WP 2 Refresh Needs Analysis and Prepare Case Studies.

Dear  all - this is a refined draft of the second Erasmus+ Knowledge Alliance Workpackage with a focus on industrial whole product lifecycles. Comments appreciated as we work to refine and align with the potential workpackage owner. Please note that the supporting workpackages are intended for project participants either owning other workpackages or interested in supporting workpackages only. The image shows a nice way of visualizing needs analysis results with infographics from https://www.et-foundation.co.uk/research/training-needs-analysis/ and is exemplary only. If you are interested in a supporting workpackage please contact oliver.schwabe@innovation-web.eu - you will be expected to contribute to shaping this and your own workpackage. 

Description

This preparation and implementation workpackage revisits the needs analysis conducted for creating the proposal based on the pilot simulator created by workpackage 1 and related efforts gained by that point in time of the project. The aim of the workpackage is to revise the initial needs analysis survey and deploy such in combination with the pilot simulator to a wider manufacturing target audience in the geographic regions of the project participants in order to increase industry participation in the project and prepare the extended audience of workpackage 7 “Validate Research Findings (as Experimental Innovation in Living Labs)”. This will ensure the project focusses eas tightly as possible on the proposed benefits. This workpackage will also engage with all project participations and their networks to revise the relevant literature review and complete a further extended round of semi-structured interviews. The workpackage will create a journal submission for the literature review related to speed of innovation diffusion research, online survey, leverage the work of workpackage 1 to create six high level case studies to be published as part of a conference contribution. These high level cases studies will then be the input to workpackage 3 “Conduct Case Studies (as Living Labs)” as the basis for living labs in the six participating manufacturing companies to apply the simulator from workpackage 1 to real industrial contexts and fine tune the relevant models and performance indicators.

Tasks

The estimated start date is month #6 of the project and the estimated end date is month 12 of the project, although the team will continue to support other workpackages during the complete duration of the project. All tasks will be made transparent to the public as open access and public domain. The tasks of the workpackage are: 

• Conduct a literature review related to the speed of innovation diffusion in manufacturing (including relevant policy perspectives) and prepare journal article submission of results.
• Solicit input from all project participants for improving the needs analysis with an enhanced focus on higher education and the call requirements.
• Revise the needs analysis completed as part of proposal preparation based upon workpackage 1 results (semi-structured interviews and online survey tool).
• Reconduct the needs analysis with participating manufacturing companies and higher education institutions.
• Extend the needs analysis through coordination with project participants and their networks.
• Create six high level manufacturing case studies demonstrating how the results of the needs analysis support the value proposition of the project to industry, higher education and (regions of) the EU as a whole. Prepare a conference article to disseminate the results to a wider audience.
• Feedback improvement suggestions to workpackage 1 for the simulation tool.
• Conduct one hour monthly alignment calls with all project participants to inform of workpackage progress.
• Define and coordinate six supporting workpackages of 160 hours each for deploying the workpackage into EU and comparative non-EU regions.
• Prepare and hand-over design guidelines for the living labs to be conducted in workpackage 3 “Conduct Case Studies (as Living Labs)”

Deliverables

The deliverables are outcomes of the tasks and will be made available in the public domain.

• Journal submission on current state of literature related to the speed of innovation diffusion in manufacturing (including relevant policy perspectives).
• Revised needs (semi-structured interviews and online survey tool).
• In-depth needs analysis with participating manufacturing companies.
• Expanded needs analysis through coordination with project participants and their networks.
• Six high level manufacturing case studies as a conference contribution.
• Feedback improvement suggestions to workpackage 1 for the simulation tool.
• Conduct one hour monthly alignment calls with all project participants to inform of workpackage progress.
• Design guidelines for the living labs to be conducted in workpackage 3 “Conduct Case Studies (as Living Labs)”
• Results of the needs analysis as a conference contribution (peer reviewed and published in relevant conference proceedings).

Resourcing

This workpackage will run for 6 consecutive months and will be primarily resourced by two full time researchers.  Six supporting workpackages of 160 hours each support deploying the workpackage into EU and comparative non-EU).

If you are interested in learning more please visit us at www.innovation-web.eu, our LinkedIn Group at https://www.linkedin.com/groups/8779542/, our blog at https://www.innovation-web.eu/entov-hvm-blog, our Researchgate project page at https://www.researchgate.net/project/Open-European-Network-for-Enterprise-Innovation-in-High-Value-Manufacturing-ENTOV-HVM and our Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2014779865300180/. You can also follow us via Twitter: @owschwabe (#innovationweb) and the LinkedIn Group page https://www.linkedin.com/company/entov.