During the one-year project lifetime of ICARUS-SW the economic feasibility was assessed as well as competitors in the field of thermodynamic SW-tools, drivers & barriers and needs & requirements from potential users were analysed. Therefore, a comprehensive desk research, a workshop as well as 27 qualitative-explorative interviews were conducted. Identified potential users of ICARUS-SW solution can be attributed to three different user categories: 1) universities/academia, 2) supranational organizations and 3) industry/companies. Users from these categories can be employed in the sectors of aerospace, automotive engineering, coating and surface technologies, electronics, energy industry, materials science and tools. There are four different types of drivers & barriers for potential ICARUS-SW users: 1) technical drivers (e.g. interfaces to other SW-programs) & barriers (e.g. limitation to binary systems), 2) product drivers (e.g. user-friendliness) & barriers (e.g. difficult commands for calculations), 3) operational drivers (e.g. free test versions) & barriers (e.g. maintenance only for new SW versions) and 4) economic drivers & barriers (e.g. licensing costs). These analysed drivers & barriers are of utmost importance for the advancement of ICARUS-SW. In addition to that, needs & requirements of potential users such as regularly and well-functioning support, a robust tool with short response time capable of addressing uncertainties, accuracy of databases, interfaces to other SW-tools or specific requirements like the inclusion of materials that are (partly) in microscale are crucial for a successful market introduction of ICARUS-SW. Besides that, it is important to know about significant internal resources and capabilities and the external market situation (i.e. competitors). Therefore, a SWOT analysis has been conducted, which shows major strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. To maximize the potential impact of the project results, a tailored dissemination strategy, using an efficient and effective mix of interpersonal and mass communication tools including scientific publications, conferences, workshops, trade fairs and other events, word-of-mouth recommendation, online presence (through website and Social Media), face-to-face discussions and videos, was established. An IPR strategy outlines the protection under proprietary, free and open source licenses which are all options for selling ICARUS-SW as add-on or module in an already existing portfolio of an experienced software house. The final type of licensing will depend on the future cooperation partner. Finally, all the results gathered during the project were summarized and incorporated within the final exploitation strategy. This final exploitation strategy also includes a Value Chain Analysis showing all primary and supporting activities of ICARUS-SW as well as a cost calculation demonstrating possible future royalties of about 1.6 Mio. EUR for ICARUS-SW if a proprietary licensing approach will be chosen. Moreover, it could be shown that there are about 11,300 potential ICARUS-SW users worldwide. Assuming a licensing fee of 10k EUR per perpetual industry license and 5k EUR per perpetual university license this results in a total addressable market of 100 Mio. EUR worldwide. Since it was assumed that about 5% of these potential users will actually buy the ICARUS-SW program, the share of market of ICARUS-SW is about 5 Mio. EUR. Finally, a Business Plan Lean Canvas visualizes the business model of ICARUS-SW.
