Pairing Business with Scientific Expertise

Projektbeschreibung

Wirtschaft und Wissenschaft zusammenbringen

Unternehmen investieren häufig viel Zeit und Geld, um geeignete wissenschaftliche Beratung, finanzielle Mittel, Geräte, Daten und Ressourcen zu finden und damit technologische Probleme zu lösen sowie die eigene Forschung und Entwicklung zu fördern. Daneben gibt es eine immer dringendere Nachfrage nach wissenschaftlichem Fachwissen und Know-how, um Probleme im Zusammenhang mit Klimawandel, Umweltverschmutzung, Ernährungsunsicherheit, zunehmender Antibiotikaresistenz von Mikroben, dem Aufkommen von künstlicher Intelligenz und andere globale Herausforderungen anzugehen. Das EU-finanzierte Projekt QUESTPAIR unterstützt daher eine Machbarkeitsstudie zur Einführung einer neuen Online-Plattform, die Unternehmen und Organisationen mit wissenschaftlichen Sachverständigen aus Universitäten oder Forschungszentren zu Beratungszwecken und für Auftragsforschungsprojekte zusammenführt.

Ziel

Universities in Europe are generating an estimated €18 billion in revenues from contract research, consultancy, and use of facilities and equipment. This is expected to grow as urgent global challenges such as climate change create huge demand for new technologies, data, and materials. Also the EU and national governments are increasingly promoting academic-business collaborations to boost the knowledge economy. However, a remaining problem is that many businesses still have difficulty finding scientific experts, equipment, data, and materials across the globe. Whereas some online platforms exist to match business needs to freelance scientists, there is a lack of services to find expertise and assets for collaborations within universities and organisations, leaving a huge market largely untapped. Therefore, we are developing QuestPair, an online platform where businesses can post their scientific and technological needs, to which scientific experts can propose projects and suggest equipment, data and materials. Universities on QuestPair can directly participate in the negotiation of pricing and contracts. We believe that QuestPair could potentially facilitate around 6000 years of project work within the next 6 years, while reaching yearly revenues of ~€40 million. The QuestPair team combines research and data analysis skills with expertise in business, consultancy and software development. We are already developing a minimum viable product (MVP) and are receiving positive feedback from the scientific and business communities. This feasibility study aims to create a detailed picture of mediation/brokerage services that companies, scientific experts and universities need. We take an iterative approach, where we conduct questionnaires and market research, implement the results in the MVP, measure user response, and develop further. We explore different marketing strategies and evaluate several financial models to create a solid and detailed business plan.