On the 3rd of February 2023, we participated in an exploitation workshop organised by the ASHVIN project, gathering our other sister projects too, COGITO and BIM2Twin

The session’s objective has been to discuss the challenges, intellectual property rights, tricks and plans to take results far and wide, targeting our stakeholders. Biraj Harnal, Project Manager at DTT, guided the workshop with Mona Marill, project communication leader from AUSTRALO.

#ExploitDigitalTwin workshop started with a tour of the table on what each project sells and continued with a short introduction of Mr Harnal and ice-breaker questions using the slido platform about the expectations of the workshop and the country they were joining us. Right after, he walked the 18 participants through the creative process of reflection and fermentation developed in ASHVIN’s Impact Assessment and Exploitation Plans report.

Furthermore, Mr Harnal has underlined the importance of exploitation for ASHVIN: “Exploitation has been a high priority for our project. These are the main means to determine and measure success. Our activities not only focus on exploiting and showcasing the ASHVIN platform to the end users but also aim to engage those users throughout the whole process of ASHVIN tools development to know their demands and respond to the market requests.”

Addressing the challenges of exploitation

Exploitation plans are living documents constantly revised and updated throughout the projects’ lifespan, which is why these projects have faced many challenges. The challenges were one of the topics discussed, particularly the mechanisms and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) management.

To share each project’s difficulties in exploiting results, Mr Harnal prepared a Miro board. All four projects are concerned with the readiness of the AEC industry to deploy such new techs, convincing target users to deploy digital tools and how the solutions can scale up. All in all, there are many challenges to making European construction benefit from these innovations. 

Analyzing the market and different groups of stakeholders

In the meeting, every sister project mentioned conducting deep analyses to understand the market in 2023. Through the miro board, they dentified market and customer segments, brainstorming, and stating their viewpoints.

Agnieszka Mikołajczyk, International PR Manager at COGITO, affirmed: “Exploitation in research projects does not only relate to the commercial part of the results developed, but is also connected with the knowledge gained, research outcomes, processes elaborated, and know-how worked out. It means that exploitable outcomes might be considered in using the results in further research activities, developing and marketing a product, and using results in standardization activities. Furthermore, it builds a basis for future development, drawing on already existing solutions.”

On behalf of the sister project BIMProve, Project Manager Carmen Serna declared: “The BIMprove project is about developing a system and processes using a set of advanced technologies to improve safety and efficiency on the construction site. The project’s impact is about how what we create relates to the project goals, including how the key exploitable results contribute to reaching the key performance indicators values set for what the project can contribute to.”

Towards the transformation of the construction industry 

To end the session on a high note, participants have shared tips and tricks to support the Exploitation of results. Significantly, the participants understood that the projects face similar challenges in their exploitation activities.

Nevertheless, every project has its strengths to overcome them. The Ashvin team has a holistic innovation to improve safety and production;  the BIMprove team has a real solution to overcome challenges; the COGITO team proposes a research-based innovation solution; and BIM2Twin collaboration among varied partners. Together we will keep transforming the construction industry, adding value with our impactful results.

Thank you to all the participants for your active involvement and valuable inputs provided!