Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement (IRMA)
Agreement No.: 2007-1990/001-001
http://www.irmaproject.eu
Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
Authors: Claudio Rosso, Adriana Harandzova CS Aziendale Soc. Cons. ar.l. Date: 30/06/2009 Rev. 04 Type: Document for Approval
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1.
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................................3
2.
DEFINITIONS ....................................................................................................................4
3.
ACTION PLAN ELEMENTS..............................................................................................6 3.1. OBJECTIVES ...................................................................................................................... 6 3.2. TARGET GROUPS AND AUDIENCES.......................................................................... 10 3.2.1. ACADEMIC MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY ...................................................... 11 3.2.2. OTHER STAKEHOLDERS ............................................................................................ 12 3.3. ROLES OF PARTNERS ................................................................................................... 12 3.4. DISSEMINATION CHANNELS AND PLANNING ACTIVITIES................................ 13 3.4.1. DISSEMINATION CHANNELS .................................................................................... 13 3.4.2. PLANNING ACTIVITIES .............................................................................................. 14
4.
DISSEMINATION TOOLS AND EVENTS .......................................................................15 4.1. LOGO - DEVELOPMENT OF A CORPORATE IDENTITY ......................................... 15 4.2. WEBSITE AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION................................................... 16 4.2.1. LIFE LONG LEARNING MANUFACTURING PORTAL ........................................... 16 4.2.2. NEWSLETTERS ............................................................................................................. 17 4.3. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS .............................................................. 17 4.4. PUBLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES ................................................................ 18 4.5. PUBLICATIONS AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS ............................................ 19
5.
EXPLOITATION AND VALORISATION STRATEGY .....................................................20 5.1. TARGET GROUPS IDENTIFICATION .......................................................................... 20 5.2. EXPLOITATION AND VALORISATION STRATEGY ................................................ 21 5.3. MEASURES OF SUCCESS.............................................................................................. 22 5.4. EXPLOITATION AND IRMA PROJECT........................................................................ 23 5.4.1. FREE DOWNLOAD ................................................................................................. 23 5.4.2. CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS ........................................................................ 23 5.4.3. THREE GROUPS OF PARTNERS .......................................................................... 24 5.4.4. NEW PROJECTS ...................................................................................................... 24 5.5. EXPOITATION PLAN...................................................................................................... 25
6.
CONCLUSION.................................................................................................................27
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
1.
INTRODUCTION
The project Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement (IRMA), co-financed within the Lifelong Learning Programme, consists in realisation of a 2-years ResearchComparative Analysis in the 27 European Union’s Member States, aimed at the promoting excellence, efficiency and fairness of the instruction in Higher Education Institutes within the Manufacturing Engineering sector. The above sector was selected since it is supposed to contain a high level of innovation and quickly-changing requirements that students should possess in order to adapt themselves and be competitive in the labour market. The Research Analysis involves three Interfaces: Enterprises, Universities, and “Intermediary” Institutions (Enterprises Incubators, Technological Poles, Academic Spinoff, Institutional Agencies). The analysis focuses on the following activities: - to understand what competences and knowledge are requested by Enterprises; - to understand what competences and knowledge are supplied by Universities; - to understand what competences and knowledge are spread by Intermediaries. Duration of the IRMA Project is planned for 24 months (1/1/2008 – 31/12/2009) and it will be carried out in the following phases: 1) Preparation and Design of Project ICT instruments 2) Research Analysis Realisation 3) Realization of Quality, Evaluation and Validation Plan 4) Dissemination 5) Exploitation The data will be collected through a web questionnaire - specific for everyone of the three Interfaces – together with Sector Analysis elaborated for each of the EU27 countries put in a Data Base created on a Portal. The following criteria will be compared at the European level, as declared within the Project IRMA: Qualitative level of Teaching in the Higher Education, Innovation level of Teaching in the High Education, Quantitative level of Students, Causes\rate of scholastic defection, Preventive actions for scholastic defection, European Mobility, Occupational way out, Skills 3
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
and Competences Management, Obstacles to access/change/transfer to another Faculty, E-learning services. The analysis allows a detailed comparison among various Universities that will have the opportunity to exchange Best Practice and innovative elements existing in their own educational systems. The above-mentioned Database – including all gathered data through web questionnaires – will be available on the Lifelong Learning Manufacturing Portal - LLMP. The Portal will be used during the project realisation, and most of all, after its end as a place where to communicate and to exchange information and knowledge about Manufacturing in an “open logic”. Any research activity is accompanied by a dissemination and exploitation strategy. A sound communication and dissemination strategy need to be planned well in order to maximise its benefits. Within the dissemination and exploitation strategy, the first important task to be undertaken is identifying key messages and simplifying the arguments to facilitate the interpretation of the results received during the comparative analysis and communicate them to the wide public, either to the professionals or any other interested parties.
2.
DEFINITIONS IRMA – Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement
TUKE – Technical University of Kosice (Slovakia) – applicant; http://web.tuke.sk CS – Gruppo CS (Italy) – Coordinator; http://www.gruppocs.com CAD-UP – IT Partner (Slovakia); http://www.cadup.sk TUTA – University of Oulu (Finland); IRMA Partner http://www.tuta.oulu.fi PUT – Technical University of Poznan (Poland); IRMA Partner http://www.put.poznan.pl NUMB – North University of Baia Mare (Romania); IRMA Partner http://www.ubm.ro BDF – Balear de Desarrollo y Formación (Spain); IRMA Partner http://www.bdf.es TEOS – Studio TEOS (Italy); IRMA Partner http://www.teos.it 4
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
LLMP – Life Long Learning Manufacturing Portal Intermediaries – Institutions like Enterprises Incubators, Technological Poles, Academic Spin-off, Institutional Agencies Subcontractor – partners that collaborates with the IRMA partners in the countries in the rest of the EU TUT - Tallinn University of Technology (Estonia) – IRMA Subcontractor IQE - Institute for Quality Engineering (Latvia) – IRMA Subcontractor KUT - Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) - – IRMA Subcontractor FHJ - FH Johanennum Graz (Austria) - IRMA Subcontractor TUO - Technical University of Ostrava (Slovakia) - IRMA Subcontractor UoD - University of Debrecen (Hungary) - IRMA Subcontractor M2A – M2A Technologies SARL (France) - IRMA Subcontractor DEIS – Cork Institute of Technology (Ireland) - IRMA Subcontractor CEN – Consortium Energy – (Italy) - IRMA Subcontractor AUD - Aalborg University (Denmark) - IRMA Subcontractor LUT - Lulea University of Technology (Sweeden) - IRMA Subcontractor FIN - FINPRO Haag (The Netherlands) - IRMA Subcontractor UoM - University of Maribor (Slovenia) - IRMA Subcontractor UoL - Université de Liege (Belgium) - IRMA Subcontractor IKS - Institute Knowledge Society Sofia (Bulgaria) - IRMA Subcontractor RTD – RTD Talos Ltd. (Cyprus) - IRMA Subcontractor ASG - ACTION SYNERGY S.A. Athens (Greece) - IRMA Subcontractor CEN - CENFIM Lisboa (Portugal) - IRMA Subcontractor TFW - Technishe Fachhochschule Wildau (Germany) - IRMA Subcontractor IPA - IPA Slovakia Žilina (SK) - IRMA Subcontractor ExL - Excellis London, United Kingdom - IRMA Subcontractor
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
3.
ACTION PLAN ELEMENTS
The action plan of the dissemination and exploitation activities within the IRMA project considers the following elements as the most important for developing a dissemination and exploitation strategy: -
establishing objectives respecting the common principles,
-
developing communication messages as well as designing an IRMA identity.
-
specifying Target groups and audiences
-
identifying distributing channels,
-
estimating activities and timetable
-
evaluating success of the Action Plan.
Detailed communication instruments, objectives, documents and principles used for a successful dissemination and exploitation strategy are in line with the objectives of the programme, within which the IRMA has been carried out.
3.1. OBJECTIVES The IRMA dissemination and exploitation strategy bears in mind all declared objectives within the project itself: -
to contribute to the development of quality lifelong learning and to promote high performance,
-
innovation and a European dimension in systems and practices in the concerned field; To support the realisation of a European area for lifelong learning;
-
to contribute to the improvement of the quality, attractiveness and accessibility of the opportunities for lifelong learning available within Member States;
-
to help to promote creativity, competitiveness, employability and the growth of an entrepreneurial spirit;
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
-
to promote language learning and linguistic diversity;
-
to encourage the best use of results, innovative products and processes, and
-
to exchange good practice in the fields covered by the Lifelong Learning Programme, in order to improve the quality of education and training.
The IRMA project wants to achieve with its dissemination and exploitation activities the following key objectives: •
Disseminate the results of the comparative research as widely and effectively as possible.
•
Clearly explain the principles what the strategy has been relied on, producing truthful, credible and cost-effective communication plan.
•
Develop a simple model of the dissemination and exploitation activities and demonstrate how these might work in different contexts: reports, technical newspaper and journal articles, website page, etc.
•
Identify the target groups and audiences and user groups and make them to have the results of the comparative research at the disposal, according to importance and influence relative to our objectives.
•
Analyse all activities, channels and available resources and identify the actions so that it will be possible involve relevant time, money and human resources focusing on “high impact/low cost activity”.
•
Build awareness of the project among a wide but defined group of audiences and user groups.
•
Assure the fact that the project results will be useful to the future development of the life long learning and learning activities, as stated in the project.
The objectives and activities mentioned in the Action Plan have been planned in order to ensure the creation of the homogenous identity of the IRMA project already in the early stage. At a later stage, when the project comparative research results are visible and elaborated it is possible to make proposals to policymakers or some other relevant stakeholders.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
In order to reach the mentioned objectives the dissemination and exploitation plan has been divided into four phases: PHASE 1. Dissemination for involvement that occurs in the first 6 months. An essential objective of this phase is the involvement of the stakeholders: about 200 organisations – including universities, companies and intermediaries – of all around Europe are contacted in this phase in order to increase awareness of the IRMA project identity. The selected organisations are directly involved as co-partners in the IRMA project. All IRMA partners are involved in this phase. PHASE 2. Dissemination for Actions carried out within the period of 6th and 13th months of the IRMA project. During this phase a high number of potential respondents is contacted, at about 4000 at all EU27 level. The targeted groups/audiences represent persons equipped with the right skills, knowledge and understanding of higher education in the field of manufacturing engineering. All IRMA partners are involved in this phase. PHASE 3. Dissemination for Awareness that is present within all period of the project life, i.e. 24 months. It is the desire of all consortium partners that people are aware of the work carried out within the IRMA project. Awareness can be raised by different means, as specified bellow. This phase may be useful also for those target audiences that do not require such a detailed knowledge of the project work but it is helpful for them to be aware of IRMA activities and outcomes. All IRMA partners are involved in this phase. PHASE 4. Dissemination for Exploitation carried out within the period of 23rd and 24th months. Ultimately it is envisaged and expected that the IRMA outputs and the project results will be available to all interested stakeholders, especially the decision makers, authorities at technical universities. To ensure maximum exposure, interested parties should be made fully aware of the project results, as well as understand their benefits. Even in this phase, all IRMA partner will be involved. The Fig. 1 shows the mentioned IRMA Dissemination Phases.
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Dissemination Phases
Project Title: IRMA - Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement WP code
ACTIVITIES
MNTG
PROJECT MANAGEMENT & COORDINATION
PR EP
PREPARATION AND DESIGN PROJECT ICT INSTRUMENTS
RES
RESEARH & ANALYSIS REALIZATION
QPLN
QUALITY, EVALUATION, VALIDATION PLAN
Project acronym: IRMA
Start date: 01/2008
MACRO
End date: 12/2009
MICRO
C o urs e / A c t io n C o de :
YEAR 2008 YEAR 2009 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
PHASE 1. Dissemination for Involvement PHASE 2. Dissemination for Actions
PHASE 3. Dissemination for Awareness DISS
DISSEMINATION
EXP
EXPLOITATION
UPDATED
PHASE 4. SIGNATURE CLIENT
SI G N A T U R E M A N A G E M E T
SI G N A T U R E A N A L Y SI S M A R C O P R O J E C T
SHEET 1
SI G N A T U R E M I C R O P R O J E C T / P L A N N I N G / P R O G R A M
26/06/2009 MR-7.3-04_01 Date of Issue 01.01.2008 Ed. 01 Rev. 01 Pag 1/1
Fig. 1 IRMA Dissemination Phases
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
3.2. TARGET GROUPS AND AUDIENCES It is crucial to know, for development and effective realisation of any strategy, who are subjects of communication. Key audiences - target and user groups – have been specified and ranked according to their importance and influence they have in connection with our project and dissemination and exploitation objectives. There are be some “communication gaps” in the transmission of the received information and results among different groups of stakeholders, from academic community, through students, citizens, policymakers, regulatory authorities, etc.. With aim at minimising the mentioned communication gaps, the Partners have decided to communicate and exploit the project results in two levels, adapted to the two main target audience groups identified: academic manufacturing community together with students and companies other stakeholders. Even if, coherence and consistency between the two is maintained, but the language and the level of detail given is adapted depending on the target. The following table shows describes in details the project stakeholders: 1st group - Academic Manufacturing Community Stakeholder/Target audience
Sector
Level
Academic authorities
University/learning
decision makers
Academic staff
Education
Professors/Education staff in Manuf. Engineering
2nd group – Other stakeholders Stakeholder/Target audience
Sector
Level
Students
Education
University students/potential students
SME’s organisations
Business
Business organisations
Intermediaries
Research
Research
and
innovative
organisations Public authorities
Public administration
National/regional/local 10
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
3.2.1. ACADEMIC MANUFACTURING COMMUNITY The academic manufacturing community is one of the two main target groups chosen, since their knowledge and understanding of the comparative research results and challenges faced by the project IRMA are crucial for the sector development in the close connection to the higher education and life long learning. The first group of audience represents all specialists and academic staff working in the field of manufacturing engineering. Of course, the results could be addressed also to another type of university teachers that could somehow benefit from the results achieved by the IRMA research, e.g. all technical universities staff and employers. One of the most traditional and effective actions through which the IRMA project could be make known are presentations carried out at congresses and article publications in scientific and other relevant journals. The main congresses, conferences and seminars – at international and national level have been identified by partners at which working papers are presented either directly by partners participating in an event or through posters. Authorities of academic world participate in the mentioned conferences and seminars, which means that an exploitation activity will be ensured. These actions aim at disseminating process carried out during the EU comparative research and especially the analysis and results elaborated. At the same time, specific academic/scientific and other relevant publications – those closely connected to the field and topic of education in the manufacturing education bringing the value added – have been selected by partners. The technical articles have already been or will be written by partners and sent to the for edition in different journals. A analysis has been planned for autumn 2009 that will be prepared by all universities partner and sent to an international journal for publishing.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
3.2.2. OTHER STAKEHOLDERS Students, companies, authorities, intermediaries and any other interested party – a group of stakeholders that represents the final users of the comparative research analysis developed within the IRMA project – should be fully informed about the results of such activity. Even if this target group is quite various, in the first stage of the project development some activities in close collaboration of all partners have been carried out, e.g. creation of the IRMA Web Page and IRMA logo together with e-mails with invitations for the IRMA project participation – in other to present the research analysis and raise awareness of the project. The individual meetings with companies and intermediaries (research centres, spin-off, incubators etc.) have been realised during the IRMA research analysis. The students have had possibility to express their opinions directly on the IRMA Web Page, this possibility has been spread by the partners in their own countries. A dissemination seminar is planned for December 2009, in which all interested parties students, companies, authorities etc – can take part. Thanks to this event, the IRMA analysis and its results will be promoted to the wide public. What’s more, publication of articles in non-scientific magazines (newspapers, science supplements in magazines, etc) will also be promoted, as it is the most suitable way of reaching this audience.
3.3. ROLES OF PARTNERS In order for the project to succeed, it is vital to raise awareness of the IRMA project results, attract interest from academia and academic authorities, to business and government. 8 Partners from 6 countries of European Union secure the broad area of data collection and research on manufacturing technologies on international level as well as the impact of project outcomes on national and international level. The dissemination of the IRMA project and system is being performed by the Consortium as a whole and, what’s more, individually by each project partner. The partners could be divided into three groups: 4
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
universities (Slovakia, Poland, Finland, Romania), 1 coordinator (Italy) and 3 IT partners (Spain, Italy, Slovakia) The most important role within the consortium have the universities partners that have possibility to participate in different technical conferences/seminars, have access to different databases and can effectively disseminate and “influence” relevant decision makers. The project coordinator, thanks to its wide range of partners and its participation in various European projects, using also its foreign operating company located in Slovakia, has a large network of national and international partners at disposal, that operate as industries, small and medium enterprises, public institutions, high schools and universities, service agencies. In this context, the company is able, in the framework of the IRMA project activities, to diffuse quickly the project results, and to give a value to technological innovation in the relevant countries or economic markets. The IT partners cooperate during the IRMA Portal development with aim at producing the important communication instrument. All these partners have a large experience in IT consultancy and services that will be made use of during the project. The IT partners have different backgrounds and experiences in a variety of business sectors. It is worth to mention that all partners have strong networks of partners and various partner resources, contacts and personnel that the consortium can utilise to put into place an effective dissemination strategy.
3.4. DISSEMINATION CHANNELS AND PLANNING ACTIVITIES 3.4.1. DISSEMINATION CHANNELS It is necessary to identify right communication channels – suitable for each of group of stakeholders – in order to be successful in getting the project and its activities known. The following dissemination channels have been specified. The individual channels and tools are described in the following chapters: •
INTERNET – Lifelong Learning Manufacturing Portal - LLMP 13
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
•
DISSEMINATION EVENTS – presentations at seminars, conferences, workshops and other events
•
MEDIA/PRESS CHANNELS
•
OTHER
3.4.2. PLANNING ACTIVITIES A detailed plan of dissemination activities is enclosed as an Annex of this document.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
4.
DISSEMINATION TOOLS AND EVENTS
In order to get an effective dissemination and exploitation strategy, it is necessary: •
to specify preferred channels used by all audience and stakeholders, either those principle or who might be interested in the dissemination process. We are aware of the fact that the channels of communication have to be right in order to bring and reach the maximum impact.
•
to create a detailed plan of the dissemination and exploitation activities and keep it manageable and do not underestimate the time involved in communication.
These are some of the means by which the IRMA partners wish to achieve the above mentioned objectives.
4.1. LOGO - DEVELOPMENT OF A CORPORATE IDENTITY One of the first steps taken by the IRMA Consortium to promote and raise awareness of its existence has been design of a professional logo representing the consortium and projects itself, so that they can be easily identified. The logo has provided the network from the beginning with a ‘corporate’ image, thus allowing for more visibility and homogeneity in all project activities, especially when interacting with external parties.
Fig. 2: Logo IRMA
The IRMA logo (Fig 2) represents all those interested parties willing to get as much as possible information from either form learning and or research. A professional coloured background has been chosen for the logo in order to be in line with order logos used within the IRMA project (EACEA;LLP programme etc.).
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
4.2. WEBSITE AND ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION Internet, websites and the subsequent electronic communication represent a modern instrument of
communication and publicity. The mentioned electronic communication
allows: •
the environmental benefits from a potential reduction in the usage of paper for printing documents;
•
the cost benefits from reduced printing and postal delivery processes; and
•
increased speed of communication
The link of LLMP is present on the websites of the IRMA partners and of some subcontractors in order to spread the IRMA activities as much as possible: TUKE: http://web.tuke.sk/fvtpo/indexuk.htm CS: http://www.gruppocs.eu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=78 TUTA: http://tuta.oulu.fi/tutkimus/tutkimusprojektit/tutkimusprojektit/ NUMB: http://eng.ubm.ro/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=40&Itemid=23 BDF: http://www.bdf.es/default.asp?idioma=3 PUT: http://www.dmef.put.poznan.pl/ TEOS: www.teos.it CAD-UP: www.cadup.sk
4.2.1. LIFE LONG LEARNING MANUFACTURING PORTAL Project has being accompanied by a Lifelong Learning Manufacturing Portal - LLMP that has been used from the very beginning. What’s more, it will be used also after having finished the project as a place where it will be possible communicate and exchange information and knowledge about Manufacturing in an “open” logic. The LLMP guarantees a continuous link among all Partners, all “visitors” of the site and all who are interested in the improvement of knowledge about Manufacturing,
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
The results are available on the LLMP, so that they can be consulted by all visitors (also who has not directly participated to the Research). Results will be periodically implemented and used for future reflections in the scientific work or for the future work of universities. The LLMP allows to create a European area of Higher Education, so that it is possible to create an integrated system between “University world and labour market” in order to elevate the qualitative level of the University instruction and, consequently, competences and knowledge usable in the labour market by graduate persons.
4.2.2. NEWSLETTERS A news bulletin that will convey a description of the different stages of the IRMA activities and brief notes of interesting news recently appeared, relevant to the education in the field of Manufacturing Engineering Community. The Newsletters will be edited in the second half of the year 2009 – 3 times, when the project results are evident and elaborated. All partners will contribute to creation of the newsletter, that will be sent to all interested parties.
4.3. CONFERENCES, WORKSHOPS, SEMINARS Conferences, workshops and seminars are useful tools to ensure successful dissemination of the IRMA project to a targeted audience. Conferences can be held either in an arena or at a smaller venue and can be focused upon particular areas of interest rather than appealing to a general audience. It is an opportunity to show the targeted audience the results of the IRMA comparative analysis. Workshops and seminars are more specialised, focused and tend to be on a smaller scale than the conferences. They are often made up of several related businesses that offer lectures and demonstrations on their particular area of interest. All forms of the above mention dissemination tools will be used for presentation on the IRMA results and their interpretation. During all events described, especially at seminars and workshops, a detailed explanation will be given in order to make understand the 17
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
potential usage of the IRMA results. It is expected that demonstrations of the IRMA results will contribute to the future higher education in the field of manufacturing engineering at EU, national and international level. There are a variety of options to disseminate the IRMA results at these events. Oral presentation or written poster could be presented outlining the benefits and functionality of the IRMA results platform. Articles will be drafted to be included in the conference booklet, aiding in reaching a captive audience. A key element of these events is the fact that participating and direct contacts with participants contribute to
creation of contacts networking. It is possible to send out
updating letters according to the project results development and inviting them to other events realised within the dissemination activities. An information brochure and “publicity folder” will be produced and will be on show at these events, with the logo being displayed prominently along with the web address. Project literature will be distributed on the LLMP, so that all interested parties will have possibility to access to them. As already mentioned above, the detailed list of conferences, seminars and workshops planned within the dissemination activities can be found in the enclosed Annex.
4.4. PUBLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC ARTICLES Publications are another useful method of disseminating information about the IRMA project. It is necessary that the IRMA project results are presented in a manner and place where they will easily and rapidly found, in order to ensure that the correct audience is reached and is aware of the IRMA project. For the professional reader, this would normally be in scientific and technical publications, either journal forms or on-line versions. To appeal to the reader the article should be concise and to the point: interest will wane if the article is too long. Several comparative analyses can be done in articles, using graph and short descriptions.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
A publication of a common scientific work in an international journal will be carried out by the universities IRMA partners – each of them will contribute by its own part and analysis.
4.5. PUBLICATIONS AND WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS There is a whole range of promotional materials to choose from: leaflets, posters, banners, booklets, brochures, folders, newsletters, research summaries and briefings, publications, annual reports, websites, direct mail, advertising, presentation materials, etc. In case of the IRMA project a final document – “Research Report” – will be prepared by the IRMA partners that will be spread either in the electronic form or in the paper version distributed within the planned events.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
5.
EXPLOITATION AND VALORISATION STRATEGY
The purpose of this exploitation plan is to provide a formal planning document for using and exploiting the gained knowledge throughout the IRMA project life cycle. Within this plan activities have been identified, which should be performed in order to reach the widest possible audience, especially the audiences that will use and benefit from the project outcomes the most. It is essential to preserve and disseminate the created materials and the gained knowledge, in order to make the IRMA successful. The exploitation plan is divided into the following parts: -
Target groups identification
-
Exploitation and valorisation strategy
-
Measures of success
-
Methods of exploitation
5.1. TARGET GROUPS IDENTIFICATION The Project consists in the realization of a Research \ Comparative Analysis in the 27 European Union’s Member States, aimed to the promotion of excellence, efficiency and fairness of the instruction in Higher Education Institutes. As mentioned in the part 3.2 of this document, the main target groups are as follows:
•
Academic Manufacturing Community – Academic authorities/Academic staff and students
These target groups are the immediate beneficiaries in testing the products developed by the partnership. Other stakeholders and end users of the project are: •
the actors in lifelong learning, who will be encouraged to use the results of the research analysis developed by the project partners.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
•
the stakeholders within the public administration, trade unions and employers’ associations in the relevant sector, who are in a position to disseminate and promote the use of the project results.
•
companies in the manufacturing sector within EU27 that will be able to benefit from the research results and consequent improvements according to their specific needs.
5.2. EXPLOITATION AND VALORISATION STRATEGY Exploitation – VALORISATION – phase is different from dissemination, although a comprehensive exploitation and valorisation strategy should include dissemination activities. Dissemination focuses solely on publicising good practices, whereas valorisation is much more about collaboration and continuing development, endeavouring to utilise project results and incorporate them into training systems and practices. “Valorisation” can be described as the process of disseminating and exploiting projects outcomes with a view to optimising their value, enhancing their impact and integrating them into training systems and practices at local/national as well as European level. It should cover exploiting the results of projects; further developing project results in different contexts and situations (e.g. regions, countries, sectors); recognising good practice and encouraging relevant key players to do so; embedding project results into the practices of organisations; and mainstreaming project results into local, regional, national or European provision. The ultimate aim of valorisation is to feed the lessons of the Lifelong Learning Programme into policy development at national and European level. This is accomplished in two main ways, by ensuring that results are disseminated to relevant players. Valorisation activities are intended to turn project results and achievements into reality at European level. The challenge is to ensure that: •
relevant and useful results from the IRMA project are exploited at European level; and
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
•
the programme and relevant project outputs remain connected to the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes to ensure the greatest possible synergy between policy and programme results.
5.3. MEASURES OF SUCCESS The Commission has identified three aspects that are crucial to the success of the valorisation process: 1. developing quality criteria; 2. improving dissemination strategies; 3. analysing training needs.
The aim of the IRMA project is to reach as many target groups as possible and within these target groups the majority of the members. Communication is not an exact science and it is very difficult to measure success as it is intangible in many ways. However, it is important to set some indicators for success in order to know if the IRMA project is achieving its aims. These indicators correspond to the aspects of success that the commission set for the valorisation actions. Some of these indicators for success are:
Developing quality criteria The consortium has a big experience in EU projects, which is brought together in the mentioned project. This experience plays a key role in dissemination-valorisation actions since the in depth knowledge of the best methods and practices for valorisation creates a certainty for the success of the project.
Improving dissemination strategies The strategy for the dissemination-valorisation activities has not been a static one. It has been changed and it adapted according to the project progress and new challenges.
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
Analysing training needs A survey/comparative research analysis has been conducted in numerous organisations – universities, companies and intermediaries - covering EU27 countries. The questionnaires sent to these organisations gave a complete picture on the present situation at universities and desired competences required by the world of business. The following activities - mentioned already in the dissemination part - are important for the project valorisation and exploitation: e.g. publication on web pages; publication articles in professional newspapers – magazines.
5.4. EXPLOITATION AND IRMA PROJECT IRMA Project has been declared an open-source-project, therefore it is essential to make the material and the result data as widely available as possible. The real success of the project will be measured according to dissemination activities throughout the project and the exploitation of the developed material afterwards. The materials and the results have been exploited as follows:
5.4.1. FREE DOWNLOAD The material, statistics and any other project outputs have been available for download on the web page of the project at www.imraproject.eu.
5.4.2. CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS The materials and documents will be provided for dissemination at the most important European conferences on education – in the manufacturing sector. They will be attended either by the project partners or by some subcontractors. The documents can be given away to other interested parties. Professors, teachers and workers in educational institutions, eve students, can also be provided with material at special subject conferences. At these conferences the
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
stakeholders meet and get to know new material and teaching methods. At these conferences, companies also have the possibility to present new products.
5.4.3. THREE GROUPS OF PARTNERS In order to make certain the sustainability of the project, 3 groups of partners have been created: 1st group: TUKE, NUMB, PUT and TUTA 2nd group: CS and BDF 3rd group:CADUP and TEOS These groups have as their goal to monitor the activities around the project during and after its lifecycle and to promote the project deliverables and inform those interested in them in order to achieve the creation of training programmes that use these products. The first group has the task to promote the project through the participation at various professional conferences and seminars regarding the education in the Manufacturing Engineering Sector; publishing articles in the professional magazines and news papers etc. The second group has the goal to create a relations with the stakeholders at EU level, which is possible thanks to their strong networks of partners at national and international levels. The third group maintenances and improves the e-communication with all stakeholders, throughout the LLMP, newsletters, etc.
5.4.4. NEW PROJECTS One of the concrete ways of a project exploitation is participation in new related projects using the results of the present project. The Riga Technical University in Latvia plans to create a new project “The research training centre for the development of manufacturing design, engineering, production and maintenance” using partially the IRMA project results. The project should be realised in the period 2010 – 2013. 24
Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
5.5. EXPLOITATION PLAN Date
Feb 2008
Action
Type of activity
Creation of the
Web Site of the
Web Site
project in English
Jul-Aug
Creation of a
2009
dissemination
Dissemination plan
Target
Goals during the project’s
Goals after the project’s
groups
lifetime
lifetime
Public
Show the progress of the
Show the deliverables of the
project to the public. Updates
project and allow free
to the Web Site showing the
download of the materials and
continuous progress of the
documents obtained during the
project.
project life.
Project
Full dissemination of the
Creation of the conditions that
partners
project & its deliverables
will allow the exploitation later
strategy
of the project’s results. Use of the contacts created during the project’s life for the exploitation
Jul-Aug
Creation of an
2009
exploitation strategy
Exploitation plan
Project
Coordinate the partners in
Exploitation of the project’s
partners
order to achieve the goals of
results commercially after the
the exploitation strategy
project has finished
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
Date
Action
Sept 2009 Creation of
Dec 2009
Type of activity
Leaflets, powerpoint
Target
Goals during the project’s
Goals after the project’s
groups
lifetime
lifetime
Public
Use of these materials in
Creation of the conditions that
leaflets &
presentation, article
presentations, meetings &
will allow later the exploitation
promotional
about the project,
conferences in order to make
of the project’s results
material
brochures
the project results known
Dissemination
Dissemination event
Target
Show the results of the
Creation of a list of contacts of
event
in Baia Mare,
groups +
comparative analysis carried
interested parties
Romania
Public
out
Year 2010 Seminars/profes Participation in sional articles
seminars and
Target
Make the projects’ results
group
known and present the
conferences
deliverables to potentially interested stakeholders
Second
Contacts with
Contacts with public
Target
Presentations to stakeholders
half
public
administration
group
that could influence the project
2009/2010 administration 2010 – 2013
Project
results usage Exploitation
Usage of the IRMA results in a new project
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Inter-countries Research for Manufacturing Advancement Action Plan for Dissemination and Exploitation Activities
6.
CONCLUSION
IRMA project has defined its output as an open-source program. The access to the results will not be limited to a certain group of users, but as many academic authorities, staff and students and other target groups as possible should benefit from the project. It is essential to adapt the dissemination and exploitation activities to the special needs of the individual target groups. The elaborated materials and documents contribute to the promotion of innovative teaching methodologies and will increase the attractiveness and effectiveness of lifelong learning in Europe, within the manufacturing engineering sector.
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