Feedback and Experience

Transcription

1 Feedback and Experience AAL Coordinators Day Dr. Djamel KHADRAOUI Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology 29, Avenue John F. Kennedy 1855 Luxembourg

2 Conclusions Experience out of coordinating 4 projects: - STIMULATE (Finished) - MEDIATE (Ongoing closed by 08/2015) - SPONSOR (Ongoing) - MAESTRO (will start )

3 From the initial idea to proposal submission decision Q1. How to build a successful proposal? AAL call objectives and requirements. Draft the MEDIATE initial idea and check alignment w.r.t the call text. Discuss the draft idea within our team members. Idea maturation and sponsoring: - Meeting/Exchange with the National Contact Points (concept, objectives, business model, potential partners at the national levels). - Evaluate the networking actions national and international (AAL info day bilateral info days?)

4 From the initial idea to proposal submission decision Networking in the info day itself. Exchanges and alignment with similar ideas. Setup synchronisation meetings with one or many actors met in the workshops. Update the idea concept out of the different discussions (NCP, Q/A, networking and synchronisation meetings). Set up the core projects members. The project objectives should be shared with these core contributors. Elaborate the early draft of the project concept (V 0.1). Organise a physical meeting at least 1,5 months before the DL.

5 Project Preparation Q2. How to prepare the proposal itself? Elaborate the skeleton of the project proposal that should fit the call requirements and agreed with the core partners: - which existing technologies to be used (out of the existing partners: background etc..) and check the IPR related to these techno. - identify the users/customers of the targeted technology to be developed, - which kind of business model to be targeted, - Identify the exit strategy, - Develop an experimentation strategy (piloting and demonstration scale) and analyse its implementation (cost, effort and environment tests), - how the users can/are involved (co-design, development and testing, piloting). Identify at first who will achieve what in the proposal from the list of the core participants.

6 Project Preparation Discuss the partnership strategy: - Identify the gaps and elaborate the profiles of the missing partners: end users, business partners, technical partners. Make sure that you have a least a credible end-user in the loop. - Keep checking the balance between private and public contributions since it is one of the evaluation criteria. - How many countries are we trying to cover in the project (min 3 but might be good to avoid risk of loosing more than one country after the evaluation). - Look first in the existing partners networks and identify those that might be interested.

7 Project Preparation - Who can be the leader of the project. Check the eligibility criteria before any final decision to be taken (ex: management budget is or not eligible?, etc ). The management work is very important but depending on the budget available, the decision can be taken. The priority should go the one has the management capabilities and also to the one who can guarantee the funding. - Look at the contacts provided via AAL (partners search or info days) if any partner can be approached. - Once a partner is targeted, verify if they can fulfil the project achievements and check also the eligibility criteria/procedure with the corresponding NCP.

8 Project Preparation Discuss an early draft of the IPR strategy: - Identification of the background assets and verify the ownership (open source solutions or commercialised ones etc ). - Identify who will be playing the role of exploiting the project results.

9 Project reconfiguration after the project evaluation Q3. How to succeed in reconfiguring the project (if required)? If the project passed the threshold but requires a reconfiguration of the partnership. Analyse quickly the impact of such a reconfiguration (budget, work-plan) Identify the profile of the required partners you are looking for. Check the reconfiguration rules and requirements (document provided by AAL) and identify the countries where budget is still available. Make sure that you maintain the balance (private/public contributions in PM). Start looking for potential candidates (Call NCPs, looking to experienced partners in AAL in passed or ongoing projects). Elaborate a list of priorities in terms of partners. This should be done in coordination with the saved partners. This has to be coordinated by the project leader.

10 Project reconfiguration after the project evaluation Check the coherency of the pilots and experimentations that might be impacted with potential new partners. Make sure that the identified partners are not engaged in similar projects to be reconfigured (call the NCPs to check about the eligibility requirements and ask about the reputation of the partners you have in the list). Make sure that you can talk with them directly, check their motivation and verify their assets. Verification about the budget available and the one required for the project. Check if the equipment are included in case they are required for the pilots, etc Request a letter of engagement.

11 Feedback on the project running experience Q4. How difficult is the project execution and coordination? Project Consortium Agreement Preparation: the signature might take time and this depend on the partners policies (background already defined or not, PCA associated to the budget engagement or not). Sometimes it can take a long time depending on the partners + the countries policies. The signature can be made remotely via scan of the documents and original copies distributed during the KOM. This can impact the funding contracts of the partners. Preparation of the KOM. This is a very important milestone since new partners are involved but not really in the project strategy as a whole. Defining the first actions and responsibilities.

12 Feedback on the project running experience Preparing immediately the actions related to the ethical aspects of the project because this depends on the national regulations + local actor behaviours. This has to be conducted by the end-users or the actors that are on contact with the Seniors. Setup regular meetings (telco + technical workshops + plenary meetings). Check if budget from all the partners has been defined accordingly (yearly basis or for the whole project duration?) Make sure that the end-users involvement strategy is still valid and adapt if necessary. Communication and dissemination actions are important. Give this action to those that are good on that. AAL are looking carefully into that. The coordinator should be heavily involved on this. Make sure that you are in-time in the implementation and integration of the technologies. This has a big impact with the pilots and users involvement.

13 Feedback on the project running experience Prepare the MTR and avoid delays in preparing the deliverables. The challenge is on how to make sure that the partners are producing their contributions in time. Make sure that you take the time in discussing and analysing the results with all the partners. Avoid isolated contributions or incomplete ones (confidentiality reasons, etc ). A demo session is always necessary to show the progress. Avoid preparing only reports without demonstrations. Reflect all changes made in the DoW to AAL especially those related to delivery dates. The business models and the commercial views are very important. Make sure that you provide a credible commercial model and should be validated via business partners. This can be done step by step and also via short/mid/long term business perspectives. Some of the innovations might have difficulties in fitting to existing business models etc

14 Feedback on the project running experience Prepare the project closing - Make sure that you have reserved time (effort) for the project closing - Prepare the reports before the end of the project. - Make sure that the technology has been tested and experimented properly. - Do not forget to finalize the IPR document that should be agreed and signed by all of the partners, especially necessary for potential commercial exploitation of the results.