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The European Research Academy (ERA). Running EU cooperation projects ….some academic and industrial experiences. Michel Pouly EPFL-STI-LGPP Swiss Microtech. ECOLEAD. The European Research Academy (ERA). Agenda of the presentation Researcher’s point of view
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The European Research Academy (ERA) Running EU cooperation projects ….some academic and industrial experiences Michel Pouly EPFL-STI-LGPP Swiss Microtech ECOLEAD
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Agenda of the presentation • Researcher’s point of view • Industrial partner’s point of view • Conclusions
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Researcher’s point of view • The FP system of Calls : • the projects must fit into the currently open Calls • competition is very tough • the Call description is very generic ►you must • find out “what is behind” • the deadlines are short and must be respected • Use the Euresearch services to get previous • information about future calls, brokerage events, • alerts etc.
The European Research Academy (ERA) • How to be part of the game ? • Create your own project • Project proposals represent a lot of work, the new FP7 • 2 stages process is a large amelioration! • Join a strong roped party
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Some hurdles : • Successful roped parties tend to replicate • themselves and become closed clubs • Less opening for newcomers • Soccer team paradigm : • “Never change a winning team !” • Take care of your vitamin R relationship through publications, conferences, brokerage events etc. • Bring complementary competences • Use Euresearch alert service
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Personal involvement • During the project definition phase • EU projects have a substantial number • of partners (7 – more than 20) : • - cooperation with all of them is impossible • - participate to 1-2 work packages with less • partners (3-4) and well defined content
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Personal involvement • During the project running phase • - use a good mix of face to face and remote • meetings (humans are social creatures) • - be ready to prepare progress reports for • the coordinator • - the administrative burden is notreally big • if you are not the coordinator
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Added value of EU projects • Learn what other research groups do • Be confronted to other points of views • Discover cultural differences Have a look outside of your own academic ivory tower !
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Added value of EU projects • Incentive to be more performing • A strong lever for publications (including • journal ones) !
The European Research Academy (ERA) Added value of EU projects • Funding for 3- 4 years • for research institutes • and industry • SME funded at 50-75%
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Agenda of the presentation • Researcher’s point of view • Industrial partner’s point of view • Conclusions
The European Research Academy (ERA) Swiss Microtech (SMT) is a collaborative network of small SME supplying high precision mechanical parts and created in 2001 • Goals : • better serve its customers by providing a large palette of products and services • addressing together markets and customers beyond the possibilities of each isolated SME • continuous improvement of its members Why participating to an FP6 IP project ?
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Four main business challenges to solve : - Knowledge management and sharing within SMT - Exploiting the e-business opportunities - Marketing of the Swiss Microtech brand name - Improving the collaboration with a Chinese partner network • using the corresponding ECOLEAD • IP project results ECOLEAD
The European Research Academy (ERA) • a lot of knowledge (technical and commercial) is generated within SMT and is well shared between the people who meet regularly • it is not the case at the other company levels between people who don’t know each other ! Use the ECOLEAD Bag of Assets Management tool developed by the University of Bremen to increase the exchange of knowledge at more company levels First results positive, mentality change still necessary !
The European Research Academy (ERA) Exploiting the e-business opportunities was a strategic goal in 2001 as major customers introduced e-procurement applications Use the ECOLEAD CoFinder tool developed by the University of Ljubljana to crawl on selected websites and find the most interesting tenders Results depending of the number of corresponding tender sites
The European Research Academy (ERA) Marketing the SMT brand name Strategic decision taken in 2005 : address together the US medical market under the SMT common brand Why should potential customers choose SMT and not a competitor? Because of our broad competences palette, complementary profiles and large aggregated production capacities, of course… • A clear image of SMT must be communicated, but • the members knew the other partners only partially • - the coach had a better overview, but in his mind only
The European Research Academy (ERA) ODMS / PCMS tools developed by University of Amsterdam For our customers : Find the needed competences definitions and check their availability For our agents: Additionally, find which SMT members have the requested competences and capacities to better target their work
The European Research Academy (ERA) List of the competence of SMT, each SMT member and the Chinese network Example : Competence “Milling” Type of product, dimensions (length, diameter), lot sizes, precision, type of material…. Resources : machine and human resources Capability : actual free capacities Conspicuity : certifications, past experiences
The European Research Academy (ERA) SMT competences are available for our customers and agents through the ECOLEAD tools via our Website
The European Research Academy (ERA) Strategic decision taken in 2005 : collaborate with a partner network in China to outsource cheap and simple parts and add further production capacities without having to invest there • Experienced problems: • a lot of misunderstandings • totally explicit communication • too much time needed to get a quote • Use ODMS to define common shared notions like norms, raw • material definitions, tolerances, etc. • Use the Negotiation Wizard developed by Uninova to reduce • the time needed to get a quotation and document the reached • agreements
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Agenda of the presentation • Researcher’s point of view • Industrial partner’s point of view • Conclusions
The European Research Academy (ERA) • FP projects for researchers : • a rather long lasting source of funding • a way to be confronted to other scientists and • create contacts • a publication multiplier • FP project for companies (SME) : • access to a fantastic pool of R&D competences • a way to boost your innovation efforts • a source of funding for your R&D • SMT will participate again !
The European Research Academy (ERA) • Some other related programs you may • consider too: • The “Research for the benefit of SME” • framework • The Eureka program • The IMS initiative