Clinician Led Research to Commercial Exploitation with FP7
Exploitation Manager services for FP7 research projects is our main business. Acting as Exploitation Manager for last three years in an FP7 project we’ve learned a great deal about the challenges in aligning the different interests in co-operation projects. Now we’re combining that experience with our Business Internet skills in exploitation management services for FP7 projects.
Perhaps the Biggest Opportunity, Ever
Framework Programme 7 is probably the biggest opportunity ever, for SMEs and scientists throughout Europe, with €54 billion investment available for innovation. The total fund is equivalent to 5% of public sector spending in all 27 member states.
Collaboration in Innovation
The European Commission provides grants, enabling research to be directed at scientific results the commercial world won’t pursue independently. Institutions benefit from additional resources while SME’s get access to new markets, with innovative products. In the medical device sector these grants can reverse the typical innovation process with developments led by clinicians, funded by the EC and brought to market by SMEs. Traditional barriers to innovation are much lower, because the risk profile of research and development is changed, fundamentally.
Grant Funding
Grants are allocated in a variety of instruments (packages) so research can be directed at scientific advances the commercial sectors won’t take on. Universities, research institutions and businesses are invited to apply for grants covering the costs of blue sky thinking which will ultimately benefit member states. SME’s are invited to join consortia of academics and take on responsibility for transforming the research into commercial advantage. Only when the results of research are made available in commercial products can the members truly benefit.
Proposals for grant made by consortia are evaluated against three broad criteria – advances in the state of the science, project management, and impact. The ones rated most highly are then queued for funding with those closest to the scientific objective being selected for funding. Only 10% of applications make it.
Evaluation of Proposals
In the first phase of the selection process grant proposals are evaluated in three dimensions
- Scientific and/or technological excellence (relevant to the topic)
- Quality and efficiency of the implementation and the management
- The potential impact through the development, dissemination and use of project results.
Each is awarded a score out of 5. Anything below 3.0 is automatically rejected. Scores for the three dimensions are totalled to compare with the maximum score of 15. Any project awarded less than 10 in total is rejected. Regardless of how good the science, or the project governance, any proposal scoring less than 3.0 in the impact section will fail, and that’s where the exploitation comes in.
Exploitation Management
The secret sauce in FP7 grant applications is Exploitation – a process whereby the EU’s investment in grant and managing the project actually gets to make a difference. That difference is expected in different dimensions – extending the current science, improving quality of living in the EU, and building successful commercial organisations.
Exploitation of project results isn’t as straightforward as it might seem. The EC officers selecting projects aren’t interested in innovation the commercial world would do anyway. They direct research at solutions the business world won’t take on, without outside help. And they want the discoveries published so others can build on them in the future.
Inevitably FP7 projects are directed at innovation for which there is no obvious commercial model. That’s why exploitation management is such an important element of every successful proposal. And it’s one of the reasons for the inclusion of SMEs in project consortia. SME’s are much more likely to make a commercial success result from the investment. They’ll bring imagination, energy and effort to the process of creating and satisfying demand for the innovation. At least that’s what the EC officers are looking for.
What We Do
Therefore we have to find ways of exploiting the results of the projects, and create business models based on them. Avantrasara offers skills, experience and resources to meet your Exploitation Management needs.
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