FP7 Exploitation Management
FP7 Exploitation Management is easy, anybody can do it, can’t they? No it isn’t and no they can’t. And as the programme develops, and earlier projects start to show results, the challenges involved in Exploitation Management become apparent.
But why is that? Surely a technology selected by Research Executive Agency and developed by universities will fly off the shelves once available? Won’t it? No it won’t, because markets don’t know they need it, or even want it. And there is no market until people buy. But that’s not where the main challenges hide.
Imagine a committee made up of an EC bureaucrat, a University Professor, a Consultant Neurosurgeon, and a Scientist. Lock them in a room until they’ve agreed on a single technology which they can take to market down multiple channels and in various guises, and in a business model Venture Capitalists will invest in. It ain’t going to happen.
Challenge 1
FP7 project consortia consist of irreconcilable opposites – bureaucrats, academics, scientists and super users. They are never going to agree, on anything.
Bureaucracies aren’t known for their flexibility or imagination and the REA is no exception. Not that the people aren’t intelligent, diligent and articulate. They are, but the organisation can’t cope with different answers to the same question. Everything has to be the EU way, or its the highway.
On the other hand academics aren’t known for their reliability. They want to do what interests them, not what the project plan says. Scientists are different again – always looking to improve on what they know. In their case the perfect is often the enemy of the simply useful. And clinicians have an entirely different perspective. Quite rightly they see things in the perspective of their patients, one at a time. They don’t understand bureaucrats, academics or scientists, or mass markets, or global issues.
The Exploitation Manager has to keep the team focused on delivering what the project proposal offered despite being treated like a grubby salesman only interested in making a profit.
Challenge 2
The project might not achieve the planned result. Research is discovery, not development, and discovery isn’t quite like a tap, with planned results to be turned on. Most likely any research project will discover new techniques not associated with the project objective. Each of those might offer commercial opportunities more easily exploited than the main idea.
The Exploitation Manager needs to be on top of project results as they develop and open to other opportunities for commercialisation.
Challenge 3
Nobody knew they wanted an iPod until their friends had one – MP3 was state of the art for music on the move. In that case Apple only needed to catch the attention of a few mavens and the product did the rest.
FP7 type innovation isn’t like that. Any new medical device has to jump through multiple hoops – ethics approval, clinical trials, regulatory approval – before it can be offered to a suspicious clinical community which needs to go to administrators to buy things. The medical devices market is thought to exceed $300 billion, annually. It’s enormously profitable, dominated by a small number of suppliers and protected by barriers to entry. Established vendors aren’t interested in other people’s innovations. They’re too busy executing their own strategies.
Introducing new technology takes time, costs a lot of money and carries substantial risk.
Challenge 4
FP7 is about research, not business. The REA quite definitely does not get involved in competition between commercial organisations. Grants cover the costs of exploitation planning, but not the work involved in delivering the plans. Somehow the Exploitation Manager needs to find funds to cover costs of bringing the new technology to market.
In summary Exploitation Management is far from simple. In fact it should be considered part of the research – finding ways to accelerate innovation without control over the inputs, uncertain outputs and no funding.
