Supporting Project Innovations - from concept to sustainability
One of the key challenges for organisations involved in any research and innovation actions at a European level is the exploitation and sustainability of project and process innovations that emerge over the lifetime of the funded action. Having invested millions into projects it is natural that the European Commission (or any other project funder) wants to see concrete plans and the introduction of support for any new innovations that emerge from the project.
In Connecting Nature (H2020 funded action 2017 - 2022), Horizon Nua was the responsible partner for managing the exploitation and sustainability pathways for the project's innovations. Collectively, we identified over 100 project innovations which were recorded in the projects IPR (Intellectual Property Rights) Directory along with the exploitation pathways for each. These innovations included everything from the creation of new products - the Connecting Nature Enterprise Platform, new processes - the Connecting Nature Framework and UrbanbyNature; publications like the Connecting Nature Guidebooks and lots of academic papers, communications material and so on right through the creation of new spin out enterprises established to manage the new processes and products.
From there, the innovations that had potential to scale and survive beyond the end of Connecting Nature were identified. Horizon Nua developed a series of business planning workshops, working with each spin out and process manager to prepare a business plan for their organisation according to their ethos. During this we spent a considerable amount of time working on the vision, mission and theory of change for each entity, before looking in depth at areas such as governance, finance, scaling and impact measurement. We put in place webinars and one to one consultations with experts in intellectual property and created an online community where we met once monthly to share progress, discuss and probe challenges faced on the startup journey. We were able to identify experts and point our start up’s in the direction of supports that they could avail of at a local level.
Let's look at some of these new spin outs and how Horizon Nua supported and mentored each towards developing business plans for sustainability and making connections with other support agencies and organisations.
EM|Path is a not-for-profit organisation established in 2021 by project partners from Trinity College Dublin and the University of East London, as a spin-off of Connecting Nature. It boasts an interdisciplinary team with a passion for and experience in sustainable development and justice. As part of Connecting Nature, EM|Path developed an arts-based co-production process, identifying and filling a gap in the market for creative approaches to sustainable social development. Their co-productive process prepares the path for transformation on issues such as environmental protection and community development.
As a new start-up and non profit where the social impact of their work outweighs the commercial, Horizon Nua worked with Em|Path to create a social impact business plan for their enterprise and to prioritise areas of business development that allows individual team members to play to their key strengths while outsourcing or bringing in support to the areas they need. As a result, the EM|Path team is actively looking for outside expertise to support their financial and governance structure to ensure they are in the best position to thrive. They are also looking for marketing and communications support to hone how to communicate their offer and reach potential clients.
Connecting Ecology Ltd was established in 2021 by Stuart Connop and Caroline Nash. With expertise on biodiversity and impact monitoring and evaluation, Connecting Ecology was established as a private company providing consultancy services to support others to value biodiversity, and ensure that biodiversity conservation is integral to nature-based solution planning, delivery, and stewardship.
Connecting Ecology Ltd delivers:
• NbS biodiversity research
• NbS biodiversity consultancy
• NbS impact monitoring
• NbS evaluation mainstreaming
• NbS Ecocanvas
• No-net loss of biodiversity and net-gain through NbS
During their business planning Connecting Ecology identified their need for ongoing support in business start-up and management, marketing/media skills and looked at staffing issues to ensure that the team will be adequately resourced to meet the expected demand for services. Connecting Ecology was linked into the local accelerator for NBS at the University of East London to support their business development journey.
If you are looking to partner with an organisation to support your project innovations, then get in touch with us today.