A Digital "Salon"? Notes from ENTOV-HVM Alignment Call 12 July 2019

All – thank you for all those who could make it yesterday! Apologies if I forget anyone and respect that some could not join for the whole call – I think we had: Filipa, Pinar, Mor, Edna, Atis, Nuno, Taner, Paulo, Nigel, Sait, Raminta, Dainora, Fabrizio and „Georgia“?

The image for this posting is drawn from http://slideplayer.com/slide/7092985/24/images/11/The+French+Salon+and+the+Philosophes.jpg and is my personal reflection on the sort of space we are creating. A new discussion drawing on the Parisian salons of the Renaissance and combining them with the possibilities of the digital age :) Thank you to Piero for reminding us continuously that innovation has a long and rich history which always condenses around energizing conversations - I´ll get around to the coffee discussion we had someday as well,

Technically Skype worked well, however in future please do try to be available about 15 minutes before the call so that I can get everyone connected – after we start it is really difficult to do this since we are in the middle of the conversation. Maybe next time I will send out links to the Skype call in advance as well to ease this – getting better though and good to see the screenshare worked nicely as well.

In the call we went through the presentation pack and looked at some of the COST proposal deliverables. We then quickly got into an energizing discussion clarifying various points and also reflected on:

• What ist he best infrastructure to enable (open) innovation?
• Where does the innovation web evolution process fit into the „design“ of industry organizations? Something we need to understand well since we are looking to accelerate innovation not only through Technical Readiness Levels / Manufacturing Capability Readiness Levels, but also into the late adopter market space as well.
• As industry partners – do we need „brave“ organizations who are willing to work out of the box? Are such organizations the big ones or are we more likely to find them in the SME space? What sort of organizations have the „critical mass“ of knowledge and resource availability to tackle disruptive approaches like we are looking at?
• Is ENTOV-HVM about „crowd sourcing“ knowledge? If so, are relevant crowd-funding platforms like https://www.kickstarter.com/ perhaps something to look at?
• Could blockchain play a role in the registration and tracking of ideas as they diffuse through the innovation web process?
• How do we avoid getting caught in mindsets based on the industrial revolution? These mindsets can help reduce the time for innovation however they are probably not suited to doing this to a „heart-beat“! Does the digital age provide us with new approaches that we might be able to integrate? Can we learn from how innovation worked before the industrial evolution? Is the „secret recipe“ in seeing us triggering a Renaissance of innovation combining the best of all worlds?

Next steps and how to get / stay involved:

1. Please send any comments on the COST proposal to me by end of July so that I can revise/finish/fine-tune the proposal first week of August.
2. Look out for an invitation to the next call in the second half of August – we will then submit the proposal together and celebrate out first success!
3. After submission of the COST proposal we will move to our first ERASMUS+ Knowledge Alliance proposal that I hope we can can have ready for submission before December. We then move to our second COST proposal.
4. Nuno, Filipa and I are currently collaborating to (a) agree on a number of Master Thesis supporting the intended deliverables of the COST proposal, and (b) prepare a small paper for a construction focused conference in Portugal in the fall – this will be peer-reviewed and published if accepted. If you have ideas for similar activities in your regions / at your institutions please let me know.
5. We are beginning to plan out the ENTOV-HVM training effort. This will first focus on the two day training school as part of the events and then expand to the qualification course needed fort he innovation cohorts, followed by an accredited Master Level Certification and then perhaps a full Master programme. Currently involved are Nuno from University of Lisbon and Christian from the Applied University of Kaiserslautern. Please do reach out to me if you would like to involve your university so that we can create a joint-accredited program.
6. The first event (training session and joint research and industry workshop) are planned for end of January in Kaiserslautern – we will begin planning mid-August and share efforts accordingly. This will be the „pilot“ for the event series at all COST proposer insitutions.
7. Working with Nigel to identify suitable calls in the UK which we could apply for via Cranfield and / or other UK partners. The Brexit situation calls for a bit of a different approach as you may appreciate.

Everyone is welcome to join all of the above activites and propose further ones. In particular I think that creating Master / PhD theses opportuniteis with ENTOV-HVM members as external advisors is a really good way to support if you are working at a university. Inviting ENTOV-HVM members to participate at conferences is also good. Furthermore we are looking to support three day events at proposer institutions (along with launching innovation cohorts) and of course we need to think about the industry funding angle to accelerate our own developments.

Cheers and again thank you for all the energy!

Oliver