giCASES kick-off meeting

Posted on January 30, 2016 by Angela Ivanova in GIS | Leave a comment

The kick-off meeting of the giCASES project was held in Genoa last 26-27 January 2016.
The event was attended by all the members of the Consortium.
giCASES has officially started on January 1, 2016, with an expected life of 36 months and ending 31 December 2018.

The wider objectives of this projects are:

to enable and strengthen innovation in GI education and industry
to facilitate the collaborative creation, management and sharing of knowledge.

These objectives are addressed by developing new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning within the Geographic Information (GI) sector, and facilitating the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge.

In particular, the specific objectives of this project are:

to improve the quality and relevance of GI courses provided by the University members of the consortium;
to facilitate the growth of new knowledge-sharing processes and tools between enterprises and universities;
to improve the management of knowledge by the partners.

The overall approach to address these objectives is to develop new learning material and processes based on case based learning. In the approach taken in this project, enterprises and academia will collaborate both when creating learning material based on real cases and also during and after the courses (through a collaborative platform).

Main results expected:

Creation of a repository of best practices on industry-academia cooperation to create and share knowledge in the GI domain
Definition of the focus, scope and requirements of the case studies
Specification of innovative collaboration methods, with best practices on different methods and validation of these methods in different settings
Definition of process, tools and methodologies for co-creation of knowledge
Definition of technical specifications for the set up of a collaboration tool (collaborative platform) and implementation of the technical infrastructure
A set of case studies adopted for case based learning and related learning material

The collaborative platform will also be used to make the project results (learning material and processes) available to other stakeholders under open licences, as well as to attract more content providers / stakeholders to contribute to the growth of the content base.

LILA Guidebook, October 2015

Posted on January 23, 2016 by Angela Ivanova in Training | Leave a comment

By applying the Living Labs approach and the principles of open innovation, the LILA Project provides the opportunity for European entrepreneurs to obtain user feedback about their products and services. The entrepreneurs understand business barriers to access local and the European market, and to understand user requirements.

“Prepare startups for European success” is our guidebook, presented during the EBN Congress in October 2015 and describing the whole process of LILA Labs.

Download it from here.

Global Technology Commercialization Forum in South Korea

Posted on November 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

The Managing Director of INI-Novation GmbH, Wolfgang Kniejski, received a special invitation from the Korean Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT) to attend the Global Technology Commercialization Forum as a speaker and panellist. The event was held on October 27, 2015, in Seoul. The invitation was received as a result of the good business relationship between the two organizations and was high recognition of Dr. Kniejski as high level speaker and consultant in the area of international technology transfer of innovation management.

The Forum aimed to become a platform through which global technology cooperation can be enhanced by gaining better understanding of both Koreans and overseas entities’ needs and exchanging know-how on efficient global market entry strategies.

Guests from University of Texas IC2 Commercialization Center, Steinbeis Foundation, European Business Innovation Center Network, Samsung Electronics, Nomura Research Institute were among the speakers who delivered insightful presentations.

Based on his more than 20 years’ experience in the area of technology transfer and innovation management, Wolfgang Kniejski presented SME support to access international markets and good practice examples from the activities of INI-Novation and EBN in the area of soft-landing and living labs organization through so-called LILA Platform and good practices created in the EU funded LILA Project.

The event brought together about 200 participants representing both domestic and foreign SMEs, global companies that have established their presence in Korea, diplomats from various embassies in Seoul, commercialization-supporting organizations such as INI-Novation GmbH, etc. Therefore, Dr. Kniejski was accompanied by Angela Ivanova, Business Development Director if INI Novation GmbH, as a guest of the Global Technology Commercialisation Forum.

Engaging discussions on various topics with all speakers started in the afternoon. Some of the hot topics were finance support and fund raising for internationalization activities, European market, cultural differences, opportunities and barriers for business expansion.

Start-ups in the Internet economy – workshop in Cologne

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On October 23th, Dr. h. c. Wolfgang Kniejski, Managing Director of INI-Novation GmbH and Business Developer in European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) was invited as a speaker in an “Entrepreneurs in eCommerce” event in Cologne: “Start-ups in the Internet economy – the European perspective”.
In front of start-ups, coaches and accelerators, Dr. Kniejski presented his approach for the development of business models and business plans at all stages of a company development process, from start-up to international expansion. “In particular, we dedicate to enter the so-called ‘soft landing’ process,” explained Dr. Kniejski, “by supporting start-up companies with an expert network and providing them the help in their efforts to enter international markets and to overcome the early stage challenges of existing barriers.”

Dr. Kniejski presented three support initiatives that are available for all eligible start-ups:
• TESLA (Transnational Ecosystem Laboratory & Actions) project
With the support of partner organisations from Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands cross-border access-to-market opportunities are offered. The goal is to drive the internationalization of start-ups faster, giving them access to important export markets in the European Union.
• LILA- Lab web platform
LILA Project is a user feedback platform. It helps the entrepreneurs on their very first stage of product development by providing feedback from targeted users. Start-ups can test their inventions in different stages of their development, even when it is still an idea. Through LILA Labs markets in France, UK, Luxemburg and Germany can be approached. Key to the success is not the platform itself, but the successful networking of partners and the strong groups of user communities behind the LILA platform.

• EIT Digital Accelerator
Assistance is provided to later stage start-ups and scale ups that have already market evidence to show.. On this stage, the start-up is striving for internationalization. Therefore, the EIT Digital network provides the supported scale ups access to market, to experts and to investors on matchmaking events. Support measures in all of this three activity lines can even be provided outside Europe. As Wolfgang Kniejski replied on an entrepreneur’s question: “This is generally possible and we already created success stories. However, it depends on the personal networks and of the quality of the network partners of every business developer.”

*All materials for this event can be downloaded through:
https://e-commerce.eco.de/2015/events/start-ups-im-e-commerce.html
*The Press info is published also here:
http://ini-novation.lilaproject.eu/en/blog/start-ups-in-the-internet-economy-workshop-in-cologne
Press Info
Darmstadt, October 2015

NELUMBOX – the awards winner. Use Case from LILA Labs session

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

NELUMBOX pro is a cold chain solution with only battery-operated long-term controlled temperature device, which is one of its unique features. NELUMBOX is patented technology and is created by Martin Voigt – an entrepreneur from Darmstadt (Germany). Based on this technology, he developed four different types of solutions for four different use cases: personal medication and traveling, for baby care, for professional use and leisure. Martin Voigt still do not have his own company but all his products are ready for testing by different users.

The General Manager of INI-Novation GmbH Wolfgang Kniejski met Martin Voigt on one of the seminars, organized by INI-Novation about IPR management. After the seminar, they had long conversation about the market and different ways for market entrance. Both agreed that the users’ needs and preferences are important for the market entrance strategy. For this reason, Martin Voigt was introduced to the process of LILA Labs. It was decided a LILA lab to be organized during a special pitching competition “UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS”. It was good opportunity for Martin, because he could easily receive feedback from people working in hospices, care homes and from frequent travellers.

The idea of this participation was good, because the NELUMBOX creator Martin Voigt received a lot of feedbac
k from the users during the LILA lab session. The discussion during the LILA lab made clearer the benefits and the challenges of NELUMBOX for the users, that participated in the lab.

The inclusion of a LILA lab session during another event with the same-targeted focus groups was helpful in two directions: Martin Voigt discussed issues of NELUMBOX with highly competent people in the Health Care and Home Care sector; and secondly, the responsible people from the Innovation Management Teamof UNCAP had the opportunity to know in details the new invention.

As a result, NELUMBOX won the second place in the “UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARD“ competition. Martin Voigt was invited as an associated partner in the UNCAP EU project which means that he could test in a real field his invention. He also was invited to participate in Nottingham in the UNCAP conference on eCare and to exhibit his technology.

Next steps are preparation to take NELUMBOX to the international market and again the first step will be LILA lab, organized by our LILA partners in France and England.

Internationally with LILA Labs. Use case: “Testfabrik AG”

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Events, Events, Events, Events, Events, Events, Events, Living Labs, Living Labs, Living Labs, Living Labs, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups, Start-ups | Leave a comment

Testfabrik AG is a German start-up company, established in 2013. The team was striving to enter the German market and to provide Internet Technologies based services, as webmate. “Webmate” is a groundbreaking tool for the automatic testing of web applications, with a focus on cross-browser compatibility. Until their entrance in the LILA Labs program, they had no clients.

Testfabrik AG is one of the best cases for LILA Lab session because they have a prototype of their future product, tested among other their colleagues, with very high appreciation but without any client’s interest. Their main questions were “Why?” and “What?” – why they don’t clients and what they have to improve.

Their first LILA Lab was in November 2014 in Darmstadt. INI-Novation invited the main target group that can turn into potential customers – web designers from the region. During the session, Testfabrik AG was interested to get information about the following questions:

Where do the users see webmate fitting in their work?
What does the user see as the major issue for the acceptance of webmate?
What do the users think about the pricing model – does it encourage or discourage the usage of webmate?
Do the users need more features to be implemented in webmate?

The LILA Lab session was organized as a free discussion between the users and the creators of webmate. A lot of recommendations and useful tips were put on the table, and after the session all were satisfied with the results of the meeting.

After the local lab, Testfabrik AG decided to continue their experience in the LILA Lab process but this time on international level. A road show in Netherlands and Belgium was organized by one of the contracted mentors in the LILA project,Mr. Filip Coenen. This road show actually was set up as a “multiplied LILA Lab”. Instead of getting together users in a meeting room, the company went to the users in their offices. The company received valuable feedback to adapt product’s features to the specific needs of those markets. As a result, Testfabrik AG found beta testers from Belgium and Netherlands, and committed proof of concept cooperation. This was a real success and added value for the company.

At the end, Testfabrik AG realized that they have to accompany their final product activities with more marketing support. INI-Novation’s marketing and PR specialists were also participants in the LILA Lab sessions. Knowing the users’ preferences, they developed the marketing and communication strategy for Testfabrik.

The goal of Testfabrik AG is in 5 years’ time to become a European leader in software quality tools for web applications with near view to the global market leadership. LILA Labs were one of the first steps toward the goal.

The market uptake of UNCAP was kicked off in Darmstadt

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On July 28th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to kick off the commercial exploitation of UNCAP.

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UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

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The German business acceleration company INI-Novation GmbH welcomed its international guests as leader of the work package and highlighted the goal to develop relevant business and service delivery models addressing the private and the public eCare sector. The UNCAP products and services will be underlined by business concepts to achieve market attention, market and investor’s readiness, market entries as well as market expansion and scalability.

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The international team to accomplish the UNCAP access-to-market

In addition, it is intended to stimulate the relevant protection activities (patenting, trademarking etc.) and to establish a library of reference agreements, such as licensing agreements, reseller agreements, service level agreements, business development agreements, or investment terms. Standardisation activities shall accompany the measures.

This will lead to the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale Thus, return-on-investment potential will be generated and sustainability of UNCAP will be achieved.

UNCAP Innovation management team was constituted in Darmstadt

Posted on August 4, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in eCare, eCare, eCare | Leave a comment

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to establish and constitute the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT). The IMT will serve as a forum to discuss topics, priorities and issues of concern of the project’s stakeholders. It will encourage the information exchange and discussion among the stakeholders, inform about the project’s activities, provide ideas and recommendations to the members of the project consortium, and promote and lobby the project’s interests. The INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM (IMT) shall supervise the installation and market uptake of the targeted UNCAP Box and UNCAP Cloud services towards sustainable operations and its further expansion into other European regions.

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Members of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team and members of the UNCAP consortium after the official constitution of the IMT.

The INNOVATION MANANGEMENT TEAM is recruited by representatives from scientific organisations, innovative SMEs, and a diverse group of eCare stakeholders, such as potential investors or health insurance organisations. In its constitutional meeting the IMT accepted unanimously its “Rules of Procedure” and appointed Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital) as its Chairman and Prof. Panagiotis D. Bamidis (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki) as its Vice Chairman.

Furthermore, the members of the INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TEAM acted as international jury in an eCare technology pitching and matchmaking event. Requirements of care homes and hospitals were analysed and discussed as well as the needs of care takers and care givers. The four best technology pitches were awarded with vouchers to participate in the UNCAP eCare conference in September 2015 in Nottingham(UK).

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Angela Ivanova with entrepreneurs, innovators and experts discussing eCare paradigm and trends

THE UNCAP project
UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maxim ises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

PST Start-up CHINO.IO wins the UNCAP Award in Darmstadt

Posted on July 29, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

On July 29th, 2015, representatives of different innovation management organisations from all over Europe met in Darmstadt, Germany, to grant the four best start-up companies of an international eCare innovations pitching event the UNCAP 2015 INNOVATION AWARDS.

UNCAP is the abbreviation of “Ubiquitous Interoperable Care for Ageing People”. It is a pilot-centric innovation action, driven by several high-tech SMEs with support from few research centres. UNCAP aims to deliver a suite of innovative ready-to-market ICT products and services, specifically designed to help elderly people with cognitive impairments live a more independent life. UNCAP maximises use of standards to create an interoperable open infrastructure that leverages on location and sensor-based technologies to create radically new paradigms for service care delivery. The project is co-funded by the European Commission under the so called Horizon 2020 programme activities (reference no. GA 643555).

UNCAP targets the establishment of a transnational innovation ecosystem for eCare, in which innovation management and business spin-off tasks shall be performed in a global scale. In this context, the first UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD event was organised to provide eCare innovators and entrepreneurs the floor to introduce their technologies underlining future eCare solutions. An international jury recruited of market and technology experts evaluated the presentations, ranked them and selected the four best pitches for the UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD. The first price was awarded to “CHINO.IO” (Italy), providing secure API and storage for health data according to EU laws and regulations. The winner, Jovan Stevovic, received the award from the UNCAP co-ordinator, Dr. Giuseppe Conti (Trilogis) and from Dr. h.c. Wolfgang Kniejski (EIT Digital Business development Acclerator), Chairman of the UNCAP Innovation Management Team.

The UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 grants a free participation in the UNCAP Conference in Nottingham (UK) in September 2015 (including travel and all related costs) as well as a free booth at the conference exhibition and promotions support. Impressed by the vast knowledge that CHINO’s Managing Director proved during his presentation, the UNCAP management team decided spontaneously to accept CHINO as an associated partner and to grant a subcontract for consulting services in the area of regulations and requirements in commercialisation of eHealth and eCare applications. “I am proud and happy that the winner of our UNCAP INNOVATION AWARD 2015 will play a significant role in the project activities”, the leader of the business modelling work package, Ms. Angela Ivanova, stated during the award ceremony.