Abstract

Exploitation as understood in the context of EU-funded projects is the part of the project that deals with the use of the results for commercial purposes or in public policymaking, as the European Commission itself describes it. It covers the identification of the results obtained during the action and their subsequent use in further research activities as well as developing, creating and marketing a process or service. The exploitation concept also includes standardization activities.
The exploitation of the results guarantees a return on investment of the funding provided by the Commission and states the value and impact of the subsidized activities, whether it be commercial, societal, political or knowledge-based. Without it, the knowledge would not be shared with other consortia or the community itself, with the risk of efforts being repeated in the future. Also, the investment effort is considered as a push to allow new products, process and services to be commercialized, creating new job opportunities and strengthening the position and competitiveness of Europe in the global market.
One key aspect to keep in mind is that, although a preliminary exploitation plan is almost always presented at the proposal stage, it should be updated during the course of the project. Actually, if the exploitation tasks are correctly performed, the exploitation plan should undergo considerable changes, and in many cases even pivot. The main reason is that the average time-lapse between the writing of the proposal and the exploitation of the results is three and a half years. In this considerable amount of time, and with an effort much superior to that dedicated during the proposal phase, it should be common that the initial business case is erased and replaced by a new one. After all, we are talking about innovation projects during which technologies, interactions, applications and sometimes even the potential market, changes.
In this presentation, we will discuss tips and techniques for a successful execution of the Exploitation task of the project and the definition of a successful Exploitation Strategy that will allow optimal exploitation of the outputs of the project