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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme
under Grant Agreement N° 763651.
INVITE Advisory Board November, 2017
Main authors
Name Organisation
Ms Iuliia Skorykova, Mr Youssef Sabbah E-UNLIMITED
Ms Iana Dobreva TTG
LEGAL NOTICE
The information and views set out in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the
official opinion of the European Union. Neither the European Union institutions and bodies nor any person
acting on their behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information
contained therein.
© INVITE Consortium, 2017
Reproduction is authorised provided the source is acknowledged.
INVITE Project Information
Title “Co-designing and piloting demand-driven mechanisms, skill-sets and measures for stimulating and facilitating open innovation across European innovation systems” (GA Number 763651)
Duration September 2017 – August 2020 (36 months)
Website www.invite-project.eu / www.oi2lab.com
Coordinator Q-PLAN INTERNATIONAL ADVISORS PC
Contact person Mr Kostas Giagtzoglou (+30 2310 411 191, [email protected])
Project overview
INVITE is set on co-creating a well-connected European Open Innovation (OI) ecosystem, in which knowledge meaningfully flows across borders and is translated into marketable innovations, bringing increased socio-economic benefits to EU citizens. To this end, INVITE will co-design, pilot and demonstrate a pan-European service platform, the Open Innovation Lab, aiming to: (i) better link the currently fragmented innovation systems of the EU by facilitating meaningful cross-border knowledge flows; (ii) empower EU businesses with the skill-sets required to tap into Europe’s knowledge-base and turn it into value; and (iii) increase the participation of private investors in OI and collaborative innovation projects. To this end, the Open Innovation Lab will experiment with novel bottom-up collaborative models of innovation and leverage OI support services and ICT tools to stimulate and support OI across Europe, building a vibrant community of OI actors and stakeholders (including academia, government, industry and civil society) along the way. The valuable knowledge, evidence and experiences gained through the experiments of the Open Innovation Lab will be diffused across the EU so as to fuel their replication and scale-up for the benefit of the European economy and society as a whole.
Consortium
1. Q-PLAN INTERNATIONAL ADVISORS PC www.qplan-intl.com – Greece
2. STEINBEIS INNOVATION GGMBH www.steinbeis-europa.de – Germany
3. EUROPE UNLIMITED S.A. www.e-unlimited.com / www.techtour.com – Belgium
4. RTC NORTH LIMITED www.rtcnorth.co.uk - United Kingdom
5. NINESIGMA EUROPE BVBA www.ninesigma.com – Belgium
6. INTRASOFT INTERNATIONAL SA www.intrasoft-intl.com - Luxembourg
7. CENTRE FOR RESEARCH & TECHNOLOGY- HELLAS www.iti.gr – Greece
8. WIRTSCHAFTSFOERDERUNG REGION STUTTGART GMBH www.region-stuttgart.de – Germany
9. THE DURHAM, GATESHEAD, NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, NORTH TYNESIDE, NORTHUMBERLAND, SOUTH TYNESIDE AND SUNDERLAND COMBINED AUTHORITY www.nelep.co.uk – United Kingdom
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 1
Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... 2
1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 3
2. SETTING UP OF THE ADVISORY BOARD ......................................................................................... 4
2.1 About the Advisory Board and its setting up ..................................................................................... 4
2.2 Nomination of experts ....................................................................................................................... 5
2.3 Assessment and selection of experts ................................................................................................. 5
2.4 Invitation and engagement of the selected experts .......................................................................... 6
2.5 Commitment of Advisory Board members ........................................................................................ 7
3. COMPOSITION ....................................................................................................................... 8
4. THE QUALIFICATIONS OF THE SELECTED EXPERTS ............................................................................ 11
5. OPERATION AND MANAGEMENT ............................................................................................... 23
5.1 The role of the Advisory board ........................................................................................................ 23
5.2 Managing the Advisory Board .......................................................................................................... 23
ANNEXES .................................................................................................................................... 25
Annex I: INVITE Advisory Board Terms of Reference ...................................................................................... 25
Annex II: Template of the Declaration of Acceptance ..................................................................................... 33
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 2
Executive Summary
This report is titled INVITE Advisory Board and has been elaborated as a deliverable (D5.2) in the framework
of the INVITE project. INVITE aims at co-creating a better connected Open Innovation (OI) ecosystem across
Europe. It envisions an OI ecosystem in which knowledge meaningfully flows across borders and is translated
into marketable innovations, bringing increased socio-economic benefits to European citizens.
To this end, INVITE will co-design, pilot and demonstrate a suite of well-tailored mechanisms, skill-sets and
measures through a pan-European service platform, the Open Innovation Lab, to better link the currently
fragmented innovation systems of the EU by facilitating meaningful cross-border knowledge flows; empower
EU businesses with the skill-sets required to tap into Europe’s knowledge-base and turn it into value; and
increase the participation of private investors in OI as well as collaborative innovation projects.
In this context, INVITE has set up an Advisory Board (AB), consisting of recognised experts along the spectrum
of the quadruple helix model, including business, academia, government as well as civil society. The members
of the AB will provide the project with meaningful insights into the interests and views of their stakeholder
communities based on their experiences and expertise and will be strategically involved in key stages of
INVITE, safeguarding its stakeholder-driven orientation and paving the way for the effective uptake of its
results. As a whole, the AB will act as a consultation body for the INVITE consortium by providing valuable
feedback aimed at better aligning project outcomes with the needs of their users and stakeholders.
With that in mind, the process of establishing the AB of the project started by creating a pool of potential
members based on recommendations provided by the partners of INVITE. Meaningful publicly available
information was gathered for each expert within this pool, before selecting the experts to be invited to join
the AB based on a suite pre-set selection criteria. The selected experts were ultimately contacted with a view
to formally integrating them into the AB of the project.
Along these lines, the AB of the project is currently comprised of 12 experts who have accepted to participate
in the AB by returning a signed Declaration of Acceptance letter, whereas a response from 3 more experts is
still pending. With that in mind, the AB of INVITE will be open for new members across the entire duration
of the project, allowing for further additional expertise and knowledge to flow into the project, while also
extending its reach out to key stakeholder groups across Europe.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 3
1. Introduction
The current report on the INVITE Advisory Board has been elaborated within the framework of the INVITE
project which is co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme
under Grant Agreement No 763651.
INVITE is set on co-creating a well-connected European Open Innovation (OI) ecosystem, in which
knowledge meaningfully flows across borders and is translated into marketable innovations, bringing
increased socio-economic benefits to EU citizens. To this end, INVITE will co-design, pilot and demonstrate a
pan-European service platform, the Open Innovation Lab, aiming at:
• better linking the currently fragmented innovation systems of the EU by facilitating meaningful cross-
border knowledge flows;
• empowering EU businesses with the skill-sets required to tap into Europe’s knowledge-base and turn
it into value; and
• increasing the participation of private investors in OI and collaborative innovation projects.
The Open Innovation Lab will experiment with novel bottom-up collaborative models of innovation and
leverage OI support services and ICT tools to stimulate and support OI across Europe, building a vibrant
community of OI actors and stakeholders (including academia, government, industry and civil society) along
the way. The valuable knowledge, evidence and experiences gained through the experiments of the Open
Innovation Lab will be diffused across the EU so as to fuel their replication and scale-up for the benefit of the
European economy and society as a whole.
In this context, INVITE has set up the INVITE Advisory Board (AB), comprised of diverse innovation actors
who will provide insights into the interests and views of their stakeholder communities and will be
strategically involved in key stages of the project. With that in mind, this report provides an overview of the
scope and structure as well as the operation, management and expected contribution of the INVITE Advisory
Board, including a list of individual members.
More specifically, the report on the INVITE Advisory Board is structured in 5 chapters, as follows:
• Chapter 1 presents the context in which this report has been elaborated as well as its structure.
• Chapter 2 describes the setup of the AB within the framework of INVITE.
• Chapter 3 outlines the composition of the AB at the moment.
• Chapter 4 provides brief profiles for each AB member showcasing their qualifications.
• Chapter 5 addresses the operation and management of the AB throughout the project.
Finally, the Annexes include (i) the Terms of Reference for the AB and (ii) the Declaration of Acceptance that
is filled in by experts who agree to become a member of the AB.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 4
2. Setting up of the Advisory Board
2.1 About the Advisory Board and its setting up
One of the first tasks of INVITE was to set up an Advisory Board to act as an external consultation body to the
project and share its knowledge and expertise with the partners of the project at key stages of its
implementation. In fact, following a tailored set up process (see Figure 1), the AB of INVITE has been
established and currently comprised of 12 Open Innovation (OI) experts, reflecting a good blend of different
organisation types, stakeholders, expertise, genders and geographic coverage across Europe.
Figure 1: INVITE Advisory Board set-up process
Indeed, the AB of INVITE is composed of recognised experts in OI along the spectrum of the quadruple helix
model, including stakeholders from the business community, academia, regional and national public
authorities, all of them motivated to strengthen the innovation capacity of Europe on a long-term basis.
With that in mind, the members of INVITE’s AB:
• act as a consultation body for the INVITE consortium by providing valuable feedback aimed at
aligning project outcomes with the needs of their users and stakeholders;
Nominate
•Each project partner identified and nominated 5 to 10 experts from their already establsihed professional networks across Europe
Gather information
•Meaningful information was gathered for each nominated expert (including type of stakeholder, biography, function, expertise, etc.)
Assess
•The nominated experts were assessed in terms of relevance and suitability by project partners based on the collected information
Select
•The assessments of each project partner were aggragated and a list with potetnial AB members to be invited was created, taking into account the need for adequate representation in terms of different stakeholder groups, countries, expertise and gender
Invite & engage
•Each project partner invited the selected experts nominated by their organisation and the selected experts who accepted the invitation provided a signed Declaration of Acceptance
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 5
• suggest innovation actors (e.g. entrepreneurs, start-ups, SMEs, academics, financers, etc.) to
participate in project activities; as well as
• support the rollout, replication and upscale of the Open Innovation Lab, by informing and inviting
their networks across the European OI ecosystem to benefit from its value propositions when they
become available.
Moreover, the engagement of the AB members in project activities provides INVITE with access to additional
expertise on top of that of the project partners, fuelling the development of both technical and strategic
results with a strong value as well as consolidating as best as possible the outcomes of the project.
In this context, the process followed to set up the INVITE AB is described in further detail within the sections
that follow.
2.2 Nomination of experts
The setting up the INVITE Advisory Board followed an open and transparent process. Experts active in OI
were identified from the professional networks of INVITE’s project partners. In fact, each project partner was
asked to identify and nominate between 5 and 10 experts, external to their organisation, so as to be part of
the selection process.
These experts were nominated considering a set of AB member nomination principles, as presented below.
• The OI experts who will comprise the AB should have very good knowledge and experience in OI
processes and be in a good working relationship with at least one consortium partner, albeit external
to the consortium.
• The AB shall be composed of OI experts from different sectors with diverse expertise, gender mix
and geographic spread, while also covering the business community (including the financial sector),
academia, public authorities as well as civil society.
With the above mentioned in mind, the project partners together identified and nominated over 35 OI
experts across Europe that fuelled the subsequent selection process.
2.3 Assessment and selection of experts
The pool of experts nominated by project partners served as a starting point to select the members of the
AB. The first step of the selection process was to collect publicly available information about the nominated
experts (such as type of stakeholder, expertise, short biography, etc.). Based on the collected information
project partners were asked to assess the relevance and suitability of each nominated expert (apart from the
experts nominated by their organisation).
Project partners performed and submitted their assessments to the project partner leading this activity,
namely Europe Unlimited, that compiled all the assessments together and produced a pool of experts to be
potentially invited for participating in the AB. The pool was then sorted by types of stakeholders and the
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 6
desired number of candidates for each category was selected taking into consideration the assessments of
project partners, geographical coverage of the AB, sector of expertise and gender.
In fact, based on the needs of the project as well as dedicated discussions among project partners, the
following allocation of members was selected for the initial roster of the AB per stakeholder type (15
members in total):
• 4 members from the business community across Europe (such as innovative entrepreneurs, SMEs,
large enterprises, providers of OI platforms, large enterprises, etc.).
• 4 members from the business community and public authorities within each region represented
within the INVITE consortium (i.e. 2 per category and regions represented by NELEP and WRS).
• 3 members from the academia community across Europe (such as universities, research and
technology organisations, etc.).
• 2 members from the financial sector of Europe (such as venture capitalists, business angels,
corporate investors, crowdfunding platforms, etc.).
• 1 member from public authorities regardless of geographic origin but still within Europe.
• 1 member from civil society (such as NGOs, grass root initiatives, etc.) regardless of geographic origin
but still within Europe.
The initial pool of selected AB members was engaged by the partners who nominated them as further
explained in the following section.
In this respect, it is important to note that the Advisory Board (AB) of INVITE will be open for new
members across the entire duration of the project, allowing for further additional expertise and
knowledge to flow into the project, while extending its reach out to key stakeholder groups across Europe.
2.4 Invitation and engagement of the selected experts
Following the assessment and selection of the experts to be invited to join the AB of INVITE, the next step
was to contact and engage with them. The selected experts were contacted via email and provided with the
following documents:
• Terms of Reference, providing meaningful information about INVITE and the tasks of its Advisory
Board members as well as their expected contribution and conditions pertaining to their membership
(see Annex I).
• Declaration of Acceptance, to be signed by the selected experts evidencing the fact that they agree
with the terms and conditions pertaining to their participation in the Advisory Board as well as that
they are in fact willing to be an Advisory Board member (see Annex II).
Project partners contacted the selected experts and by the time this report was elaborated, 12 experts had
confirmed their willingness to be a member of INVITE’s Advisory Board, with 3 more responses still pending.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 7
2.5 Commitment of Advisory Board members
Overall, 12 experts have currently committed to become members of the INVITE Advisory Board at this stage
of the project by providing a signed Declaration of Acceptance. In particular, by signing the Declaration of
Acceptance, the selected experts committed to:
• Abide by the INVITE Advisory Board Terms of Reference which explain in further detail their expected
involvement as well as the terms and conditions pertaining to their membership.
• Participate in the AB in their individual capacity and not to delegate another person to carry out any
expected work without the prior written agreement.
• Participate in the AB in complete independence and without conflict of interest.
• Not to divulge any information given in the context of the work of the AB and to respect the
confidentiality requirements.
At the same time, the selected experts also consented that:
• Any input or contribution they provide as member of the INVITE Advisory Board may be used by
INVITE for reporting purposes and/or to align the services and tools offered by the Open Innovation
Lab with the needs of their users to ensure that they make the most out of its value propositions.
• INVITE may publish on its website and any documentation relevant to the project, their name, picture
and short biography as a member of the Advisory Board as well as anonymously use and/or publish
the input they provide as members of the AB.
Moreover, all AB members participate in their individual capacity or as individuals, albeit they may be
representing the interests of an organisation or a network. They do so on a pro bono basis, apart from the
cases in which physical travel is involved and a specific budget for their reimbursement is foreseen in the
framework of the project. In such cases, the travel and accommodation expenses of AB members will be
reimbursed by the project. Finally, participation in the AB is entirely voluntary and they may withdraw their
participation at any time if they need to.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 8
3. Composition
The INVITE Advisory Board (AB) is composed of 12 experts who accepted the Advisory Board Terms of
Reference and signed a Declaration of Acceptance, and are thus committed to participating in the activities
of the AB. In particular, the current composition of INVITE’s AB encompasses the following experts:
Table 1: Composition of INVITE's Advisory Board
Νο Name Organization Position Country Type of
Organization
1 Robert
Sanders European Business & Innovation
Centres Network (EBN) Head of International Projects Belgium Business
2 Mats
Dunmar Ideon Open at Ideon Science Park in
Lund Management Consultant Sweden Business
3 Arun
Harish Centre for Process Innovation Strategy Director UK RTO
4 Rolf
Reiner Innovationhouse Germany CEO Germany
Business/ Consultancy
5 Alan
Lowdon Chair North East Innovation Board,
Chair Durham University
Chair, Innovation Board NELEP; Visiting Professor and Chair of
Advisory Board at Durham University
UK Business/ Academia
6 Yannis Tolias
Innovatia Systems Managing Partner & CTO Greece Business/
SME
7 Catherine
Johns NetPark, County Durham
Innovation and Business Growth Director
UK Science Parks
8 Ryan
Maughan Avid Technology Managing Director UK
Business/ SME
9 Martina De Sole
APRE – Agency for the Promotion of European Research
Head of Unit - International Cooperation and Innovation
Italy Policy/Research
Promotion
10 Stefano Carosio
UniSmart Open innovation ecosystem subsidiary
of the University of Padova Managing Director Italy
Science and Research
11 Giovanni Zazzerini
INSME - The International Network for Small and Medium Enterprises
Secretary General Italy Business/SME
network
12 George
Doukidis
ACEin- Athens Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation from
Athens University Professor Greece Academic
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 9
The current composition of the Advisory Board covers 6 European countries. The geographic spread by EU
countries, based on current residence and work, is shown in the following figure:
Figure 2: Expert representation by country
Moreover, the following figure provides an illustrative overview of the different organisation types covered
by the current composition of the AB of the project.
Figure 3: Expert representation by type of organisation
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Belgium
Sweden
UK
Germany
Greece
Italy
Belgium Sweden UK Germany Greece Italy
Number of experts 1 1 4 1 2 3
Expert representation by country
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
Business/SME network
Business/Innovation Centres Network
Business/Open Innovation provider
RTO
Reg Rep DE
Reg Rep UK
Policy/Research Promotion
RTO/Open Innovation provider
Academic
Business/SME
network
Business/Innovation
CentresNetwork
Business/Open
Innovationprovider
RTOReg Rep
DEReg Rep
UK
Policy/Research
Promotion
RTO/OpenInnovation
providerAcademic
Number of experts 3 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
Expert representation by organisation type
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 10
Interest in the INVITE Advisory Board was high and attention was given to ensure a good geographical
coverage of EU countries as well as a good mix of organisation types and sectors keeping in mind gender
balance. This has led to the composition of a high-level Advisory Board.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 11
4. The qualifications of the selected experts
In the following section, a short profile of each member of the INVITE Advisory Board is provided in order to
showcase their expertise and outline their competence in being part of the INVITE Advisory Board.
1. ROBERT SANDERS
Position: Head of International Projects
Organisation: European Business & Innovation Centres
Network (EBN)
Country: Belgium
Organisation type: Business
Robert Sanders leads the EBN Project Team. EBN is a network of around 150 quality-certified EU BICs
(Business and Innovation centres) and 70 other organisations that support the development and growth of
innovative entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs. EBN is also a community of professionals whose day-to-day
work helps these businesses to grow in the most effective, efficient and sustainable way. EBN is currently
involved in over 25 collaborative projects and work also globally with various funding schemes. With that in
mind, Robert Sanders not only leads, but also supports the EBN Project Team, building consortia with EBN
Members and other international project management specialists in all areas of innovation and
entrepreneurship who think smart. He is a graduate from Leicester University and has spent over 15 years
working in international business development roles in the food and retail sector.
Indicative list of specialties: Incubation; Internationalisation; Project Management; Event Management; EU
Funding.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 12
2. ΜATS DUNMAR
Position: Management Consultant
Organisation: Ideon Open at Ideon Science Park
Country: Sweden
Organisation type: Business
Mats Dunmar is the Manager of Ideon Open at Ideon Science Park in Lund Sweden. Ideon is an international
hub of innovation in the very south of Sweden, in the dynamic region of two countries and three cities: Danish
Copenhagen and Swedish cities of Malmö and Lund. He is on the board of European Business Network, EBN,
in Brussels as the Swedish country representative of innovation environments. Mats previous engagements
involve a corporate career in logistics at the retailer IKEA, manager in public organisations as well as
entrepreneur in own start-ups. For the past 6 years he has successfully established a department for open
innovation that is delivering open innovation and entrepreneurship activities to large established companies.
Large companies that do not have an office at Ideon Science Park, but want to tap into what a semi-private
science park can offer them.
Indicative list of specialties: Management Consulting; Open Innovation; Business Development; Innovation
Environment; Entrepreneurial Leadership; Trading and Negotiating.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 13
3. ΑRUN HARISH
Position: Strategy Director
Organisation: Centre for Process Innovation
Country: United Kingdom
Organisation type: RTO
Arun Harish is an experienced strategy and business development professional with diverse experience in
technology commercialisation, innovation consulting and fund-raising from public and private sources,
acquired in the UK, Europe and India. He is Co-Chair and Rapporteur for European Commission's Expert panel
on investment readiness activities linked with SME actions. He has experience in diverse sectors such as
Pharmaceuticals, Bio-pharmaceuticals, Medical Technologies, Healthcare, Renewable Energy, Consumer
Goods as well as in technology areas such as Photonics, Industrial Biotechnology, Flexible/printable
Electronics, and Micro- and nanotechnologies. He has a multi-disciplinary educational background with PhD
(Biomedical Nanotechnologies, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University) and MBA (Warwick
Business School).
Indicative list of specialities: Strategy planning and implementation; Strategic Marketing, Technology and
Innovation Consulting, Business Development, Investor Readiness, Business Planning.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 14
4. ROLF REINER
Position: CEO
Organisation: Innovationhouse Germany
Country: Germany
Organisation type: Business / Consultancy
Rolf Reiner is project manager, advisor, and senior consultant for public bodies, NGOs, SMEs and large
companies as well as advisor and coach for cluster initiatives and regional innovation systems. At the same
time, he is / was involved as co-ordinator in INNO-Views (contracted under PRO INNO Europe by DG
Enterprise & Industry), co-ordinator in the Europa INNOVA Thematic Network BeLCAR (Bench learning in
cluster management for the automotive sector in European regions), inhouse consultant in
Wirtschaftsförderung Region Stuttgart GmbH (Stuttgart Region Economic Development Corporation), senior
consultant in PAXIS Thematic Network SPRING, chairman in PAXIS cross-network group on early stage
financing as well as member of Europe INNOVA Communications. He studied physics in Stuttgart and
obtained his doctorate in nonlinear dynamics before specializing in project management and innovation
consulting.
Indicative list of specialties: Project Management; Innovation Consulting; Cluster Management; Regional
Innovation Strategies; Innovation Policy Design; Early Stage Financing; Start-up Support; Technology
Transfer.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 15
5. ALAN LOWDON
Position: Chair, Innovation Board NELEP, Visiting Professor at
Durham University
Organisation: North East Innovation Board, Durham University
Country: United Kingdom
Organisation type: Business / Academia
Alan Lowdon has over 30 years' experience of the international energy and water sectors having worked in
major corporations such as NEI/Rolls Royce Industrial Power, PB Power, British Gas, Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux,
Shell, Mott MacDonald and Sinclair Knight Merz. In addition, Alan has also held the position of Managing
Director for two university spin-out companies, and also spent 4 years as Director of R&D Programmes for
ITI Energy, Aberdeen where he was responsible for the identification, development and commercialisation
of a £35M portfolio of energy technology investments. Alan was also previously Director of Technology &
Innovation at Narec (now the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult) where he was principally involved in
research and technology development and IP commercialisation within the wind and marine renewables
sectors, offshore wind in particular. Alan currently operates a broad portfolio of interests of an executive,
non-executive and advisory nature, including holding the CEO position at asset inspection start-up business,
Invisotech, the role of Cleantech Dealmaker for the UK Department of International Trade's Global
Entrepreneur Programme and is an Associate at Carbon Limiting Technologies. Alan also advises the UK
Government’s innovation agency (Innovate UK) and the US Department of Energy's National Renewable
Energy Lab., and holds non-executive director positions at the Port of Blyth, NOF Energy, the Innovation
Board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (as Chairman) and innovation consultancy, Ed/ge Ltd.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 16
6. YANNIS TOLIAS
Position: Managing Partner & CTO
Organisation: Innovatia Systems
Country: Greece
Organisation type: Business / SME
Yannis Tolias is a Managing Partner and CTO in Innovatia Systems. He is an experienced project manager
specialising in complex ICT projects and is characterised by a high degree of self-motivation and flexibility,
the ability to learn quickly and adapt to changing environments. He has a professional attitude, is disciplined,
systematic and accurate and possess great communication, interpersonal, problem solving, modelling and
analytical skills. Yannis Tolias has been a visiting lecturer at the Technological Educational Institute of Larissa
leading the modules for two courses offered by the Postgraduate School of Business Administration in a
franchise agreement with Staffordshire University (UK), has taught Contemporary Issues in Management and
Business Creativity & Innovation and supervised more than 20 dissertations.
Indicative list of specialties: Strategy; Competitive Analysis; Telecommunications Sector; ICT in Healthcare;
Innovation; Technology Transfer; Academic Entrepreneurship; Project Management.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 17
7. CATHERINE JOHNS
Position: Innovation & Business Growth Director
Organisation: NetPark, County Durham
Country: United Kingdom
Organisation type: Science Parks
The private and public sector background of Catherine John has led to her acquiring a unique mix of skills,
knowledge and experience. she is ambitious to achieve results but patient and tenacious in delivering
them; she creates compelling visions and translate them into realisable frameworks. Her role spans the
continuum from influencing policy to direct impact and back again, a virtuous cycle ensuring practical,
funded action for positive economic impact. Designing, delivering and managing high level, fundamentally
innovative and transformative projects has led her to achieve exceptional leadership skills in team
management, building partnerships and consortia, as well as in managing external relations.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 18
8. RYAN MAUGHAN
Position: Managing Director Avid Technology North East
Organisation: Avid Technology
Country: United Kingdom
Organisation type: Business / SME
Ryan Maughan founded the AVID Technology Group back in 2004 and has led its growth and development
ever since. As well as being an award-winning entrepreneur, he is an Engineer by background with a degree
in Mechanical Engineering from UMIST and an MSc in Engineering from the University of Durham. He worked
in the motor racing industry in his formative years learning about high performance engineering and
developing a unique blend of hands on practical skills with high-level engineering expertise. After a few years
of working in a high precision machining business, AVID was born with the mission from the outset to develop
new technology that will reduce emissions and fuel consumption of vehicles through improved control.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 19
9. MARTINA DE SOLE
Position: Head of Unit - International Cooperation and
Innovation; National Contact Point for Horizon 2020 for
NMBP
Organisation: APRE – Agency for the Promotion of European
Research
Country: Italy
Organisation type: Policy / Research Promotion
Martina de Sole has a Master’s in International law and a Master’s in Global Environmental Policies. She
works in the field of science diplomacy and promotion of research and innovation, helping researchers and
entrepreneurs to find a way to be funded by Europe for their ideas, and Europe to implement Cooperation
policies in science and innovation with other Countries. She has been appointed as National Contact Point of
the European Commission in Italy for NMP since 2002. Since 2012, she has the role of Head of Unit for
International Cooperation and Innovation. The position carries Management, Strategy, Monitoring and
Advisory functions. Moreover, in the past couple of years she is focusing on Public engagement (PE) and
Participatory Leadership, especially in Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) and for the identification
of future priority of Research. PE is about co-creating the future with citizens and civil society organisations,
and also bringing on board the widest possible diversity of actors that would not normally interact with each
other, on matters of science and technology. This means the establishment of iterative and inclusive
participatory multi-actor dialogues between researchers, policy makers, industry and civil society
organisations, NGOs, and citizens; supporting basic research and fostering wider acceptability of results.
Furthermore, she supervises the Enterprise Europe Network activities of APRE, while as project manager she
coordinates and manages several International Cooperation projects, focusing in the past years on Canada,
India, South Africa and the US.
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 20
10. STEFANO CAROSIO
Position: Managing Director
Organisation: UniSmart; Open innovation ecosystem subsidiary of the University of Padova in charge of managing all the technology transfer and innovation consulting activities directed to companies
Country: Italy
Organisation type: Science and Research
Stefano Carosio has over 21 years’ experience in collaborative research, technology transfer and innovation
consulting. His core interests are in technology and business strategy, innovation policies, user-centric
innovation, business incubation, the management and commercial exploitation of R&D and the
organisational and cultural issues involved in technology transfer and in stimulating innovation. He promotes
the creation of new enterprises, facilitates technology transfer, helps start-up enterprises to have access to
finance and form a critical mass in order to gain visibility as regards to large capital risk actors and European
institutions. He has been involved since 1999 within the European Space Agency (ESA) Technology Brokerage
Network, supporting the creation of the ESA Space Incubator. He works closely with European agencies,
national and regional governments and other public sector bodies. He has co-chaired a group of experts to
define the EU strategic roadmap for research & innovation in the field of energy efficient buildings in FP7 &
H2020. Furthermore, I led the activities to develop the Strategic Innovation & Research Agenda for the EU
Biobased Economy Joint Technology Initiative. Finally, he has participated to the review of the European
Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT) during the transition between FP7 and H2020.
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11. GIOVANNI ZAZZERINI
Position: Secretary General
Organisation: INSME The International Network for Small
and Medium Enterprises
Country: Italy
Organisation type: Business / SME Network
Having graduated in Economics, Giovanni Zazzerini holds a Master’s Degree in Technology and Innovation
Management from SPRU, University of Sussex (United Kingdom) and a Ph.D. in Marketing from University of
Perugia (Italy) where he currently teaches Marketing. He is also Adjunct Professor at LUISS University (Italy).
He has more than 15 years of experience in the development and management of national and international
projects in the marketing, innovation and entrepreneurship field. Since 2008 he has worked as an expert for
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation carrying out technical assistance and training
activities in China and Vietnam. In 2012 he was appointed by the European Commission to advice FP7 and
Horizon 2020 projects on exploitation of research results and business plan development. Starting in 2017
he took on the role as Secretary General at INSME – the International Network for Small and Medium
Enterprises, a legally recognized not-for-profit Association established in 2004 in Rome by the Italian Ministry
of Economic Development and the OECD with the aim to strengthen international cooperation, exchange of
know-how, best practice approaches and expertise in innovation and technology transfer among economic
players and intermediaries worldwide.
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12. GEORGIOS DOUKIDIS
Position: Professor
Organisation: ACEin- Athens Center for Entrepreneurship
and Innovation from Athens University
Country: Greece
Organisation type: Academia
Georgios Doukidis has a B.Sc. in Mathematics, University of Thessaloniki (1980), an M.Sc. in Operational
Research, London School of Economics (1981), and a Ph.D. in Simulation/Artificial Intelligence, London School
of Economics - LSE (1985). In the period 1981-1991 he worked at LSE as Teaching Assistant in Operational
Research, Lecturer in Computing and Academic Visitor in Information Systems. Currently he is Professor in
the Department of Management Science and Technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business
(AUEB). He was Visiting Professor in the Department of Information Systems and Computing at Brunel
University in UK (1996-2004) and he also taught at London Business School. He teaches and researches in the
areas of Management and Strategy of Information Systems, Electronic Commerce, Innovation and Business
Development, Decision Support Systems. He has an extensive 25 years’ experience with R&D in Information
and he has supervised successfully 13 PhD students in UK and Greece. He is initiator and director of ELTRUN
(ELectronic Trading Research UNit: http://www.eltrun.aueb.gr) at AUEB and has collaborated with more than
50 research groups worldwide in R&D projects. He has successfully managed more than 50 R&D projects
financed by the European Commission (in programs such as IST, ESPRIT, Tellematics for Administration etc),
the Greek Government and private organizations. He has published or edited 15 books and published over
120 scientific papers in Journals such as: The Journal of Retailing, The European Journal of Information
Systems, The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, The Journal of the Operational Research Society, The
Journal of Decision Support Systems, The International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Industrial
Management and Data Systems, Journal of Information Technology, International Journal of Education and
Computing, The European Journal of Operational Research, The Journal of Expert Systems with Applications,
The Journal of Knowledge-Based Systems, The International Transactions in Operational Research, OMEGA,
etc. and in the Proceedings of International Scientific Conferences. He is member of the Editorial Board in
the following International Scientific Journals: "Journal of Strategic Information Systems", "Journal of
Decision Systems", "International Journal of Electronic Markets", "Business Process Management Journal",
"Information Systems and eBusiness Management Journal", "International Journal of Mobile
Communication". He has also acted 7 times as Guest editor in the following Journals: "Journal of the O.R.
Society" (1990, twice), "European Journal of Information Systems" (1993), "International Journal of Electronic
Commerce" (1999), "Journal of Information Technology" (1999), International Journal of Electronic
Commerce (2003), "Supply Chain Management: An International Journal (2007)". In 2009 he received the
"European Case Award" from ECCH in the category of "Knowledge, Information and Communication Systems
Management".
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 23
5. Operation and management
5.1 The role of the Advisory board
The Members of the Advisory Board will work in close cooperation with the INVITE partners and will support
them to achieve the objectives of the project.
To fulfil this role, it is envisaged that the AB will meet physically twice during the course of the project, will
hold two virtual workshops and will interact on ad-hoc basis if deemed necessary.
• Physical meetings: It is expected the AB will meet physically twice to provide feedback and advice
on project activities and outcomes (i.e. advice, ideas and validation). These meetings are:
o Co-Creation Workshop: the INVITE Co-Creation Workshop will engage selected
representatives from our stakeholders as well as members of our AB into a series of co-
creative sessions, during which they will be introduced to INVITE’s concepts and ideas and
co-define with the consortium demand-driven designs for the pilots as well as for the OI2Lab
and its components;
o Final Dissemination Event: a dedicated event planned at the end of the project with a view
to sharing the results of INVITE and engage with an international audience of stakeholders,
further promoting their uptake.
• Virtual (remote) Validation Workshops: 2 virtual workshops to present the main findings of each
pilot round and gather feedback on any possible adjustments needed for streamlining the operation
of the Open Innovation Lab as well as with novel ideas that could be incorporated into the next
iteration.
• Involve their networks and contacts in the co-creation of the Open Innovation Lab and its pilot
deployment and activities.
• Ad-hoc interactions: If deemed necessary, the support of the AB will be employed either in its
entirety or specific members for ad hoc needs such as:
o The co-definition of the key performance indicators to be used for assessing the performance
and results of the Open Innovation Lab.
o The validation and improvement of the business models designed for the rollout of the Open
Innovation Lab.
o The elaboration of recommendations and guidelines for replicating and up-scaling the results
of the project in the form of a meaningful guide.
5.2 Managing the Advisory Board
The AB is an independent interdisciplinary group composed of external experts that have been proposed by
the partners of INVITE and set up with a view to providing meaningful guidelines and expert advice to the
project, safeguarding the demand-driven development, testing and validation of its results as well as
INVITE Advisory Board - November, 2017 Page 24
maximising their impact. With that in mind, project partners will ensure that the input provided by AB
members are adequately taken into consideration in the decision-making processes as well as the technical
implementation of the project. Moreover, project partners will aim at minimizing to the degree possible the
workload of AB members and with this in view, an Advisory Board Manager has been appointed to better
manage and organise the workload of AB members as well as their communication with project partners.
In particular, the Advisory Board Manager will ensure that for each task requiring input from the AB, the
project partners will have, beforehand, prepared an action plan and all necessary briefings and material. Only
then, the AB manager will introduce the project partner to the AB and once introduced, the project partner
will directly communicate with the AB to achieve the expected work. Nevertheless, this participation can be
intensified if there is particular interest of AB members on specific aspects, areas or concepts of the project.
In this case, direct communication between the interested parties can take place in order to prevent
formalities that could hamper the exchange of ideas.
As the project partner leading the set up and operation of the INVITE Advisory Board, Europe Unlimited will
manage the general communication between the AB and the consortium of INVITE. For the tasks where the
Advisory Board input is foreseen, the respective task leaders will be responsible for preparing an action plan
and all necessary briefings and material before any contact with the AB and only then, the AB manager will
introduce the consortium partner who will directly communicate with the AB to achieve the expected work.
All partners will be copied to eventually support the AB members they have nominated.
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Annexes
Annex I: INVITE Advisory Board Terms of Reference
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Annex II: Template of the Declaration of Acceptance