Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - NearUS (Network for European Research and Innovation acceleration in the US)

Teaser

ENRICH in the USA acts as a central contact point for European research and innovation actors seeking to grow and reinforce collaboration across the Atlantic. The mission of the Network is to provide standardised as well as tailor‐made, research & innovation...

Summary

ENRICH in the USA acts as a central contact point for European research and innovation actors seeking to grow and reinforce collaboration across the Atlantic. The mission of the Network is to provide standardised as well as tailor‐made, research & innovation internationalisation support services to European researchers and innovators, to accelerate access to the US market, and maximise chances of success. The ENRICH in the USA Network is built on local US experience and strong existing ties between the EU and US, while providing new researcher‐ and entrepreneur serving capabilities which address the resource gaps necessary to enable access for all EU Member States and Associated Countries, as well as every state in the US. The initiative started in April 2017.

The ENRICH initiative is highly innovative, and significantly differs from “classical” Horizon 2020 projects. It develops both organisational innovation, i.e. new organisational method in order to improve the use of knowledge, workflows efficiency and quality of its services, and also englobes processes leading to the establishment of new management methods, as well as service innovation, benefitting both European research and innovation organisations and the project partners competitive edge.

Overall objectives:
1. Set up and develop a sustainable “Butterfly” Network of Centres of EU R&I, with connected physical nodes in the US and in EU, to support European organisations and facilitate their R&I partnerships and potential commercialisation path in the US.
2. Design, deliver, evaluate and optimise a portfolio of novel high‐quality and demand-driven services to be provided by the Network/Centres across the EU.
3. Ensure visibility and outreach of the Network/Centres and its support offer both in the EU and the US, enhance access of the EU R&I community to the portfolio of services and thus to the US R&I ecosystem.

Work performed

The first 18 months of the project were part of the “planning phase” of the project, encompassing the development of the Network concept, set up of physical presence in the USA and development & test of a pilot service portfolio. The goal of this phase was to explore the demand from potential customers, investigate the market and test implementation approaches for the services and outreach activities. Major activities and results of the first repoprting period can be summarised as follows:

Evidence‐based preparatory work
. Analysis of the existing offer (service providers and services) and the demand in terms of needs of European Research and Innovation (R&I) actors for internationalisation with the USA in a wide‐spread online survey and complementary interviews, synthesized into a gap analysis.
. Organisation of 4 Focus Groups in EU and US with STI stakeholders in order to discuss first services results and position ENRICH

Network set up and positioning
. Official launch of the ENRICH in the USA Network in January 2018 with opening ceremony in San Francisco.
. Set up and launch of the San Francisco West Coast Centre (January 2018) and Boston East Coast Centre (October 2018)
. Selection of the first five Landing Hubs
. Joint opening of the three running ENRICH initiatives in Brussels, April 2018, together with ENRICH in China and ENRICH in Brazil, at EBN premises.

Pilot services development and assessment
. Development and launch of 11 pilot services open calls (first calls in November 2017 and then regularly), handling of the application and selection process.
. Implementation of 20 pilot services ( 6 in the USA, 4 in Europe and online services)
. Development of the evaluation tools for the pilot services to gather feedback from Participants
. Evaluation of the implemented pilot actions and feedback loop to improve the services offer (both services in the EU and in the USA).
. Fine‐tuning of services offer, development of new ideas for additional or amended services, work on the value proposition for each service (adjustments ongoing).

Outreach and synergies
. Development of a Dissemination Plan and update; implementation of the plan.
. Development of communication material, tools and channels, such as the logo, website, social media, flyer and project cards, etc.
. Dissemination of project work and notably open calls through news, newsletter, emailings, social media, exchange with related initiatives, etc.
. Development of an Ambassadors concept, Terms of Reference and application process
. Close exchange with the ENRICH in Brazil and ENRICH in China sister projects, including joint participation in conferences and organisation of joint events; set up of a common web site entry page
. Close exchange with EUDEL, European Member States Science Counsellors and SFIC, in addition to the European Commission

During the second reporting period (M19 – M30), the positioning of the Network has come at the heart of all activities, and the project team has employed important efforts to focus not only on a normal “Horizon 2020 project” but to build up a “transatlantic Network initiative” with a service portfolio. Both the Network and the services are aimed at becoming self-sustainable after the project lifetime. The goal of this phase was also to develop a Blueprint for Sustainable Strategy.

Major activities and results can be summarised as follows:

Network set up and positioning
- A third Centre is under consideration in Washington D.C. to be hosted by NCURA
- Seven Landing hubs are operational
- Other landing hubs to be added, based on demand and analysis
- Development of the Blueprint for sustainability with a revised Network structure

Pilot services
- Provision of actual support to 150+ participants of European researchers, entrepreneurs, start-ups and multipliers, such as clusters, economic development organizations (EDO), and research agencies through nine open calls (during the reporting phase)
- Suppor

Final results

The ENRICH in the USA Network was setup. It is a collaborative approach based on already established and sustainable networks from Europe and the USA. It is a unique combination of competences in innovation support services, business development, networking and support to policy makers.

ENRICH in the USA has served a total number of approx. 300European researchers and entrepreneurs (EU MS/AC) for their internationalization towards the USA. The customers are offered a unique ENRICH in the USA journey based on a demand-driven set of services to support them at each step in their development phase. The overall aim is to add value to the existing initiatives on the market.

Website & more info

More info: https://usa.enrichcentres.eu/.