flexnet d4.3.6 incentive workshops period 3 - europa › docs › projects › cnect › 5 ›...

NoE FlexNet / FP7 GA 247745 1 (19) Report D4.3.6; Appendice (Version 0.1) Responsible: Stéphane Cros / [email protected] / FlexNet INTERNAL DOCUMENT

Project acronym FlexNet Project full title NoE FlexNet - Network of Excellence for building up Knowledge for

improved Systems Integration for Flexible Organic and Large Area Electronics (FOLAE) and its exploitation

Grant Agreement no. 247745 Call identifier FP7-ICT-2009-3.3 Instrument Network of Excellence Start date of project 01.01.2010 Duration 36 month

Report on Deliverable D4.3.6: Incentive regional workshops period 3

Dissemination Level PU PU (Public)

PP (Restricted to other programme participants, including the Commission Services) RE (Restricted to a group specified by the consortium, including the Commission Services) CO (Confidential, only for members of the consortium, including the Commission Services)

Responsible CEA Version 1.1 Due date of Deliverable month 36 Actual submission date month 36


Objectives & strategy established in D4.3.5 Four incentive workshops have been organized in the second period of the project Flexnet. The main goal is to combine local stakeholders, SMEs and other regional interest groups in order to inform and involve this local audience about current efforts and trends and to identify opportunities through Flexible, Organic and Large Area Electronics (FOLAE). In addition, to ensure a well comprehension of local companies and to decrease the doorstep for participation, the presentations proposed are made in the local language. The general agenda of those workshops contains a talk introducing general economic data on the field, already existing networks (OE-A, POLYNET, FLEXNET, EOOE) and their role, one or two talks generally explaining the European and local state of R&D and industry activities in FOLAE and one or more talks of companies presenting their already established or debuting activities in FOLAE. If possible a talk on a particular application field of FOLAE can be proposed. In this third period, due to difficulties to have a good feed-back with industrial attendees (using the RAS questionnaire), we have established a new strategy with a better control of content, message and geographical spread. This strategy is described in the deliverable D4.3.5. and can be summarize as follows :

geographical spread The geographical spread of 2012 workshops will be taken into account,, particularly in the east and south of Europe.

Co-organization with local platform If possible, incentive workshops are organized in collaboration with local industrial platform and/or association.

Suggestions about the content and goals of incentive workshops bundle local stakeholders, SMEs and other regional interest groups inform this local audience about current efforts and trends get them involved in networking and opportunities like Flexnet RAS

Target Group

relevant regional small and medium-sized enterprises in Industry, which work in the area of FOLAE or want to use it in the future (e.g. printing, plastic production, textile production, gaming industry)

investors for these companies (government departments, institutes…) facilitators of industrial development (regulators, politics, funding agencies) large industry to develop contacts for easier communication the presentations are made in the local language

Preparation of incentive Workshops

As early a possible a. Found co-organizers, hosts, partners for the organization and public advertisement of the workshop, if possible. Or an event that makes co-location of the workshop advantageous.

4 Months before a. Found at least 2 Companies which already use FOLAE for talk in Workshop; Local companies if possible or invite external lecturers. b. Write E-Mail or call, if there is an interest to present their work with FOLAE (template would be meaningful)

2 Months before a. Found a large number (maybe 50) Companies, which are interested in FOLAE b. Write E-Mail Invitations for Workshop (it is better, if also a Template is given) c. After 2 Weeks, call all Companies, which did not answer, and ask for interest in FOLAE( a telephone compendium / contact list could be useful)


d. If a person wants to come, you can send an email or letter with something like a ticket (also Template needed)

1 Week before a. Call (or send an E-Mail--> also Template needed) all those who want to come to

remind that the workshop is in one Week


Incentive Regional Workshops organized in 2012 6 new incentive workshops were organized during the last period of the project. New recommendations (D4.3.5) were applied in order to improve the industrial attendees feed-back.

In parallel, a new RAS questionnaire has been established. The objective was to create a more concrete approach to motivate potential industrial users. In this order, public internet links describing consortium capabilities and demonstrator activity has been created thanks to the involvement of all concerned partners. These internet links were introduced in the questionnaire, in addition with already existing webpages describing CRI and Web portal FOLAE Higher Education. Questions are all related to these concrete aspects, see annex 1 “RAS, Instruction for use”.

First, this questionnaire was submitted independently of the workshop (even if the RAS activity has been presented, the questionnaire was not ready to be presented in its final version). We obtained a moderate response rate, see annex 2 “RAS response to the questionnaire”.

Finally, the RAS upgraded questionnaire was introduced carefully during the workshop (in the last Romanian session). A better feed-back has been achieved, see annex 3, “Synthesis of the RAS response from Romanian workshop” and workshop description below. This final result allows to give some recommendation concerning future RAS services, see part III.

Madrid (Sp)

This workshop has been organized in collaboration with Spanish clusters PEC4. 80 participants attended. The speech “Horizon 2020 Future lines in functional printing and printed electronics” allowed attendees to become more familiar with FOLAE technologies as to have a better knowledge of the different European clusters or organization (Flexnet, OEA). The RAS activity has been presented.

About the diffusion of the upgraded RAS questionnaire :

In june, we tried to test our new RAS questionnaire (comprising internet link) sending an electronic version of “instruction for use the RAS” to this last Spanish workshop. As established in our strategy, the local platform 3NEO plaed the role of interface. See below the 3NEO attempt to motivate potential RAS users (e mail from 3NEO):

“3NEO technical secretariat have been contacting with spanish companies, informing about benefits from the RAS Service, and asking for participation. But we are concerned about the null response obtained. All members of 3NEO were informed by email, but a selection of about 15 companies (4 not belonging to 3NEO) received direct telephone call, or personal email to responsible in order to encourage participation. In most cases, company responsible showed a positive interest although delaying the confirmation. To date, we have not still obtained any confirmation”

Date Place March 7, 2012 Madrid (Sp)

(in collaboration with 3NEO cluster) April 12, 2012 Belignat (Fr)

(in collaboration with Plastipolis) May 16, 2012 Bologna (It)

(in collaboration with confindustria) October 22, 2012

Lodz (Pl)

Nov. 5, 2012 Barcelona (Sp) (in collaboration with PEC4, EIT, OEA..)

Dec. 12, 2012

Bucharest (Ro)


Finally, only one response has been obtained from the Spanish SME Nanogap, specialist of nanoparticles.

http://www.nanogap.es/

Bélignat (Fr)

Plastipolis and CEA organized this Incentive Workshop in connection with the local cluster specialized in polymers “Plastipolis”. Flexnet activities were presented. Other speeches were focused on gas barrier materials, the main topic of the workshop. This issue is in relation with the CRI 2 “Lifetime”. More than 30 participants (17 industrials) attended.

Definition of key features related to gas barrier properties have been discussed and clarified. The large range of barrier properties achievable depending of gas barrier technology and application need has been highlighted. Due to this meeting, collaborative works are under discussion to initiate future consortium and develop innovative gas barrier solution, particularly for FOLAE applications.

About the diffusion of the upgraded RAS questionnaire (some month after the workshop):

See annex 2, responses from Ceradrop & breed

Bologna (It)

ENEA organized the Incentive Workshop in Italy, in the town of Bologna, on May 16, 2012. The Workshop was organized with the sponsorship and in the premises of the Regional branch of the Italian Industry Association (Confindustria). The program included an opening speech ot the president of the above-said organisation, and technical speeches of italian industries active in the field of OLAE: STMicroelectronics (hybrid oargnic-inorganic circuits), SAES Getters (getters for OLED and other air-sensitive devices), COVEME (polyester and other polymeric film substrates), and French industry active in OLAE: CERADROP (printing equipments) as well as from leading national bank (Mediocredito Italiano), and the central headquarters of Confindustria in Rome. The FLEXNET project was illustrated by CEA, and there has been some advertising on FLEXNET-RAS, and FLEXNET-CRI, in order to stimulate industries to join RAW services and CRI definition.

The workshop was greatly appreciated, and was attended by about about 40 people, representing mor than 20 SMEs.

The event of the incentive workshop has given the opportunity to FLEXNET to involve local industries in the assessment of the Critical Research Issues of the Consortium, as 3 industries in the audience provided their input and their votes on this subject (Delprosens, Redox, UTECO).

The dissemination about FLEXNET and OLAE reached all the industries of the region Emilia Romagna, that is one with the largest GDP and industrial infrastrucures in Italy, mainly based on SMEs, with an historical vocation to make joint initiatives and consortia.



“from Confindustria : ““We made a diffusion to the SMEs of our region we thought could be possibly interested but we didn’t have any official feedback yet. Nevertheless many enterprises told us they could be possibly interested more as end-user than developer, especially in OLED-RFID-Sensors applications and in automatic production machines.”

Lodz (Pl) In order to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses and potential opportunities for the OLAE sector in Poland, TUL has organized the 2nd FLEXNET Incentive Workshop in Poland, at Lodz University of Technology. During this event the participants had an opportunity to find contact with the representatives of the local industry, who are already involved in organic electronic field like: QWERTY Company from Lodz, Epi-Lab Company from Warsaw and 3D-nano Company from Krakow. These events showed that the local universities and industry tried to find their place in OLAE area by the participation in the projects dedicated to fabrication of the components (substrates, materials, electrode materials) and technology for OLAE. The idea of Workshop is to use of national language of the participants to make easier the contact between the potential partners and to create the better atmosphere to start the collaboration between the potential partners. The Workshop was also an opportunity to show the students and PhD students relatively new field of studies: nanotechnology and organic electronics and to find contact with potential employers. There were 9 lectures presented at the Workshop (the presentations are available on website http://www.kfm.p.lodz.pl/). The Workshop was attended by over 90 participants, both from industry and from academia.


TUL workshop picture


RAS activity presented but questionnaire non diffused.

Barcelona (Sp)

Workshop in Barcelona was organized in collaboration with PEC4 local industrial platform, EIT and OEA (in parallel of 28th working group of OEA). This workshop was dedicated to the encapsulation topic (in relation with critical research issue 2 : Stability). Expert presentations were related to gas barrier materials (review of technologies, perspectives and performances) and gas barrier measurements (how measure gas barrier properties and control encapsulation materials). Presentations were distributed within the OEA framework.

http://www.enthipv.upc.edu/

View of the website of the workshop


RAS activity presented but questionnaire non diffused.

Bucharest (Ro)

The Romanian workshop named “An Introduction to Organic Electronics and Issues related” was attended by more than 52 attendants. Two of the most interesting presentations were “Organic Electronics- General Presentation, and “Aspects of Organic Electronics promoted by FLEXNET Project”. Particular attention was paid by organizers in order to apply recommendation and obtain a better feed-back from industrial attendees.



The RAS was carefully introduced as the internet links describing consortium competencies (by partner) and demonstrator activities (to describe concrete objects). A simple questionnaire related to the workshop presentation was distributed by e mail with a dead line (and a reminder). To date, 7 feed-back were received which represent a significant improvement of response rate (see annex 3, “RAS response from Romanian workshop”)

Presentation during the workshop in Bucharest


Some recommendations for future RAS services As explained previously and in other reports related to RAS activity and incentive workshop (highly connected activities), despite the great success of workshops, it is particularly difficult to motivate industrial attendees to use the RAS. Some really interesting industrial collaboration and contacts has been established (see D4.2.3), nevertheless the RAS did not work really. Some adjustments has been done to present the RAS more properly and introduce it in the workshops (as the potential customers can be easily met during these sessions). The strategy established in D4.3.5 permits to establish the rules to organize more efficiently incentive workshops. Based on our late relative success, we can add some recommendations to use these events as a base to feed the RAS and better involve companies in FOLAE (particularly SME). Complementary of the point established in D 3.4.5, the upgraded RAS questionnaire named “instructions for use” is based on following principles:

Simplicity: we have to consider potential users are not specialist of FOLAE and cannot spend a lot of time to fill the questionnaire. The questions have to be concrete, the number of questions limited.

Generate interest: in addition of general presentation during the workshop (introducing the

potential interest of the FOLAE market), we have to show the RAS is a simple and low cost way to do the first step in the direction of FOLAE. For this purpose, the description of the demonstrator activity is essential (public website describing it is a wonderful tool), it permits to potential RAS users to imagine how their actual activity (materials, process, etc) can shift toward FOLAE applications. In addition, the description of CRI is a good too to give a clear view of bottleneck and to permit to industrial to form their own opinion about it.

o Note : it appears the demonstrator activity could be completely related to the RAS service, as it is the concrete aspect the most easily understandable of the RAS. We can suggest future RAS services would work in parallel of the demonstrator activity : it could start as soon the demonstrator scheme is established and can be described on a public website, as soon it is possible in the project.

Local interface: workshops are made in the local language. The RAS, as established in the “instruction for use” need a local interface. It could be a local platform or a local partner. In addition, the public description of partners capabilities as the public educational webportal can be considered as local description of FOLAE expertise.

How present the RAS service : the RAS service is introduced during the workshop with the

“instruction for use” (presentation of the internet links and principle). It has to be presented as a wonderful possibility to access for FREE to network of high level competencies and to participate to the manufacturing of concrete object or to be help in the definition of “proof of concept”. This questionnaire has to be diffused just after the workshop with a dead line for the response. A reminder is send some days before the dead line.


annex 1 “RAS, Instruction for use”


annex 2 “Response to RAS questionnaire” 1/ Ceradrop p1 (old questionnaire, public description not ready)


1/ Ceradrop p2 (old questionnaire)


1/ Ceradrop, p3 (« old » questionnaire)


2/ Breed p1 (old questionnaire, public description not ready)


2/ Breed p2 (old questionnaire, public description not ready)


3/ Nanogap p1


3/ Nanogap p2


“Synthesis of the RAS response from Romanian workshop”

1. Are you interested to have details about one or more capabilitie(s) ? 5 of 7 – YES 2 of 7 - NO If yes, which one(s) ? Why? with which Flexnet partner(s) ? Is it in relation with your activity? The 5 companies have written that UPB-CETTI will be the bridge for contacting Flexnet partners. 2. Are you interested to have more details about demonstrators? If yes, which demonstrator(s)? Why? Is it in relation with your activity? 7 of 7 – YES; even the companies not interested in FOLAE, were interested in the technical issues of the demonstrators On the basis of the actual activity in your company, 3. Could you imagine to participate to FOLAE activity ?

5 of 7 – YES 2 of 7 - NO If yes, how? (providing material, process, etc,,) The 5 companies have written that it is not clear exactly for them right now how to participate in FOLAE (most probably in design and some printing processes) If not, do you imagine, in the future, your could produce FOLAE or integrate FOLAE or propose a product/process adapted for FOLAE Feed-back from 2 companies. Only integration of FOLAE could be the next step in Romania for SMEs. what could be the conditions to occur? what could be the conditions to NOT occur? No feed-back. 4. In relation with your activity, which advantages do you imagine for FOLAE?

Feed-back from 3 companies. Advanteges in sensors and lighting. 5. In relation with your activity, which limitations do you imagine for FOLAE?

a. Is it related to Critical Research Issues? Yes, it is related to CRIs and one the most important limitation is that the organic devices/structures are not available on the market and from distributors (4 of 7 underlined this). 6. Do you have general questions about FOLAE?

7 of 7 – YES and the companies asked UPB-CETTI for its scientific and technical support in solving the question marks 7. Are you interested to contact a Flexnet partner? The 5 companies interested in FOLAE have written that UPB-CETTI will be the bridge for contacting Flexnet partners (not direct contact in the first step) and that the most interesting partners are those from countries located in the Central and (South-)Eastern Europe.

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