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Building an ELI-centric academia-industry ecosystem

J.-M. Le Goff

ELI-Beamlines Prague

Harfa Office Park, 5th floor, Českomoravská 2420/15, 190 93 Praha 9April 7th, 2014

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI)

• RI across three countries• CZ: ELI Beamlines & HiLASE• HU: ELI ALPS• RO: ELI NP

• Administrative headquarters: ELI DC• Reporting to the Commission

• Status: Construction phase• During operation

• ERIC structure encompassing the three RIs• A fraction of the operational budget must come from income

HEPTech-ELI Workshop

Ecosystem• Definition

An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a community as well as all the abiotic factors with which they interact.

ELI-HEPTech workshop

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

ELI ecosystem / cluster• All the organisations acting within a community as

well as the supporting/facilitating entities with which they interact.

• Not just the ecosystem around the TT Office!• RI(s) centric!

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Ecosystem prerequisites• Attractive Inescapable

• Communication• Benefits• Privileges with joining?

• Structure(s) (Loose Binding)• Supported by RIs?• Ex: Cluster, Network, Collaboration• Subscription to pay for community services?

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Community focus• Q1: What is the focus of the Community?

• ELI?• Advanced Laser facilities?

• CILEX?, ATTOLab?• Advanced photon research facilities

• XFEL?, ESRF?, DIAMOND?• Criteria

• Coherent and clear focus• Broad enough to ensure sustainability

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Stakeholders of the ecosystem• RIs

• Beams and supporting infrastructure for experiments• R&D&I

• Industry• Supplier• Commercialisation of R&D results

• University & Applied/Technical university• Interns• R&D&I

• Supporting/facilitating entities• Procurement Office• Funding agencies (Public/Private)• TT Office

Academia in the ecosystem• Mission

• Research Infrastructure and R&D• Education and Training• Transferring Knowledge and Technology

• Q2: Is the ecosystem expected to provide support to the full mission?

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Activities within the ecosystem• Supporting activities

• Procurement• Collaboration• Internships and people mobility

• Focus may evolve when moving from construction to operation• Facilitating entities must:

• Anticipate• Adapt

• Q3: How to ensure that the ecosystem is the main focus of the supporting activities?

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Benefits• RIs will find in the ecosystem:

• A network of high-tech industry capable of meeting their needs• Procurement

• A network of high-tech industry capable of developing products/applications using research results

• Technology Transfer• A network of Universities with expertise in the field of focus of

the ecosystem to contribute to the R&D (Laser, photon, etc..)• Collaboration

• A source of people to be trained and staff the infrastructure• HR: Training and mobility

• Q4: Are all the above part of the RIs’ expectations?

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Benefits• Industry will find in the ecosystem:

• A privileged access to information on call for tenders• Procurement

• A privileged access to information on research results• Technology Transfer

• Academic expertise to help responding to call for tenders• Collaboration

• A source of potential staff• HR: Training and mobility

• Q5: Are all the above known to industry?• Q6: CERN ecosystem is essentially focused towards procurement

and collaborations. Should the ELI ecosystem be more balanced?• More TT prospects?

• Communication

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Benefits• Universities will find in the ecosystem:

• A network of high-tech industry to team with• Collaboration

• A network of high-tech industry capable of developing products/applications using research results

• Technology Transfer• A source of people to be trained and staff the institution

• HR: Training and mobility• Q7: Are all the above part of the Universities’

expectations?• TT tends to be overlooked

• Communication

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Main issues for Researchers• Have a proper framework for RIs and University

across the ecosystem to:• Access instruments• Use workshops• Purchase equipment• Offer services and consultancy

• A coherent recognition scheme that accounts for all research activities and not only publications

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Main Issues for procurement• Meet the needs of researchers with minimum bureaucratic

burden• Toward a recognised European Market?

• More attractive to industry• Prone to EU/national funding

• Projects more appealing to academia• Pooling call-for-tenders (Pre-commercial procurement)

• RIs: Streamlining procurement rules?• One RI to act on behalf of others for specific call-for-tenders?

• Besides RIs construction should procurement look into:• Academia/industry procurement via partnership

• (Mixt of procurement and in-kind) Can complement RI’s budget• BUT: Accounting and IP issues

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Main issues for TTOs• IP Policy across the ecosystem that regulates all

activities (Procurement, TT and Training&Mobility)• IP: Very fast respond to multiple needs

• Licences of research results• Complex IP ownership

• Standard agreements for all kind of collaborations• Standard agreements for services and consultancy• Join IP strategy with procurement to foster exploitation

of results• ELI (ERIC) specific: Transnational aspects

ELI-HEPTech Workshop

Recommendations• Setting up an ecosystem is not an easy tasks• It is essential than:

• All stakeholders agree on:• The scope • The objectives• The expectations• The means

• This is a kick-off workshop work plan and timeline will strongly depends on the above!

The Collaboration Spotting Project

Thank you for your attention