UNCAP Consortium meets in Lund

May 2016 started inspiring with a Nordic flair. The UNCAP Consortium gathered in Lund (Sweden) for a two days project meeting. The meeting was important for all technical partners because of the finalization of the UNCAP Box prototype. Even more, the IPR issues were coming into the agenda. INI-Novation is the responsible partner for the market take-up of the project’s results but also for providing solutions in the area of IPR and licensing.

In Lund, the attention of the consortium was on the technical implementation of the UNCAP Box. The whole team of technical experts, members of the consortium, attended the meeting. The discussion was quite intensive because of the importance to finalize the prototype. It has to be entered for a pilot testing in the second half of 2016.

At that period, all UNCAP pilots, consisting mainly of care centers, care homes and hospices from all over Europe, have to implement the UNCAP box in their activities and introduce the system to their patients and their relatives.

The technical team of UNCAP at the meeting in Lund

Then, the second part of the UNCAP project will start with analyzing the impact from different perspectives: care improvement, life style and financial benefits.

In this regard, the consortium discussed several items very relevant for the market uptake: marketing research – analysis and studies in the field of e-Health and e-Care about user behavior and user needs.

The INI-Novation team at the right discussing the further steps (Lund, 2016)

Angela Ivanova (INI) discussed the progress of the impact analysis on Business and Financial Models and presented INI’s progress report “Exploitation and market replication”.

One of the main discussed topics were the process chain analysis of the UNCAP products that INI has already identified in its analysis work. A snapshot of market research findings was presented and the criteria of user acceptance were discussed. The topic is directly related with the technical implementation of the UNCAP Box and is complementing the work of the technicians to set-up the UNCAP product at the very begging with the possible desired functions or possible user training.

After two intensive working days, our host and partner from Sweden has organized an intensive and interesting sightseeing in Lund. It is always wonderful when we have time in addition to the project meetings to enjoy also the place where we are!

EUROPETOUR consortium in Lund. (May 2016)

UNCAP consortium in Lund

University building in Lund

INI Team in front of a typical old-style Swedish building in Lund.

INI-Novation’s team in front of a typical old-style Swedish building in Lund

EUROPETOUR – new training for cultural tourism in rural areas

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

A young girl by cell phone photographed of The smallest cathedral in the world, church of the Holy cross, Nin, Croatia

Being successful in cultural tourism needs training for cultural workers, tourism experts, business developers and representatives of public authorities. In urban areas there already are numerous examples for successful cooperation, but good practice in rural areas is rather rare. Specifically, training is needed in professionally using social media and online marketing of tourism services. Identifying the actual training needs is one of the objectives of EUROPETOUR and developing a detailed training program accordingly. EUROPETOUR will be implemented until 2018 in eight European regions, supported by the European ERASMUS+ programme.

First of all, the project partners aim at identifying the necessary steps for successful cultural tourism development in rural areas. In a second step, training modules for local stakeholders wishing to develop or foster their own skills are established, including guidelines for the use of social media as well as online marketing in cultural heritage, and cultural tourism. The guidelines will be available in seven European languages in order to get European outreach.

European travellers on their way to discover cultural heritage

Additionally, all project partners to EUROPETOUR have committed to developing networked, tangible offers and ready-made packages across Europe. In this way, travellers with a special interest in, say, castles and monasteries or creative travel, should end up with a tailor-made travel arrangement allowing them to explore the Italian region Marke, the Spanish region Cantabria or the German region of the Heilbronner Land in a similar way. Opportunities provided by social media as well as the use of mobile devices, such as smartphones or tablets, are to be directly addressed. The goal is to generate income for cultural tourism stakeholders, to develop attractive packages for cultural travellers and to benefit from the best-practice examples demonstrated by the project partners across Europe.

Participating partners and cultural touristic networks

Kultur und Arbeit e.V. with the KIRA-network of Heilbronn-Franken region (coordinator), Germany
Future for Religious Heritage, Belgium
Klosterland Netzwerk / Municipality of Mysliborz, Poland
Kreativ Reisen Austria
Bucovina Tourism, Romania
Touristikgemeinschaft HeilbronnerLand e.V., Germany
Marke region, Italy
SRECD – Cantabria region, Spain
E-C-C Verein für interdisziplinäre Bildung und Beratung, Austria
INI-Novation, Bulgaria

Contacts:

Project coordinator: Karin Drda-Kuehn, info@europetour.tips(link sends e-mail), phone 0049 7931 56 36 374

Project manager for Bulgaria: Angela Ivanova, angela.ivanova@ini-novation.com, phone 0049 1521 72 90 945, or 00359 885 128 877

Web-page EUROPETOUR: https://www.europetour.tips/

Source: https://ec.europa.eu/epale/de/node/17663

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.

Kick-off meeting of EUROPETOUR EU Project with INI-Novation Bulgaria

Posted on December 29, 2015 by Angela Ivanova in Tourism, Tourism | Leave a comment

2015-12-02

Happy gathering of ideas at our first meeting in the HeilbronnerLand with KLOSTERLAND, INI-Novation GmbH, Kreativ Reisen Österreich – Creative Tourism Austria, Creativelena, Bucovina Turism,Regione Marche, Future for Religious Heritage &Camino Lebaniego.

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, Living Labs, Living Labs, Living Labs, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, Projects, 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.

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.

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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 Uncategorized | 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).