ScienceRouter: AI-powered knowledge matchmaking to boost the innovation landscape

Project Information

ScienceRouter

Grant agreement ID: 828048

DOI

10.3030/828048

Project closed

EC signature date 2 August 2018

Start date 1 September 2018

End date 31 January 2019

Funded under

• INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP - Innovation In SMEs

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

MACHINE INTELLIGENCE SWEDEN AB
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ScienceRouter (ScienceRouter: AI-powered knowledge matchmaking to boost the innovation landscape)

Reporting period: 2018-09-01 to 2019-01-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

We have developed ScienceRouter (SR), a AI/machine learning web-based platform that will bridge the gap between industrial companies and academic researchers by enabling the best match between them, 14 times faster than current solutions, and at a comparatively lower cost. Through the implementation of machine learning algorithms, SR analyses open data research articles, patents, university and corporate websites to automatically create knowledge profiles for individual researchers, and knowledge-need profiles for companies. Our profile database enables searches based on keywords and also on free text. SR then facilitates communication and agreement between both parties, simplifying the process of signing contractual agreements, payment and collaboration initialisation.

Improving knowledge transfer from universities to society is important. Despite the substantial investment of public resources in academic research in Europe, there is still a lack of systematic commercial exploitation of knowledge, as demonstrated by the scarce production of innovations and patents. SR can facilitate and enhance applied research and technology transfer, thus impacting positively on Europe’s competitiveness.

The objectives for the project is to verify the business assumptions around the ScienceRouter platform. This includes
- researchers willingness to work with industry
- industries interest in working with researchers
- compliance with GDPR and international employment law
- analyse the market
- create a technical roadmap and goto market strategy

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The following activities were carried out in this feasibility study:

Researcher Interviews: We have interviewed 78 researchers from 9 countries. The interviews supported our hypothesis that there is an interest within the research community to increase the cooperation with industry. A majority of the researchers wanted to increase their cooperation with industry. A few researchers requested additional features, of which some will be implemented in the phase 2, and others will be considered for future extensions.

Customer Interviews: Volvo Group, RISE, Volvo Cars, SKF, Veoneer, Zenuity, CEVT. These interviews confirmed the interest to work more with researchers and that it is today difficult to find a good knowledge match with current methods of finding researchers. The willingness to pay has also been verified.

Search Engine Case Study with Volvo Group. Volvo Group piloted our search engine and provided useful feedback of improvements. All of these will be implemented in phase 2.

GDPR and IPR assessment together with Law Firm. GDPR is a complex matter. Consent can be used as the legal basis for personal information once a researcher has signed up to ScienceRouter. A strategy was formed to mitigate compliance exposure around personal information of non-registered profiles. The licence of research articles needs to be respected. From CCBY articles text can be extracted, but this cannot be done in general or when the licence is unknown. However, linking to the article is still allowed and will be used.

International Employment Law assessment with PwC: A flexible strategy has been formed around alternatives of the commercial relationship between the researcher, the company and ScienceRouter.

Internal analysis for technical and organisational roadmap: A technical roadmap has been designed from the intended supported use cases that ScienceRouter will support in phase 2.

Desktop research for market analysis: We have identified a trend of increased outsourcing of research. We have also analysed which sectors adapting fastest to open innovation and have formed a goto market strategy based on the analysis.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

ScienceRouter will transform how industry and researchers interact with each other. ScienceRouter will make industry-academia collaborations significantly easier, even in small projects, ranging from a few hours. We believe this will lead to many new and exciting innovations, improved economical growth in Europe from higher utilisation of research and become an indispensable tool for solving many of the societal challenges we are currently phasing and will phase in the future.

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