Virtual Proposers Day of CELTIC-NEXT and EUROGIA2020
The second Proposers Day held by CELTIC-NEXT and EUROGIA2020 on 15–16 September 2020 was quite different from the first edition, which took place on 29th January in Madrid at the Nokia premises. This time, the COVID-19 restrictions made an in-person event impossible. Thus, the Proposers Day was held as a virtual event. The positive aspect was that the number of registered participants doubled to over 200. Also the number of proposal ideas for the joint CELTIC Eurogia Call in autumn increased, from 12 to 15. And no less than 11 Public Authorities presented funding opportunities in their countries.
Due to the successful first joint proposers day, CELTIC-NEXT and EUROGIA2020 had decided to bring together both Eureka Cluster communities again for the autumn call that was open until 19th October. Responding to the growing need for cross-cutting approaches and synergies between Eureka Clusters, the goal of the joint call was to expand knowledge, boost visibility and promote cooperative efforts for innovative results. The second joint Proposers Day offered a discussion forum for organisations interested to participate in a collaborative research project via CELTIC-NEXT in the area of next generation communications or via EUROGIA2020 in the area of low-carbon energy technologies.
Welcome and keynote
The first day of the event started with welcome speeches by Valérie Blavette, Inter-Cluster Spokesperson and CELTIC Chairperson from Orange, and Sinem Altuncu, EUROGIA2020 General Manager from Paycore. This was followed by a keynote on cybersecurity challenges, given by Dr. Heiko Lehmann from Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs. According to Dr. Lehmann, the rapid evolution of cybersecurity threats creates growing market opportunities.
Keynote speaker Dr. Heiko Lehmann from Deutsche Telekom’s T-Labs
Session on proposal submission
After the inspiring beginning, it was time to get to the nuts and bolts of proposal submission. Pierre Besse, Vice-President of EUROGIA and Dr. Peter Herrmann, CELTIC Office Director presented how easy it is to submit a project to the Joint Call. Both presented the eligible subjects of their respective Cluster and explained the requirements for a successful project proposal and how the online submission tool can be accessed. In addition, they explained the timeline and the evaluation process for proposals by technical experts and Public Authorities.
Business Impact from CELTIC and EUROGIA projects
If some participants were wondering about the benefits of getting involved in Eureka Cluster projects, they got convincing answers in the session on business impacts from CELTIC and EUROGIA projects, which was moderated by Pierre Besse from EUROGIA2020. In the first presentation, Dr. Antonio Cuadra-Sanchez presented the business benefits which his company Minsait (part of Indra Sistemas S.A., Spain) gained from its multiple participations in CELTIC projects, in particular the award-winning NOTTS project on next generation over-the-top multimedia services.
The business example for EUROGIA was equally convincing. Sahin Calglayan from Turkish Energy IoT Platform provider Reengen presented the benefits and impacts of EUROGIA project SolarPact.
Funding and focus in different countries
On the second day, representatives from 11 Public Authorities presented in a session moderated by CELTIC Programme Coordinator Christiane Reinsch the funding situation and research focus areas in their respective country. The countries and representatives included: Austria – Michael Walch, FFG; South Africa – Toto Matshediso and Vinny Pillay, DST; Canada – Narayanan Kasturi, NRC-CNRC; Israel – Neta Gruber, IIA; Turkey – Umut Ege, TUBITAK; Finland – Hannu Nurmi, Business Finland; Germany – Sabine Hemmerling, DLR; Spain – Juana Sanchez, CDTI; Switzerland – Colette John-Grant, InnoSuisse; South Korea – Hyewook Joung, KIAT; and Singapore – Navjeev Singh, Enterprise Singapore.
Presentation by Navjeev Singh from Enterprise Singapore
Singapore and South Africa were for the first time represented at a Proposers Day, which shows the growing international reach of CELTIC-NEXT and EUROGIA2020.
Successful SMEs
The session on successful SMEs, moderated by CELTIC Office Director Dr. Peter Herrmann, featured two success stories of SMEs which had benefitted significantly from their involvement in the respective Cluster project.
Piotr Pawalowski, Vice-President and CTO of medVC
Piotr Pawalowski, Vice-President and CTO of medVC, a Polish medical collaboration tool provider, explained how medVC developed major elements of its services through participation in CELTIC projects. The SME from Poznań had participated in the award-winning CELTIC project “HIPERMED – High Performance Telemedicine Platform” and the also award-winning successor project “E3 – E-health services Everywhere and for Everybody”. Today, medVC has a growing business, meeting the increasing telemedicine service demands by hospitals and patients.
Utku Korkmaz, CEO of Solarcati, presented how his company, a Turkish solar panel service provider in Turkey, is benefitting from its participation in EUROGIA2020.
Utku Korkmaz, CEO of Solarcati
Project idea pitches
Another core element of the Proposers Day was the pitching of project ideas. 15 proposers presented their ideas on a wide range of ICT and energy topics. The presentations led to productive discussions, which were moderated by Christiane Reinsch from the CELTIC Office. CELTIC Consortium Building Sessions had been organized and announced to support the participants to find partners and build a successful proposal.
› Further information
› Proposers Day page on the CELTIC-NEXT website – https://www.celticnext.eu/celtic-eurogia-online-proposers-day-15-16-september-2020/
Joint CELTIC-NEXT and EUROGIA2020 call timeline