INSPEAR 2017: Rewarding creativity, strategy, innovation and entrepreneurship
The 1st INSPEAR Contest: a showcase of the Center's best research exploitation plans
10-12-2017
Technology, enterpreneurship and creativity were the winners of INSPEAR 2017, an initiative of Athena Research Center set with a vision to promote the ideals of creativity and innovation in Athena’s research culture and increase the exploitation potential and impact of its outstanding research output on the economy and society.
Acknowledging a need for empowering researchers with supportive structures and incentives for ‘getting their research results out of the lab’, INSPEAR seeks to be established as a vital institutional tool that will systematically enable the exchange of experience, foster the accumulation of valuable knowledge and institutional resources and will maximize the center’s innovation potential.
The contest which took place on Dec, 7th in the premises of Athena RC, is the annual showcase of the center’s best innovative projects and research exploitation plans. Every year, INSPEAR contest will give researchers the opportunity to design and elaborate on innovative exploitation activities and ideas for their research projects, submit them online, present them to their pears, compete for the Award and gain valuable support to implement their strategic plans and bring their ideas into life.
According to INSPEAR’s established policies and procedures, researchers –either independently or in teams- are encouraged to submit their proposal electronically (via a platform) attending to deadlines. Athena’s Mentoring Team examines the entries received and selects finalists to receive mentoring and support before preparing comprehensive short presentations.
All finalists were invited to present their plan in a well-structured and closed event/ceremony that brought together the research community of Athena with distinguished speakers and blended the valuable experience of an Expert Committee with the audience’s feedback. Proposals were then reviewed by an Independent and External Expert Committee on the grounds of their relative advantage, potential for commercial exploitation and success, level of maturity of the idea (before turning into a service, product, patent or procedure), concept completeness and complementarity of the team involved in its implementation.
Apart from financial endorsement, Award winners (3) received full scale support and mentoring for the development of their idea –in the form of training, seminars etc.- offered by Athena’s innovation accelerator Corallia. In return, the Center continuously improves its understanding of the processes and particularities that surround innovation in a shifting environment and feeds back this knowledge to its researchers.
The Competition was organized by the Department of Technology Transfer, Communication and Innovation of Athena RC in co-operation with the Unit of Corallia (Hellenic Technology Cluster Initiative).