Enhancing the research and innovation potential of Tecnico through Blockchain technologies and design Innovation for social Good

Project Information

BIG

Grant agreement ID: 952226

DOI

10.3030/952226

Project closed

EC signature date 25 June 2020

Start date 1 September 2020

End date 30 November 2025

Funded under

• Establishing ‚ERA Chairs’

Total cost

€ 2 456 702,50

EU contribution

€ 2 456 702,50

Coordinated by

INSTITUTO SUPERIOR TECNICO
Portugal

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - BIG (Enhancing the research and innovation potential of Tecnico through Blockchain technologies and design Innovation for social Good)

Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2024-06-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

BIG's goal is to expand the research and innovation potential of Técnico-Lisbon by developing a critical mass of interdisciplinary research in deploying and testing Blockchain technologies in strategic application domains aligned with Portugal and Lisbon’s smart specialization strategy. The BIG ERA Chair activity aims to unlock full potential of interdisciplinary research while strengthening innovation and knowledge transfer activities in close collaboration with industrial partners. The BIG ERA Chair will therefore contribute to the smart specialization strategy in Lisbon by stimulating the upcoming ecosystem of digital startups and their economic impact.
The following strategic objectives are being pursued:
- Upgrade the existing research and technological development capabilities by expanding the human potential and fostering a critical mass of researchers with interdisciplinary expertise in Blockchain and related technologies (distributed computing, security and applied cryptography, AI, machine learning, big data, and cloud computing) as well as design thinking.
- Improve the innovation potential and impact of Lisbon and Portugal as an ideal platform in the Euro-Atlantic region of the EU through design-driven innovation for the data economy. By unraveling the implications of open innovation in Blockchain technologies on advanced training and knowledge transfer and expanding the human capital and the creative research capabilities of individuals and organizations with the ultimate goal of materializing opportunities offered by Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies.
- Raise international awareness about the research institutes (LARSyS and INESC-ID) and connect Técnico – Lisbon and its industry affiliates to the global knowledge networks: work with mentoring institutes based at prestigious universities in Europe (CNRS, EPFL, Polimi, and Soton), and the US (CMU and MIT).

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 BIG ERA Chair Board saw the addition of two new members, and met on July 15th 2024, at INESC-ID, with the project coordination, ERA Chair and research team.
In what regards the project human resources a new ERAChair holder was successful and two new faculty members were hired. Regarding the support team, at INESC-ID, a senior Project Manager and a Laboratory Technician were recruited. At ITI-LARSyS, a junior project manager was recruited together with a research engineer.
Training for Horizon Europe and a Portuguese Language course were provided to the previous ERA Chair. The project also supported training of six ITI/LARSyS and INESC-ID staff members in financial management and audit of Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects. The project also organized several exchanges events: two talks in collaboration with ITI/LARSyS and the Ph.D. in Digital Media; a workshop between members of the BIG team with researchers at the Politecnico di Milano-Blockchain & Web3 Observatory; research visit of Jorge Perez (University of Groningen); and the INESC-ID Distinguished Talk with Philip Wadler (Univ. Edinburgh).
The ERA Chair research team worked together to submit funding applications to European and non-European Funding sources (€13,15 M). The project registered 6 secondments of Master/Ph.D. students and junior researchers.
20 undergraduate, master and Ph.D. courses were lectured by the project team members. 77 Master and Ph.D. students have developed their thesis in the context of the BIG project. During RP2, 38 students have graduated and 30 are still pursuing their master or Ph.D. programs.
Regarding the BIG Lab, human resources were hired, main research themes are identified, and now the objective is to make the BIG Lab available to Master and Ph.D. students associated with the project or companies affiliated with the project.
The project committed to disseminate its results to broader audiences, with a renewed presence in the social media, but also through op-ed articles, YouTube videos, a podcast participation, and the thorough update of the BIG website. The project team reinforced its presence in international and national events which saw an increase in the scientific outputs of the project, namely scientific publications (47 in total, 19 in Q1, A, A*); but also at the level of the collaboration with industry, with a renewed strategy of collaboration through the establishment of MoU agreements with key companies. The project team members have organized or co-organized advanced training programs and also various scientific events.

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)

Below we provide an explanation of the expected results in what regards the potential impacts identified for the project:
- Increased attractiveness of the institution, region and country for internationally excellent and mobile researchers: the most effective strategy to ensure sustainability of the project, whilst promoting long term institutional change, is creating a virtuous cycle where we move the ERA Chair research team to tenure track positions within the host institution over the course of the ERA Chair project, whilst ensuring that they are still actively involved in the project. The BIG project may have as output up to 5 faculty hired by the project that achieved tenure positions at IST (4) or other Portuguese University (1).
-Increased research excellence of the institution in blockchain and distributed ledger technologies covered by the ERA Chair holder: we have already surpassed the project´s objectives in terms of publication indicators, however, we aim to continue the publication of research in the top tier journals and conferences worldwide, thus continuing to increase the quality of the research that is being developed in the project.
- Improved capability to compete successfully for internationally competitive research funding: Building on the results we propose to achieve within the previous impact, together with the training of staff that occurred in RP2, will be critical for the research team to be able to improve its capability to attract new funding with higher success rates and reinforced collaborations with European partners.
- Institutional changes within the ERA host institution to implement the European Research Area priorities: The tenure positions that are expected within the project (5) will help to meet the European Research Area priorities together with the 17 Ph.D. graduates and 77 Master graduates that are also expected. We expect to have up to 10 research exchanges within this timeline. Therefore on one hand we aim to consolidate the merit-based faculty search and recruitment process as a standard procedure to be replicated by other laboratories, while also improving the exchange of know how and best practices channels that exist in the partners institutions.
- Contributing to the objectives of regional or national smart specialization strategies: A program is being set aimed to strengthen the involvement of the industry partners in the project and promote knowledge transfer through establishment of collaboration agreements with identified industry partners of the project and new partners and promoting industry involvement within BIGLab around DLT related themes and involving students and faculty. We are actively pursuing the networking and research opportunities opened by the project collaboration within the context of other research initiatives such as the BLOCKCHAIN.PT the EU Bauhaus of the Seas Initiative; and the ITI/LARSyS proposal for the creation of the Lisbon NEB Lab.

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