Innovation Strategy in R&D projects: a step by step guide

The practical, concise, and free-of charge downloadable “step by step guide” was prepared by 19 contributors coming from all across the European Union. It responds to the demand of hundreds researchers and innovators in Europe who took part in the trainings focusing on different aspects of the exploitation of the R&D results. The guide explains why and when an innovation strategy is required in research & development projects, and how it should be developed and implemented.

The guide is relevant to R&D practitioners concerned with increasing the market and commercial impacts of their research, working either on collaborative R&D projects or in company internal projects. Concrete, real life examples are provided to illustrate each topic, along with frequently asked questions, important points to remember and other learning tools and useful links. These examples were developed throughout the Health-2-Market project and are therefore related to health sciences; however, methodologies to prepare and to implement innovation strategies are universal. The guide is thus designed to be relevant to everyone wishing to bring research results to market whatever the field of research, with or without previous experience in doing so.

The first chapter describes key aspects of an innovation strategy: what for, for whom and by whom. Chapter 2 is intended to provide a useful overview and practical guide to develop an innovation strategy. Chapter 3 constitutes the central part of this guide providing a base of information to understand different commercialisation routes (Chapter 3.1) and to assist in getting started with an IP protection process (Chapter 3.2), a business plan (Chapter 3.3), a marketing strategy (Chapter 3.4) and a financing strategy (Chapter 3.5). It also gives some insights about European legislation, standardisation and certification issues (Chapter 3.6). Chapter 4 gives insights on how to follow-up and evaluate the innovation strategy as it is a living document that needs to be adaptive and to evolve over time. At the end of the guide, there are some useful links to go further.

While this guide can help get a start, the topics can get quite technical and we are unable to cover such detail and broad subjects thoroughly enough. Professional help would most probably be needed and the readers are encouraged to seek it.

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Innovation Strategy in R&D projects: a step by step guide

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Appendix 1 - Indicative Patent Analysis Template_Final (also in PDF )
Appendix 2 - Indicative Financial Templates (also in PDF )

I consider your guides and support tools very precious and valuable not only for researchers but also for company managers whether they are exploring possibilities to join European research projects or just having reflection on their current innovation strategies. I very much congratulate yourself and the partners of Health-2-Market project for producing these excellent reports and guides. I specially appreciate the “Innovation Strategy in R&D projects” guide which is not only inspiring but extremely well presented in an easy-to-read lay-out!