Alliance Creator Network:Annual report 2012

We need novel ways to translate scientific advances into marketable innovations in Europe. This is even more important now when ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) promise to command an even greater share of economic activity. ICT innovations are typically taking place in a context of increasing complexity of services and products. In this situation, it is extremely difficult for companies to play the innovation game alone. Creator – a European level expert network – was launched in 2012 in order to support innovation through expertise hubs in various countries. The purpose of the Creator alliance is to support the ICT industry so as to enhance its innovation processes and create international alliances in order to design and deploy innovations on the global market. During 2012 we started to build a trusted network between three organizations – Institut Mines Télécom, VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and Sirris – sharing our visions and portfolio of R&D projects. The visions and content of the R&D projects were based on the common collective challenges that we have identified, based on our continuous, close work with the small and medium-sized enterprises in our own SME hubs. During the first year of Creator, we worked on the content of the R&D projects in media, energy and smart grid, big data and trust and security domains. Additionally, we launched 14 R&D projects, of which 8 were particularly successful, that directly support acceleration and the go-to-market approach of the SMEs in our network. So far, our collaboration in the Alliance Creator Network has already helped 30 small and medium-sized enterprises in France, 26 in Finland and 6 in Belgium. Our work made it easier for companies for which European research is something new to enter into the projects. The expert network worked as an architect and trusted research partner in the project preparations. A series of events and seminars were organised with the companies so as to support them in their search for new funding and building new partnerships with players in different European countries. Next year, our target within Creator is to continue the great work with R&D projects, but also to create novel services that help our enterprises gain competitive advantage in their business aims