Dissemination & Exploitation Academy

The Dissemination & Exploitation (D&E) Academy is a maximum three-month programme designed to help research teams increase the innovation potential of their research results.

The Academy focuses on Key Exploitable Results (KERs) produced by the Research Teams (RTs) to move them beyond the laboratory or project environment and towards real-world uptake. Thanks to a combination of workshops, group hands on exercises and one-to-one coaching, participants, clients, learn how to better understand users, their needs, validate key assumptions, refine the value proposition, engage with relevant stakeholders, and define convincing pathways for bringing KERs into use, disseminate them and prepare for long-term sustainability of their results.

Who can participate

• Research Teams (RTs) from Organisations based in Widening countries and outermost regions that developed Key Exploitable Results from widening actions and/or Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects;

• Research Management and Administration (RMAs) staff from relevant offices dealing with Industrial Liaison, Intellectual Property (IP), Technology Transfer, Knowledge Valorisation and European Projects. The active involvement of RMAs contributes to networking, peer-to-peer learning and exchange of experience with the experts, strengthening their ability to support RTs within their organisations.

How the service works

The D&E Academy integrates three collective workshops with tailored one-to-one coaching sessions over a period of three months.

• The first workshop is online and introduces the core concepts, tools and methodologies related to dissemination and exploitation. Clients work with their KER, diving into their main features, potential users, relevant stakeholders, and the assumptions that need to be validated in terms of problem addressed and added value of the solution proposed.
• The second workshop is in person at the premises of one of the organisations involved. It provides the opportunity for hands-on work and peer interaction to address exploitation and dissemination related activities. RTs and RMAs review progress, apply the methodologies to their individual cases and receive feedback from colleagues and experts. The in-person format encourages interaction, exchange of experience and contributes to networking and future collaborations.
• The third workshop is online and focuses on consolidating the work completed during the D&E Academy. RTs review the evidence and feedback collected, refine their exploitation approach and define priorities and next steps for the further development and uptake of their KER.

Between workshops, individual coaching sessions allow each team to work directly with experts on challenges specific to its KER. The coaching supports the application of methodologies and tools introduced during the workshops and helps clients in focusing on the specific aspects of each exploitation pathway and in translating it into concrete actions.

Online workshops generally last three to four hours, while the in-person workshop is delivered over two half-days or one full day. The location of the in-person workshop is agreed with participants on a case-by-case basis, considering the geographical distribution of clients and the need to optimise travel and logistics.

Organisation and participation

Each D&E Academy can support up to 15 Research Teams (15 KERs) with their Research Managers and Administrators.

Whenever possible, Academies are organised by grouping KERs from the same organisation, country or geographical area. This helps facilitate participation and maximise the number of research results supported while reducing unnecessary travel.

The Academy, as all services provided by the Facility, is free of charge for clients. Travel and accommodation costs related to participation in in-person activities are not covered by the Facility.

Experts and support

The Academy is delivered by experts in key areas such as research valorisation, knowledge transfer, innovation management, dissemination and exploitation, business and market development, stakeholder engagement, intellectual property and post project sustainability.

All experts involved in the D&E Academies are seasoned practitioners with extensive experience gained through their own professional careers and validated by DGRTD through the delivery of European Commission support services. They have supported hundreds of KERs across a wide range of EU-funded projects, sectoral domains, and result types and they cover the full range of topics considered in the Facility (Health; Social Science and Humanities, Culture; Security; Digitalisation; Technology, Industry Space; Climate, Natural resources, Environment; Energy).

Experts are selected according to the specificities of the KERs to be addressed. The selection considers expert’s experience in the knowledge domain, sector or technological field, the maturity of the KERs, the intended exploitation pathway and in the challenges identified by the research team.

This approach ensures the support received during the Academy is fit to the purpose rather than generic. Where appropriate, experts with complementary profiles may contribute to the programme so that teams can benefit from different perspectives during their experience within the Academy.

Experts are therefore selected according to their ability to support the implementation of practical actions for the exploitation, dissemination, uptake, replication and long-term sustainability of each KER.

The role of the experts is not to define an exploitation strategy on behalf of the RT/ RMA, but to help the team in making informed decisions about the next steps towards use by contributing with experience-based knowledge, challenging assumptions, enabling use of methodologies and tools, providing feedback and offering recommendations.

What clients will learn and achieve

With the Academy, participants will learn how to:

• assess exploitation potential and readiness of their KER;
• identify and better understand early adopters, users, stakeholders, partners;
• define and refine the KER’s value proposition;
• identify and test key assumptions for the uptake and use of the KER;
• collect and interpret feedback from early adopters and relevant stakeholders;
• explore exploitation pathways;
• align dissemination with exploitation and the needs and expectations of early adopters;
• identify barriers, enabling factors that may influence KER uptake;

• prepare an exploitation roadmap.

Depending on the maturity and characteristics of the KER, the Academy can lead to:

• a clearer and validated value proposition;
• an improved understanding of early adopters, users, stakeholders;
• evidence and feedback gathered through stakeholder or early-adopter validation;
• a more focused mapping of needs, opportunities and barriers to uptake;
• a clearer and more detailed exploitation pathway;
• a set of priority actions for further development with responsibilities and resources;

• recommendations for a sustainable use for the KER.

Beyond the individual research result, the Academy strengthens the practical dissemination and exploitation skills of both Research Teams and Research Management Administrators. The methodologies, tools and experience acquired during the programme are transferable to other research projects and initiatives, contributing to stronger and more sustainable use of research results thanks to an improved dissemination, exploitation and research valorisation capacity within participating organisations.

Participation in the D&E Academy opens KERs (Research Teams) to the access to other specialised services offered by the Facility.