Brussels - 22 June 2011 EDA News
During the Steering Board meeting in R&T Directors’ formation held on 22 June, EDA launched a new European Defence Research Centres Portal (EDRC).
The EDRC Portal initiative follows on from the 2008 Franco-German proposal for a joint promotion of national Defence Research Centres and leveraging the knowledge of research competences in
Europe – an initiative supported by the Agency, following the objectives of promoting the establishment of R&T centres of excellence while using them for research cooperation, as laid down in
the EDRT Strategy.
The EDRC Portal is the seventh EDA Portal. Its basic principle is the identification and mapping of technology competences in Europe, within the
EDA remit, and promoting networking and cooperation among research centres (government laboratories, academia, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and industry). Moreover, it provides updated
information on research opportunities; allows for discrete communication between centres and the launch of calls for the development of innovative technologies or partnerships in expertise.
Additionally, it can be used by EDA and pMS to make calls for tender for recognised research providers in different technological domains.
The concept of the Portal was designed by EDA with the support of participating Member States, using the EDA Technology Taxonomy as the basis for identifying competences in
different domains. This Portal was developed at EDA in the same way, by its IT
team.
The R&T Assistant Director in charge of this project, Utimia Madaleno, was interviewed.
Utimia Madaleno
Q: What is the strategic importance of the European Defence Research Centres’ Portal?
A: This project is a direct outcome of a request from a group of Member States. The R&T Strategy defines the need
to optimise cooperation. We know that there are a number of research providers that traditionally work in the defence arena; but there are many others, particularly medium and small-sized
companies and centres of excellence, that own niche expertise and who are neither known by the EU, nor by Member States. These companies pop up quite fast with new technological solutions. It’s
fundamental to know the competences that exist out there and how the ‘know-how’ landscape develops. Having an online database where we can put together the most complete information on
competences and all technical domains that we wish to cover in defence is extremely important.
Q: You are aiming at building a network link between research providers. Is there any other similar feature or Portal in Europe that covers research
providers?
A: There are several databases in Europe and several associations which are provided with information on research activities, but they are neither truly exhaustive, nor focused on our domains. In
this case, we are not looking at all kinds of research, but focusing on defence – covering, of course, security, as dual-use technologies become more and more commonplace. Therefore, this Portal
is probably the only database that promotes this sort of Defence & Security networking, and leaves a certain freedom and autonomy to research centres to do business without any sort of
interference by third parties.
Q: This is an online feature. You have collected the information into a database. How broad is this new Portal?
A: We considered all EDA participating Member states (all EU countries, except Denmark), plus Norway, which is an excellent research provider and with whom EDA has an Administrative Arrangement.
Q: How many institutions populate this Portal?
A: For the moment – and we are really in the early stages – we have some 200 entries, from all EDA Member States plus Norway. Not all of them have provided yet their full portfolio of
competences. But, again, this is a living tool, and I am confident that it will grow.
Q: Are we talking only about research centres and academia, or does it include industry too? Are these centres private or
state-owned?
A: When we started this initiative, we aimed at governmental institutions only; but, in fact, it was insufficient and too limiting; moreover an issue arose, as some EDA Member States will not
consider having governmental entities in defence research; and furthermore there is lot of restructuring. Public partnerships became more frequent and most of the previous governmental
institutions, including their ownership, have changed. So, we understood we could not limit this Portal to the publicly-owned institutions. We opened the Portal to the whole spectrum of research
providers, including governmental institutions, any private entity, industry and academia, recognised, of course, by our Member States.
Q: How does it work in practice? Shall providers contact EDA?
A: Initially, Member States gather all information concerning research providers, at national level. Currently, the Portal is running, we established a direct connection with users, in close
consultation with our governmental points of contact. Interested research providers can contact EDA by e-mail (edrc@eda.europa.eu).
Q: Who has access to the Portal?
A: From the beginning, Member States requested that information be restricted to the 26 participating Member States plus Norway. This access is only granted to registered individuals either by a
“read only access”, meaning the user can search the different options, by: country, type of technology, scientific capacities; or by a “publisher access”, through which users have rights to
modify or update their own information posted on the Portal. I would say this is a sort of a information “club”, benefiting research providers through interconnectivity, etc. For instance, a
research centre can look for a partner on a given technological capability, such as Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear technologies (CBRN), cyber-security or sensors; or even see
what other institutions are currently developing within a particular domain.
Q: What about EDA?
A: The Portal is also useful for EDA. We are often looking for expertise in different areas – for our contracts, our studies. This is a very useful tool when it comes to looking for a given
technological expertise. For instance, in the context of the R&T Joint Investment Programmes
(JIP), we can immediately find entities recognised by Member States to participate in JIP calls. So, EDA will use it as
a daily working tool in the search for external scientific advice or to extract entities. We encourage research providers wishing to work within the EDA remit to make their competences available
through the Portal. Member States can use it in the same way. We know that there are governmental entities that deal with procurement or research assessments and have reader access to our Portal.
This is relevant as not only can they view the capacities available all over Europe but also the information on the projects that those entities have identified as being of interest.
Q: So, what is EDA’s role?
A: EDA provides the platform, this Portal, and gives technical and management conditions to interlink these centres. However, the business or partnerships that may derive from their contact is
neither managed, nor reported to EDA - or other centres.
Q: This is a 100% EDA product.
A: Absolutely. Both the concept and development were carried out in-house, at no cost (without any associated contract). And if used in the way that it was thought up, it really is value for
money.
View of the Portal
Q: Do you have any records of a successful project rising from this matching exercise?
A: We do not receive feedback from the business behind, but Member States with less resources looked at this with extreme interest, since it’s a vehicle which allows getting in touch with other
European entities almost without leaving their desks. Through the database, they know who is doing what - and they may even develop and improve their own capacities through benchmarking. I
received positive feedback from these nations: they see the Portal as an open door.
Q: How do you see the potential development of the Portal?
A: I do hope that in the future we will be able to make it more interactive than it is today. We will keep promoting constant updates, not only from EDA’s side, but also from subscribers. We are
constantly inviting subscribers to provide us with suggestions and input to improve the Portal. As far as we know, Member States are quite happy with the final product. We also got very positive
feedback from the most frequent users, who are outside the institutional arena. The Portal is a shared tool – so it should be developed accordingly to address users’ needs, to improve further its
potential.
Q: What would you consider to be the success of this Portal?
A: Give it a try. The Portal can be a facilitator, not only for EDA and Member States but also among Research Centres. There are a huge number of SMEs holding technological niches; technology
grows so fast that having their entire competences portfolio in our database is an enormous advantage. I would say that the Portal would show its utility through an increase in cooperation
activities (national or cross-border) between research providers. Of course, it is always difficult to measure how far this Portal can be useful in terms of generating networking and cooperation.
I recall that EDA is deliberately kept outside a potential business or partnership identified through the Portal. However, I am sure that by bringing together all these entities, EDA promotes a
greater mutual understanding and interconnectivity.