T-TRANS - Enhancing the transfer of Intelligent Transportation System innovations to the market
Overview
Background & policy context:
A deep analysis of the current activity in Intelligent Transportation Systems shows an increasing importance of this transport research and application domain to support major EU priorities as regard of economic growth objectives by 2020 and beyond.
T-TRANS project would focus on the need to streamline the key factors influencing in the innovation chain for ITS in order to bring out a better understanding of their market potential and to provide a guideline for their future exploitation. For this particular, a set of 4 case studies had been pre-selected from key ITS areas so the T-TRANS consortium could detect the features of the innovation chain, analyze the ITS market, evaluate the evolution for the specific cases and applications involved and provide solid guidelines for ITS innovation commercialization.
In parallel and linked to this in-depth analysis of pre-selected cases in several ITS domains and their innovation chains for their transfer to market, T-TRANS project would focus in strengthening the innovation and cooperation chain for the ITS domain. For this ambitious objective, the consortium would design and operate ITS innovation pilot nodes (G-local Communities of Interest to Market) as a first stage for a future EU Innovation Network on ITS. Following key criteria determined by the Transport 2012 Work Programme, T-TRANS G-local CIMs would launch in regions of the EU27 where there is a clear untapped potential to reinforce the links of the innovation chain on the one side, and to assess and promote the development of key elements in their respective transport systems on the other, pushing towards a better integration into the international transport networks through the enhancement of the application of ITS.
Objectives:
T-TRANS project aims at providing information on innovation mechanisms for the Intelligent Transportation Systems domain, encouraging and facilitating an accelerated market deployment of related innovative products and services.
The specific objectives of the proposal are:
- Study different applications of ITS in order to detect the features of the innovation chain of the respective ITS domains
- Analyse the ITS market and evaluate the evolution for the specific applications analyzed during the project
- Create a systemic approach for Technology Commercialization strategy analysis
- Give best practices and guidelines for ITS innovation commercialization
- Create and operate ITS Innovation pilot nodes, gathering key actors of the innovation chain, involving regions of Europe with a weak innovation support chain (pilots selected: north west Spain, central Macedonia, Latvia)
- Strengthen the innovation and cooperation for the ITS domain.
The main output of T-TRANS is expected to be a set of recommendations and information to improve the understanding of the ITS innovation processes. The overall objective is divided into two parallel main actions:
- To carry out an in-depth analysis of pre-selected cases in several ITS domains and their innovation chains for their transfer to market
- Set-up an ITS oriented Innovation Network in Europe through the establishment and enhancement of the operation of three pilot nodes in the Region of Central Macedonia (Greece), Galicia (Spain) and Latvia.
The results from the ITS study cases will be streamlined into best practices for technology commercialization, bringing out a better understanding of their market potential and providing a guideline for their future exploitation. By identifying and analysing new business opportunities from the case studies, T-TRANS consortium will also create a systemic approach for ITS specific Technology Commercialization strategy analysis. The results will be contrasted within the Pilot Nodes, in order to
- Assess in the elaboration of a specific support strategy according to regional-national innovation support schemes and structures
- Assess the feasibility of market uptake in the targeted regions
- Reinforce the functioning of the Innovation Network through dissemination and liaison activities.
Methodology:
The project involved all stakeholders of the transport and ITS innovation chain: Universities, R&D and technology centres, enterprises of any size, regional clusters, public authorities and policy makers, venture capital and other investors, with special focus on SMEs.
The project addressed the difficulty of transferring to market developing technologies with a significant potential for improvement, both in terms of efficiency and costs, once they could be commercialised.
The starting point was a comprehensive analysis of the transport and ITS innovation chains, identifying in four specific case studies, the stages of technology development and time to market, the risk profile and the funding sources and gaps. Moreover, the evaluation of the market commercialization of research would be performed with a holistic approach that includes the mapping of instruments that support commercialization of research and technologies, the identification of the market drivers for transport innovation and of the channels and options for the commercialization of research.
Project results would contribute to fostering the development and deployment of new technologies in ITS development areas related to the four case studies.
Finally, an ITS innovation network would be established, initially with three G-local Communities of Interest to Market (CIMs) that will be implemented in the EU regions of Central Macedonia (Greece), Galicia (Spain) and Latvia, thus setting the basis for the European ITS e-innovation network.
T-TRANS consortium would analyse the “Innovation Chain” operating the pre-selected technologies, set of technologies and applications in order to emphasize all the components necessary to maximize economic benefits from the particular domain.
“Innovation chains” are defined as the paths for bringing an idea to the market. An idea must typically be researched, developed into individual technologies, assembled into systems addressing targeted applications, transformed into a set of usable products and/or services to be inserted into existing value chains. Innovation chains represent therefore a new dimension alongside value chains.
Analysing innovation chains is a prerequisite for ITS as they will significantly impact most links of the current value chains. They represent a systemic adaptation which is nothing but easy.
A first necessary step in order to implement this analysis has been the selection of the case studies, which has been carried out according to identified and validated European Commission roadmaps for Intelligent Transport System research, current trends in the area and relevant priorities identified by EU initiatives (such as the under development Strategic Transport Technology Plan6).
Share this page