STATUS REPORT ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE TT NETWORK

Transcription

1 Original: English 4 September 2013 ORGANISATION EUROPÉENNE POUR LA RECHERCHE NUCLÉAIRE CERN EUROPEAN ORGANIZATION FOR NUCLEAR RESEARCH Action to be taken Voting Procedure Take note Take note SCIENTIFIC POLICY COMMITTEE Two-Hundred-and-seventy eighty fourth Meeting XVII th European Strategy Session of Council 20 September STATUS REPORT ON THE ACTIVITY OF THE TT NETWORK THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER NETWORK OF INSTITUTIONS ACTIVE IN PARTICLE, ASTRO-PARTICLE AND NUCLEAR PHYSICS

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3 Executive Summary CERN Council has unanimously approved the European strategy for Particle Physics at a special session held in Lisbon on July 14th, In the section on complementary issues, CERN/2685 gives particular attention to the involvement of European industry in the Particle Physics programme and to its access to the resulting technologies for its own needs. At its 146 th Session of March 2008 (CERN/FC/5231 CERN/2778), Council approved the creation of a Technology Transfer Network (The TT Network), composed of Technology Transfer (TT) offices (known as Nodes) from most of the major public research organisations in Member States that are active in particle, astro-particle and nuclear physics (PP), and is referred to as HEPTech with the mandate of increasing the effectiveness of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) activities in Member States. The Council has approved the extension of the Network s activities at its European Strategy session of September (CERN-C-S/092/Rev.). In the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (PP), approved in May 2013 (CERN-C-S/106) Council stated that HEPTech should pursue and amplify its efforts and continue to report regularly to the Council. This has been a very productive year for HEPTech and the Network is continuing to mature, which brings along changes as it goes through its adolescence period. Eight nodes have changed representation, most moving to better positions and they have been replaced on the Board which means The Network must take the time to involve new people. The Network has recently started attracting membership from other large scale science infrastructures that have similar challenges to protecting, interacting with industry and exploiting their Intellectual Property (IP). This includes ELI 1 and ESS 2, and more are being approached for membership. The Network has also adapted its working structure based on experience, resulting in: Workgroup on Accelerator Technologies (including associated controls); Workgroup on Information and Computer Technology (ICT); Workgroup on Detectors (including associated controls). The nontechnical workgroups are: Workgroup on Sharing of Best Practices and Supporting of Early Stage Nodes; Workgroup on Funding and Network Expansion. HEPTech has created a work program for 2013/2014. HEPTech organised Delegation Visits to Nodes where HEPTech meets with both bench scientists as well as senior management to understand how better collaborations across the Network can be undertaken. The Nodes currently pay a basic membership fee and then on a project-by-project basis additional contributions are made. A significant, and welcome, additional financial contribution is provided by CERN. Similarly, STFC continues to support the Coordinator through significant money and time contributions. The network is currently signing a collaboration agreement to bind the member s responsibilities and rights. 1 Extreme Light Infrastructure, 2 European Spallation Source,

4 It is widely recognized that the heart of TT is interactions between academia and industry. For this purpose HEPTech focuses on Academia Industry Matching Events (AIME), which consist of technology themed events that provide matchmaking between PP and other research disciplines needs, with industrial capabilities. These events are the core offering of HEPTech to its members and the wider community, and the Network has an active program in this field, with a full list of events. The Network has grown stronger, and we have observed a great deal of initiative from our member institutions, which can be illustrated by the AIME held. We have observed an increasing number of participants from academia and from industry, indicating a growing interest for events ranging from procurement of research, all the way to exploitation of existing technology developed in the framework of research programs. Our networking so far has resulted in the scheduling of a joint event with RD51 3 and the planning of another one with IdeaLAB 4. HEPTech is exploring other parties to jointly run future events. HEPTech is very active in investigating and implementing novel approaches to Technology Transfer. Several events on sharing of best practices took place in the last year. This year HEPTech has responded to requests from nodes and as a result organised events on in kind contribution and the pre procurement process. The Network is also organizing next October an Open Innovation Forum with IFIN-HH, which gained interest from the EC-JRC 5. This has the effect of making the network very member focused and relevant to what the Nodes want to achieve based on current challenges. These events have been driven by the enthusiasm from the Nodes to explore advance techniques in knowledge & technology transfer. We have received very positive feedback from these events, and were able to address issues raised by our member institutions.the Workshop on the pre procurement process allowed for a first discussion on how these initiatives can have an impact in Large Scale Research Infrastructures and it is clear that the subject should be explored further with the adequate bodies at the European level. HEPTech has invested effort in identifying and understanding skills, and gaps in the Network, with the aim of recommending programs of work to correct these weaknesses and take advantage of these skills. This was augmented by an in-depth survey of the nodes, and their capabilities undertaken by Sofia University. Finally, acknowledging that today s researchers are tomorrow s industrial solution providers, HEPTech is investigating a programme that would allow the Network to engage with Europe s most promising PhD students. HEPTech feels that this training should be offered more widely to all engineering and science based students and that the events should be followed up with comprehensive support. These two objectives resulted in the application to the COST programme for funding. 3 RD51 - aims at facilitating the development of advanced gas-avalanche detector technologies and associated electronic-readout systems, for applications in basic and applied research. ( public/) 4 IdeaLAB is a pilot project that brings together physicists, engineers, industrial partners, early-stage researchers and cross-disciplinary teams of students to work together on detector upgrade R&D technologies to co-develop new technologies for research purposes and global relevant new product ideas and innovation. 5 Joint Research Centre at the European Comission (

5 During the course of the previous year HEPTech undertook an audit of the member institutions to seek a better understanding of what role the Network can have to best support their needs. A clear message given was that HEPTech connects big science research infrastructures with the research agile regional members acting as an interface between these large infrastructures and the regional funding available for technology translation in order to benefit the economy and society. HEPTech has created a yearbook of its members, to facilitate better networking between them, amd continues to investigate complementary sources of funding, to further support the Networks activities in order to allow an increase of range and scope for the Networks workplan. This is being undertaken by the Workgroup on Funding and Network Expansion, with particular emphasis on Horizon2020, and regional funding programmes. During the last six months, the core management team has mapped the resources that HEPTech offers against the various funding streams that exist to maximize the return to the Network. A unique opportunity exists to help transfer the innovation from large scale science infrastructures to industry, with the help from the HEPTech agile Nodes via innovation and regional grant funding. In an effort to increase connectivity with industry and to bring additional resources to the organization of events, HEPTech has decided to implement an Entrepreneurs in Residence programme. Under this scheme, experienced industrial people, are invited to act as a Workgroup co-convener for a modest stipend. Following on from the audit of Nodes needs, and in line with the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the Network has created a new taskforce to analyse these needs and make suggestions on how HEPTech can better fulfill the requirements of its Nodes. This will require networking with new stakeholders as well as building upon new relationships and consolidating existing ones. Also HEPTech, through this taskforce, is investing effort into building a toolkit to increase the success and impact of each event organised. Finally, this taskforce is working on building a common communications platform to allow a simplified means of communicating across the membership.

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7 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION RESULTS ORGANISATION COLLABORATION AGREEMENT JOINT TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ACTIONS TRAINING AND BEST PRACTICES BEST PRACTICES UP-SKILLING NODES PROMOTION FUNDING AND NETWORK EXPANSION FUTURE PLANS WORKGROUP ON FUNDING AND NETWORK EXPANSION EXPANSION OF THE NETWORK STRENGTHENING RELATIONS WITH INDUSTRY IMPROVING THE NETWORK REACH INCREASING THE IMPACT OF AIME CONCLUSION... 16

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9 CERN/SPC/976 CERN-Council-S/ INTRODUCTION CERN Council has unanimously approved the European strategy for Particle Physics at a special session held in Lisbon on July 14th, In the section on complementary issues, CERN/2685 gives particular attention to the involvement of European industry in the Particle Physics programme and to its access to the resulting technologies for its own needs. At its 146 th Session of March 2008 (CERN/FC/5231 CERN/2778), Council approved the creation of a Technology Transfer Network (The TT Network), composed of Technology Transfer (TT) offices (known as Nodes) from most of the major public research organisations in Member States that are active in particle, astro-particle and nuclear physics (PP) (full list reported in Annex 1), and is referred to as HEPTech with the mandate of increasing the effectiveness of Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) activities in Member States. The Council has approved the extension of the Network s activities at its European Strategy session of September (CERN-C-S/092/Rev.). In the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (PP), approved in May 2013 (CERN-C-S/106) Council stated that HEPTech should pursue and amplify its efforts and continue to report regularly to the Council. This document constitutes the report of HEPTech s activities since September 2012, Section 1 presents the results achieved, Section 2 highlights the network s future plans and Section 3 concludes this document Organisation 2. RESULTS HEPTech is a network whose objective is to enhance Technology Transfer from fundamental research in physics to society, and it is composed of institutions active in particle, astroparticle and nuclear physics or, if a distinct entity, their Technology Transfer Office (TTO). HEPTech defines Technology Transfer as an exchange or sharing of Intellectual Property, knowledge, skills, processes or technologies across different organisations and industry. The purpose of HEPTech is to apply scientific research results, and to enable relevant collaborations between research and industry for the benefit of society. The Network has recently started attracting membership from other large scale science infrastructure that has similar challenges to protecting, interacting with industry and exploiting their Intellectual Property (IP), as HEPTech nodes. This includes ELI 6 and ESS 7, and more are being approached for membership. The Network has also adapted its working structure based on experience, resulting in the splitting of the Workgroup on Controls distributing its activities with those of the Workgroup on Accelerator Technologies and Workgroup on Detectors, the merging of the Workgroups on Sharing of Best TT Practices and Support to Early Stage TT Offices, and the creation of a new group covering Fund Raising and Network Expansion. Further information can be found in Annex 2. The new structure is: 6 Extreme Light Infrastructure, 7 European Spallation Source,

10 Workgroup on Accelerator Technologies (including associated controls); Workgroup on Information and Computer Technology (ICT); Workgroup on Detectors (including associated controls). The nontechnical workgroups are: Workgroup on Sharing of Best Practices and Supporting of Early Stage Nodes; Workgroup on Funding and Network Expansion. HEPTech has created a work program for 2013/2014, the details of which can be found in Annex 3. Also in a bid to drive maximum cost efficiency, the network has been strategically optimising the different trips that are organized. A typical example being organising in one trip: a Steering Committee meeting; a visit to the labs of the host node to identify opportunities to collaborate across the Network; a Delegation Meeting consisting in meeting between the HEPTech Coordination team and Steering Committee members, with senior management of the visited Node to identify how HEPTech can help the node achieve the best from its TTO, and presenting HEPTech to the bench researchers to allow them to engage with HEPTech. This has resulted in maximizing the returns that the trip brings for the money that has been spent. It would not have been possible without the dedication of the Coordination Team, and naturally special thanks go to CERN, LIP and STFC that have individually contributed several tens of thousands euros of in-kind and cash support, which the Network gratefully thanks them for. This has been a trying year for the coordination team, as eight nodes have changed representation, most moving to better positions and they have been replaced on the Board which mean The Network must take the time to involve new people Collaboration Agreement At the European Strategy Session of the CERN Council of September 2012 it was reported that the network was progressing with the adoption of the Terms of Reference. The Terms of Reference document has been unanimously endorsed by the HEPTech Board and its members at the Board Meeting of December This has been accepted and it has formed the basis of the Collaboration Agreement that the nodes will be legally bound by, which will ensure the financial management of the network. Currently the Collaboration Agreement is being reviewed by the Nodes, with several of them already giving clear willingness of their intent to sign. It is anticipated that the Collaboration Agreement will be signed by the end of calendar year Joint Technology Transfer Actions It is widely recognized that the heart of TT is interactions between academia and industry to exchange knowledge, skills and technologies between both parties. For this purpose HEPTech focuses on Academia Industry Matching Events (AIME). These consist of technology themed events that provide matchmaking between particle physics and other research disciplines needs, with industrial capabilities. These events are the core offering of HEPTech to its members and the wider community, and the Network has an active program in this field, with a full list of events as described in Annex 3. The Network has grown stronger, and we have observed a great deal of initiative from our member institutions, which can be illustrated by the Academia Industry Matching Events held:

11 Collaborating with AIDA 8, in the framework of its Workgroup on Relations with Industry, and supported by CERN, GSI, IN2P3, CEA, DESY and INFN an AIME was organised on Advanced Interconnections for Chip Packaging in Future Detectors, hosted by INFN at Frascati, Italy. As an initiative of CPAN, and collaborating with CIEMAT, CERN, DESY, GSI, and ESS, we held an AIME on Superconductivity in Madrid, Spain; And, led by STFC, we have held an AIME on the Environmental Applications of Accelerators, supported by CERN and GSI. We have observed an increasing number of participants from academia and from industry, indicating a growing interest for events ranging from procurement of research, all the way to exploitation of existing technology developed in the framework of research programs. In particular, feedback from attendees indicated specific interest in events focusing on fostering collaborations between academia and industry. The event on Environmental Application of Accelerators at STFC was based on a new format, and it was noted that was very successful by the delegates. It focused on the use of accelerator technologies solutions for new applications in the field of waste treatment. It raised a great deal of interest from both the research and industrial community, and prompted a clear path for future survey, collaborations and developments. Further information can be found in Annex 5. Our networking so far has resulted in the scheduling of a joint event with RD51 9 and the planning of another one with IdeaLAB 10. HEPTech is exploring other parties to jointly run future events. The Network is also exploring new communication methods as part of this process Training and Best Practices The membership of HEPTech is wide and varied both in terms of science discipline, from pure science in a single discipline (eg. CERN), through to multi discipline industrial focused (eg. EPFL); similarly the nodes skills and experience in TT are widely varied. HEPTech is very active in investigating and implementing novel approaches to Technology Transfer and has during the last year: Trialed the Marblar 11 service for its members, on a special pricing; Ran an industry led solution centric event on accelerators for industry in waste treatment at STFC Daresbury Laboratories, as described below; 11 8 AIDA, the Advanced European Infrastructures for Detectors at Accelerators, is co-funded by the European Commission within Framework Programme 7 Capacities, Grant Agreement ( ) 9 RD51 - aims at facilitating the development of advanced gas-avalanche detector technologies and associated electronic-readout systems, for applications in basic and applied research. ( public/) 10 IdeaLAB: pilot project that brings together physicists, engineers, industrial partners, early-stage researchers and cross-disciplinary teams of students to work together on detector upgrade R&D co-develop new technologies for research purposes and new product ideas and innovation. 11 Marblar is a crowd sourcing technology and IP evaluation platform (

12 12 Prepared to use industrial co-conveners to help manage the Workgroups; Initiated sponsorship discussion with third party service providers, currently negotiating with a framework agreement with Dehns 12 for free IP advice to all members. Two main strands can be found in our best practice program. One is keeping current with best practices, and the other trying to upskill interested nodes. Several events on sharing of best practices took place in the last year (details can be found in Annex 5). Best Practices This year HEPTech has responded to requests from nodes and as a result organised events on in kind contribution and the pre procurement process. The Network is also organizing next October an Open Innovation Forum with IFIN-HH, which gained interest from the EC-JRC 13. This has the effect of making the network very member focused and relevant to what the members want to achieve based on current challenges. These events have been driven by the enthusiasm from the nodes to explore advance techniques in knowledge & technology transfer. This resulted in novel themes and approaches to the current best TT practices: HEPTech Workshop on Open Hardware Event lead by GSI, and with the support of CERN, STFC and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) 14, this event addressed the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) phenomenon and its implications for academia and industry with special attention to knowledge and technology transfer issues. Consideration was given to the various aspects of open source hardware development, and how these are dealt with in academia and industry. Presentations from legal experts, academics, practitioners and businesses provided input for the discussions and exchange of ideas. HEPTech Innovation Procurement Workshop By acting as technologically demanding first buyers, public procurers can drive innovation from the demand side. In December 2007, the European Commission adopted a Communication to promote the use and address the underlying barriers of pre-commercial procurement in Europe. Pre-commercial procurement is an approach where public procurers involve industry at an earlier stage in R&D projects and share the risks and benefits of designing, prototyping and testing new products. This event, as an initiative of ESS, supported by CERN, ELI, ESS and GSI, explored this topic, identified as very pertinent for Large Research Infrastructures. This approach is becoming the focus of attention, in particular in relation with standard procurement. In addition, IP arrangements in pre-commercial procurement contracts may have consequences on the use of the results and therefore impact the TT process. Show and Tell at STFC STFC organised, on the preceding day of the 2012 December HEPTech Board Meeting, an event where it shared their best practices and experiences for Technology Transfer and demonstrating impact in society. The Network was welcomed at STFC campus, and presentations on the various programs, and structure of the institutions activities were shared. We have received very positive feedback from these events, and were able to address issues raised by our member institutions. The Workshop on Open Hardware presented a new point 12 Dehns Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys ( 13 Joint Research Centre at the European Comission ( 14 World Trade Organisation ( )

13 of view on this phenomena, and explored how it could benefit Technology Transfer. The speakers were involved in large OSHW projects, and allowed to understand how different business models can facilitate the dissemination of a technology to industry through less conventional techniques, while fully servicing research needs. The HEPTech Workshop on Innovation Procurement allowed for a first discussion on how these initiatives from the European Commission can have an impact in Large Scale Research Infrastructures, and their Technology Transfer practices. A follow up event was suggested as a result, and it is clear that the subject should be explored further with the adequate bodies at the European level. The event at STFC was highly beneficial to the attendants, and is an example of a new way to share best practices, among the Nodes, which benefits the whole Network as a result. Follow up events are planned, and the format was highly appreciated. Up-skilling Nodes HEPTech has invested effort in identifying and understanding skills, and gaps in the Network, with the aim of recommending programs of work to correct these weaknesses and take advantage of these skills. This was augmented by an in-depth survey of the nodes, and their capabilities undertaken by Sofia University. The questionnaire that serves the basis for this survey can be found in the Annex 7. Finally, acknowledging that today s researchers are tomorrow s industrial solution providers, HEPTech is investigating a program that would allow the Network to engage with Europe s most promising PhD students, to identify and give them the skills necessary to help them transfer science into industry. It is anticipated that this would be embodied by an annual award for two students from each Member State that would attend a symposium based around TT and its benefits and applications to society. We feel that this training should be offered more widely to all engineering and science based students, not just the most promising ones. Similarly the events should be followed up with comprehensive support. These two objectives resulted in the application to the COST programme for funding, and further applications, to third parties, will continue to be undertaken Promotion During the course of the previous year HEPTech undertook, via a third party, an audit of the Nodes to seek a better understanding of what role the Network can have to best support their needs. The audit result can be found in Annex 6. The three main key points stressed were: That the core business of HEPTech should be the education of Academia and Industry on the TT Process, and the provision of proper follow up to the events, using adequate Tool Kits. That HEPTech develops its internal communications, with a view to increasing the visibility of Nodes inside the Network, and provide easier access to information possibly via a dashboard. And that the Network should also develop external communications, strengthening its links with industry networks, senior management of the HEPTech member institutions, and with other networks that can raise the profile and increase HEPTech s reach. 13

14 14 To address these points, HEPTech has initiated a task force, led by ESS, whose remit is to promote the Network better, develop the communication tools, and to focus resources in this area. This taskforce operates under the auspices of the Funding and Network Expansion Workgroup. It also plans to build a refreshed platform for the sharing of case studies and similar material. HEPTech is committed to the benefits that the Network brings to the PP field, and is continuing the program to systematically contact every CERN Member State to bring the benefits of HEPTech to their relevant national institutes. A key methodology used, is for HEPTech to organise Delegation Visits to Nodes. During a Delegation Visit HEPTech meets with both bench scientists as well as senior management to understand how better collaborations across the Network can be undertaken. HEPTech has strengthened its links with the European Commission via the Joint Research Centre and has begun to prepare the members for the Horizon 2020 funding programme. This is an opportunity for the Network to build collaborations to secure significant funding for its members institutions and this is being actively investigated. Similarly, HEPTech has been invited to attend, via CERN, meetings of the TTO Circle. Through this work we have been able to provide a useful access point to the TTO Circle for our members and similarly we also expect to offer the TTO Circle members access to our TT methods and techniques. HEPTech has created a yearbook of its members, to facilitate better networking between them. It lists the delegates and Node s details as well case studies on events that have been organized by HEPTech Funding and network expansion The Network continues self-funding with all Nodes with full membership agreeing to pay a subscription fee. Thanks to significant in-kind contributions from the most active network Nodes HEPTech has been able to broaden its workplan and scope. More information can be found in Annex 3 and 4. HEPTech continues to investigate complementary sources of funding, to further support the Networks activities in order to allow an increase of range and scope for the Networks workplan. This is being undertaken by the Workgroup on Funding and Network Expansion, with particular emphasis on Horizon2020, and regional funding programmes. The Network has a monthly newsletter, organized by IJS, on relevant grants that members can apply for. The flagship PhD symposium event is being organized with additional funding from the member institutions, above the standard subscription fees. HEPTech applied for a COST grant to expand the PhD symposium and provide follow-up for the alumni. 3. FUTURE PLANS 3.1. Workgroup on Funding and Network Expansion This Workgroup has been formed and is now analyzing opportunities that Horizon 2020 brings to the Network. It is anticipated that the regional funding streams will be an ideally opportunity for HEPTech to form multiple consortiums to secure funding for the Nodes. Experiences from each application will be shared as best practice. We will then run Academic Industrial Matching Events (AIME) to maximize the opportunity to build consortium for these funding opportunities.

15 3.2. Expansion of the Network The fundamental purpose of HEPTech is to improve the impact to society by better dissemination of PP knowledge and skills. The best way of doing this is to have a broad wide network to both acquire technologies from typically scientific partners, and to form partnerships between to them, to further the technology for use by industry. HEPTech, is actively looking for new scientific nodes, who will benefit from HEPTech membership. The ultimate aim is to enable the Networks skills, technology and resources to be better utilized by society. During the last six months, the core management team has mapped the resources that HEPTech offers against the various funding streams that exist to maximize the return to our members. A unique opportunity exists to help transfer the innovation from large scale science infrastructures to industry, with the help from the HEPTech agile Nodes via innovation and regional grant funding. The strategy is being refined, and it is evident that HEPTech will need to work more closely with some new stakeholders, e.g., the European Commission and national synchrotrons facilities, as well as strengthening its ties with existing ones Strengthening relations with Industry Traditionally, HEPTech has concentrated on Technology Transfer from academia to industry through the so called innovation push model. In an effort to increase connectivity with industry and to bring additional resources to the organization of events, HEPTech has decided to implement an Entrepreneurs in Residence programme. Under this scheme, experienced industrial people, are invited to act as a Workgroup co-convener for a modest stipend. The first candidates are expected to be deployed in the ICT and Detector Workgroups. Another approach that has been used is to engage with industry pre-event, asking them to lay down challenges for HEPTech to solve. This was trialed at a recent event at STFC Daresbury Labs, to great success. We expect it to become more successful over time as the database of industrial contacts is built up Improving the Network reach As well as ensuring that we have a broad deep network, we will ensure that the maximum impact is achieved by the work that HEPTech has undertaken, by investing in suitable cost effective communication techniques and resources. We will use this investment in additional resources to disseminate/share best practice and knowledge. Following on from the audit of Nodes needs, and in line with the update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics, the Network has created a new taskforce to analyse these needs and make suggestions on how HEPTech can better fulfill the requirements of its Nodes. This taskforce is led by ESS with help from CERN, DESY, GSI, Sofia University and STFC. The first task was to perform a survey of members and see how HEPTech can best help them meet the challenges that they face. A clear message given was that HEPTech connects big science research infrastructures to benefit the economy and society by shaping research results into incremental and transformational products and services. This will require networking with new stakeholders as well as building upon new relationships and consolidate existing ones. The identified list includes: European Commission: DG research, DG Enterprises, DG Connect ICT, DG regional policy, JRC, TTO Circle; and WIPO. It has become apparent that large scale research infrastructures are seen as the backbone of the network, with the research agile regional members acting as an interface between these large infrastructures and the regional funding available for technology translation. This was 15

16 16 demonstrated at the event at ESS in Lund that discussed the issues brought about by effective implementation of pre-procurement. This focusing of the Network is building upon the work that HEPTech undertook on the Delegation Visits to large infrastructure members GSI, CEA and STFC. 3.5 Increasing the impact of AIME To increase the success and impact of each event we organise, HEPTech is investing effort into building a toolkit to help organising the events. As well as defining the process to be followed from pre-event all the way to post event, we are working on building a common communications platform to allow a simplified means of communicating across the membership. This will include both internal communication as well as messages that we will ask members to disseminate to their contact base. It is important that we maximize the opportunities from every event that HEPTech organises, either by itself or with others, to both HEPTech and the various stakeholders we engage with. The potential for our science to improve society, is too important to not make sure that every AIME is as effective as it can possibly be. We are formalizing the internal feedback session that we hold as part of a program of continuous improvement, to ensure maximum impact is achieved with optimized effort. This best practice will be shared with our members and organising partners and they will be invited and encouraged to use our best practice model. In addition to this, we will actively source best practice models from other industries or sectors and incorporate them into our model. The results of these surveys have led us to understand the need for a follow up strategy, in order to track the development of the technology field over time. 4. CONCLUSION This has been a very productive year for HEPTech and the network is continuing to mature, which brings along changes as it goes through it adolescence period. The structure has been simplified. The Network has grown stronger, and we have a great deal of initiative and interest from our member institutions, which can be illustrated by the range of Academia Industry Matching Events held and the increasing number of participants from academia and from industry. Our networking so far has resulted in the scheduling of a joint event with RD51 and the planning of another one with IdeaLAB. Innovative approaches were explored with the solution centric industry event at STFC, and the events on in kind contribution and the pre procurement process. It was concluded that the latter should be explored further with the adequate bodies at the European level. HEPTech has strengthened its links with the European Commission via the Joint Research Centre and has begun to prepare the member institutions for the Horizon 2020 funding programme. During the course of the previous year we undertook an audit of the member institutions to seek a better understanding of what role the Network can have to best support their needs. Following on from this audit, the Network has created a new taskforce, led by ESS, to analyse these needs and make suggestions. A clear message given was that HEPTech connects big science research infrastructures with the research agile regional members acting as an interface between these large infrastructures and the regional funding available for technology translation in order to benefit the economy and society. This will require networking with new

17 stakeholders as well as building upon new relationships and consolidating existing ones. Also HEPTech, through this taskforce, is investing effort into building a toolkit to increase the success and impact of each event organised. Finally, this taskforce is working on building a common communications platform to allow a simplified means of communicating across the membership. The Network continues self-funding with all Nodes with full membership agreeing to pay a subscription fee. Thanks to significant in-kind contributions from the most active network members HEPTech has been able to broaden its workplan and scope. The coordination team host institutes have individually contributed several tens of thousands euros of in-kind and cash support, which the Network gratefully thanks them for. HEPTech continues to investigate complementary sources of funding, to further support the Networks activities in order to allow an increase of range and scope for the Network workplan. The flagship PhD symposium event is being organized with additional funding from the members, above the usual subscription fees. HEPTech also applied for a COST grant to expand the PhD symposium and provide follow-up for the alumni. HEPTech has created a yearbook of its member institutions, to facilitate better networking between them. 17