AMI 2021: Detection of Innovative Projects/Assets

Context

Aware of the fact that research and innovation play a decisive role in local economic development, the University of Orléans and the CNRS, in partnership with the Orléans Val de Loire Technopole (OVLT) and C-VaLo, make a call for expressions of interest (AMI). The publication of this AMI aims at favouring, inside academic research laboratories, the detection of innovative projects or assets that could lead to real innovation in the near future.

Definitions

• By “assets”, we mean the result of academic research work that has a proven or expected economic application potential.
• By “innovation”, we mean bringing a product, a service, a process, an organisation or a method on the market with the creation of economic value and/or direct or indirect impact in terms of activity, employment and attractiveness. 

 Objective

This call for expressions of interest aims a raising awareness on innovation among researchers and doctoral students and at detecting the innovative work that is likely to be transformed into business opportunities. The goal is to select research work from all themes and to provide individual support to the potential project leaders in order to verify the economic credibility of their project and, if so, to initiate its maturation.

This promotion will require a market-oriented support step beforehand, which will help:

• Confirming the innovative potential of the project;
• Corroborating and strengthening the credibility of the “idea”;
• Determining if these assets could become technologies, processes, methods or innovative services that could be of interest for the economic world;
• Placing these assets in an optimal way within the economic ecosystem;
• Identifying the possible partnerships and the accessible funding;
• Creating a road map and an action plan.

Eligibility Criteria

For a project to be eligible, it needs to meet two conditions:

• That the project leader be available enough to participate to ulterior tasks required within the framework of promotion;

AND

• That the research work be started and have delivered a first level of innovative results that are likely to have value-creating applications (product or service) but for a which a reinforcement in credibility is necessary (state of the art, additional intellectual property)

OR

•     That the research be in progress or almost finished (approximately 1 year of research left), that the associated intellectual property protection be considered and that the possible markets to promote them  need to be studied in greater depth (market research, research into collaboration for the promotion of this work, dimensioning of a given market, etc.).

With this AMI, we will focus on the “credibility” phase, thus addressing the "maturation" phase of the classical innovation process.

The offered support consists in helping the project leader characterise the assets, realize a first-level detection of their industrial and/or commercial potential and consider the means to be mobilised to develop them.

The help consists in providing a road map on the promotion potential of the project and an action plan to achieve this prior to or concurrently with the drafting of an invention declaration.
 

  Project Selection

The declarations of intent (see below) will be shared between the OVLT, the SPV GC and C-VaLo. A complementary instruction may be decided, based on a first opinion, during the meeting of the selection commission composed of: SPVGC (UdO / CNRS) + OVLT + C-VaLo.

Implemented Means

In order to achieve the objectives mentioned above,

The University of Orléans and the CNRS are committed to mobilise, within the framework of C-VaLo, pre-maturation means oriented toward the identification of uses and associated value through market studies, technological placement analysis and/or expert opinions, in the continuation of the drafting of the road map constituting the deliverable of this AMI "Innovative potential of laboratory assets".

C-VaLo’s Intellectual Property and Promotion Committee (COPIV) composed of representatives of the member institutions and organisms, co-owners of the presented technologies, will make its decision based on the documents submitted and the road map produced. A slideshow including the description of the research process and the results obtained will allow the COPIV to make a decision on the possible pre-maturation means means to mobilise. Depending on the project’s relevance, its potential and its progress, the COPIV will validate or modulate the investment offered and, for projects in Orléans, will keep the OVLT informed.

OVLT is committed to making resources available: several different policy officers or interns (scientific and/or economic profiles) inside OVLT will be able to intervene according to the application field and the maturity level of the project. 

Likewise, an orientation towards the CNRS’s pre-maturation programme may be offered for project leaders from a laboratory linked to the CNRS.

The stated aim is to select projects that will be supported in view of a potential future investment in maturation.

According to the conclusion of pre-maturation actions, the implementation of maturation programmes is possible for investment amounts going from 50k€ to 400k€.

C-VaLo investments in maturation are implemented with the support of the Centre-Val de Loire region, which mobilises significant FEDER funds. 

   Calendar

The AMI was launched in June 2021 with two successive waves for the examination of applications:

• A first wave for projects submitted before 17 September 2021;
• A second wave for projects submitted before the deadline of 29 October 2021.

A reasoned opinion will be issued within two weeks and the selected project leaders will be offered an appointment to agree on a support protocol. 

Contact

Application files can be downloaded following the link below and are to be addressed at ami.actifs@dr8.cnrs.fr