The platform being developed is truly unique with its functionalities and interactive features. A platform like the one developed does not exist so far within DG CONNECT or DG GROW. Most importantly, if endorsed by the community of the funded pilot action projects, it will be an efficient tool to promote the business development of pilot facilities, for promoting the sharing of good practices, lessons learnt and for promoting of new projects.
During the project’s life cycle, and after the presentation of the first visual view of the project (alpha version), the end-users, partners and stakeholders started to bring their comments, useful suggestions and their practical advises. We left path of feedbacks open to improve the results and make the functionalities much better.
The size of customization of the project has been increased over planning.
The weight of WP2 increased during the project and WP2 became the main focus.
The project is changed from a mapping tool to a real platform.
During the second half of the project EPPN continued to be updated with new versions of the users’ interface. The platform has been tested by pilot line’s users (SMEs, Startups, Large Enterprises) and other stakeholders around the 3 selected innovation hubs: North Rhine-Westphalia, Basque Country, Upper Silesian). Users’ feedback kept on being incorporated in the subsequent platform developments and releases.
During the second half of the project a new functionality allowing certified users to post information on funding opportunities for both, pilot production facilities and SMEs, has been developed and implemented. This new functionality is directly linked with task 3.5. The platform continued also to be secured as well by check system security and security threats and has been fully deployed at the stable v1.1 stage, complying with the General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR-2016/679).
One of the main aims of this validation stage of the Beta version carried out during the second phase of the projects was to achieve a stable data-model, with refined categories and advanced search outcomes.
Impact) At Pilots’ Level: Mapping and establishment of national and regional contacts with institutions of interest to work with the network of pilot projects/facilities; At the end-user level: Build up a digital platform with search facilities that will allow pilot line owners to be matched with (SME) and industry users. Developed a digital platform allowing for a facilitated use and access to pilot lines by start-ups, SMEs and large corporations and this way facilitate the scale up of innovative and competitive products.
