INVITE Advisory Board · 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)

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

http://www.invite-project.eu/

http://www.oi2lab.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.qplan-intl.com/

http://www.steinbeis-europa.de/

http://www.e-unlimited.com/

http://www.techtour.com/

http://www.rtcnorth.co.uk/

http://www.ninesigma.com/

http://www.intrasoft-intl.com/

http://www.iti.gr/

http://www.region-stuttgart.de/

http://www.nelep.co.uk/

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


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.


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.


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


• 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


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.


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.


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


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


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.


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.


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.


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.


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.


5. ALAN LOWDON

Position: Chair, Innovation Board NELEP, Visiting Professor at

Durham University

Organisation: North East Innovation Board, Durham University


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.


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.


7. CATHERINE JOHNS

Position: Innovation & Business Growth Director

Organisation: NetPark, County Durham


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.


8. RYAN MAUGHAN

Position: Managing Director Avid Technology North East

Organisation: Avid Technology


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.


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.


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.


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.


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".


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


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.


Annexes

Annex I: INVITE Advisory Board Terms of Reference









Annex II: Template of the Declaration of Acceptance

INVITE Advisory Board · 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)

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