc (in 2016) found that while many researchers favoured using social media to disseminate their successes to wide sections of society, they choose to focus their most extensive online engagement efforts towards the scholarly community.
Publications (WP4, WP6, WP2) – The ability to co-create a Project Brief was one of the most tangible benefits of engaging with CommBeBiz, positioned as a supplementary addition to traditional project literature. 45 were published and available on-line by the end of Period 2. Three publications were issued as full colour, attractive magazines, entitled Bioeconomy Innovation. The BeBizBlueprint (WP6), the final major deliverable of the project, summarises the key learnings and experiences of the project, collated into key messages for a range of organisations and sectors that make up the ‘Ecosystem’ surrounding the research community.
Skills development (WP2, WP4) The major focus of Period 2 was the design and delivery of online and face-to-face training and development opportunities and resources for researchers. 27 Online webinars of various styles continue to be available in recorded form; ‘real time’ communications courses, bespoke by invitation from organisations or agencies, or organised by CommBeBiz, have been held attracting a range of delegates.
Outreach meetings (WP2). In Period 2, CommBeBiz participated in a range of meetings, all focused on the bioeconomy. Annual meetings (WP3) As planned in the DoA, three annual networking meetings open to all were delivered – two in Period 2 (London, led by Minerva, and Budapest, led by EBN). Taking the title of Bioeconomy Impact for all three events, the programme focused on specific workshops as preferred by delegates with plenty of networking time.
Photo Competition (WP3) Introduced by partner Teagasc to encourage more projects and researchers to engage. 90 entries were received for the 2016 competition, 107 in 2017 and 75 in 2018.