An important step in product evolution to market readiness is the evaluation of technical, commercial and financial viability. Thanks to the award of a Phase 1 grant within H2020 SME Instrument, GEA has taken advantage of this Feasibility Study to prepare a feasible route to market ensuring the most efficient path. In particular, the following objectives have been pursued:
From a technical point of view we have carried out a refinement of the technology objectives such as the confirmation of NIR as the best spectroscopy technique, the evaluation of commercial NIR devices in the market and the definition of optimum features that NIRWOOD requires. We have also set the steps to reach a reliable prediction model and to operate it in a cloud-based application.
From the commercial point of view we made an in-depth market study on EU countries focusing on the regulatory opportunities and the implementation degree of voluntary control systems in companies, evaluated market targets and how to reach them, assessed the freedom to operate of our invention as well as the IP protection options for the products outcoming from the project and discussed about the main partners and stakeholders to develop our commercial strategy and reach successful commercialization. We searched for commercial agreements with key partners as NIR device manufactures and key stakeholders for each geographical area and market segment, necessary for the definition of the business plan.
We also identified technical and commercial risks to overcome and from a financial point of view we developed a Business and Work Plan to take NIRWOOD from TRL 6 to TRL9 via the consolidation of our business model based in a Software as a Service application with different access plans for different users.
This Feasibility Study take us to conclude that GEA should continue with the development of NIRWOOD proposal, but requires to incorporate a new partner to the project, with high expertise in NIR devices and chemometric tools, in order to reach project objectives.
