Why? 

Non technological bottlenecks (knowledge of the market, financial issues, regulatory environment, etc.) prevent research results from making it to the end users. Common Exploitation Booster aim to bridge the gap between research results and exploitation by:

• raising awareness on exploitation possibilities; recognizing valuable and exploitable results;
• providing an opportunity to clarify issues, propose solutions and actions, anticipate possible conflicts for a successful exploitation;
• helping to set-up roadmaps for the long-term sustainability of the project results; facilitating open innovation and (re)use of project results;
• creating value out of novel knowledge (creating revenues, improving skill set of an organisation, preparing for standardization of patenting, finding optional pathways for future work).

What? 

Ongoing projects from any area of FP7 or H2020 can benefit from one of the following services::

• Analysis of Exploitation Risks, to scout the route towards the market and better tackle risks;
• Exploitation Strategy Seminar a joint working session to streamline the exploitation strategy and go to market action plan;
• Business Plan Development to design a convincing and actionable plan for exploitation;
• Brokerage and Pitching Event where partners present their results to peers, potential users and investors, in order to pave the way to follow-ups. 

This service is available for any ongoing project under FP7 or H2020 this is a Common Support Service. The service can be provided to ongoing projects at any point after their first year. However, a project can benefit only once, and only if they have not already been provided with a similar support service under another support scheme.

How?

The proposals for projects to be serviced are made by the EC project/programme/policy officer. If you as a project partner or coordinator are interested in these services, please discuss with the project consortia, and propose this to your EC project officer. Project/policy officers propose projects for services:

• by applying online here ​​or
• by sending to  information about:
  • Project number
  • Type of service
  • Preferred place and timing of service (e.g. in context of project consortia meeting) 

If considering BPE (brokerage and pitching event) service, please note that it is provided for a group of projects. Please collaborate with POs or coordinators in your topic area, and propose a set of projects with a foreseen clustering/consortium meeting event to which this service could be linked.
The Common Support Center selects and coordinates the service requests, and informs the consortia of the expert  offered to implement the service. The details of the service are fine-tuned and agreed between the Project Coordinator and the Expert.
All the Experts signed a confidentiality agreement guaranteeing the non-disclosure of any information received and knowledge gathered from the project.

The four services

Different services are tailored to different TRL levels of the projects. However, on the basis of the PO evaluation projects could access as well to the different services.

1. Analysis of Exploitation Risks (AER)

The service will help projects to tackle questions like:

• ​​​Which exploitable results do the project partners aim to generate?
• What form(s) can the exploitation of these results take (needs for up-scaling, direct industrial use; patenting, technology transfer, licence agreement, publication, standards, etc.)?
• Which conditions will need to be fulfilled to enable the exploitation of the results?
• What is each partner hoping to gain from the project, what is the exploitation strategy of different partners, are the expectations of all partners compatible and coherent?

The Expert will support the partners to identify risks and potential obstacles to the future exploitation of the project's results within and outside the consortium. A report containing the characterisation of the exploitable results, a map of the risks and recommendations on how to better face exploitation during the project life will be provided to the project.

2. Exploitation Strategy Seminar (ESS)

The ESS will provide a platform to discuss exploitation characterise results and design a roadmap toward exploitation. Expert will provide:

• ​​​​​​​guidance to the project partners on the definition or clarification of the exploitation strategy of project results including modalities and procedures to be followed for a patenting strategy,
• advice on follow-up actions and how to connect with relevant actors.

​​​During the ESS project partners as well as other actors like representative of the value chain are expected to be present. The agenda of the seminar (min. 1/2 day and max. 1 day) will be agreed with the project coordinator. The request will specify place and date of the seminar and will be made at least six weeks before the date of the ESS. 

3. Business Plan Development (BPD)

​​​​This service entails to support in the development of a complete business plan, which shall summarise the consortium’s operational and financial objectives for the future and show how they can be achieved. Expert will coach partners in preparing the lean canvas of their exploitable results and in describing in a clear and effective way the business, the products/services, the market, competition, operations and management, and financial estimates. The expert will also provide support, if the project is mature enough, in accessing risk capital providers and other innovation financing actors. 

4. Brokerage and Pitching event (BPE)

​​​​This service is offered to groups of projects (five to ten) to meet and discuss their results in order to create synergies and generate new ideas for further dissemination and exploitation of research results. At this event, these ongoing projects will present their results to potential users, investors or collaborators. The expert will provide coaching, assistance with the design, preparation (including pitch-training for project partners), and bringing together project partners and other relevant actors in the innovation-dissemination-market uptake chain (end-users, industrial suppliers, standardisation bodies, risk capitalists, business angels etc.).

Source and additional information: http://exploitation.meta-group.com/