Transcript

So some of the really great pitches that I've seen, the sub-projects have come up with their acronym. They have a logo created. And when they're presenting their ideas, they're clear. They're concise. Their roadmap not only features the activities, but they're really well defined targets so that someone listening-- myself, who might not be a technical expert-- could really understand exactly what was going to happen, and how it was going to have a really positive outcome. When we hear from open call applicants, whether it's in their proposal that they submit, or in the pitches that they present, if they've been selected, there are a few things that we really do want to hear about. One of those things is the concept and the feasibility. So this means how can their project really become a reality? We are looking for KPIs, so key performance indicators. We want to see specific targets and a clear map of the activities that they have planned so that we know that it can really come to fruition. A second element is the technical readiness and the innovation development. This means where is the technology, and where is the solution at the start of the project, or the sub-project, and where will it be at the end? Each of the ICAERUS use cases have an implementation of 12 months. So we really want to see some sort of development and some sort of progress over the course of that implementation. The third element is the potential impact and the exploitation. This means, what benefits and opportunities can we see from the projects by the end of their implementation? For example, we're not only looking at economic impacts. We're also looking for societal and environmental. We would consider, for example, the amount of time that a farmer might save using a drone as opposed to doing the work manually. It could also be the environmental impact, so a reduction of fuel use that they're saving by using drones. Those would be a couple of examples. In terms of exploitation, we are talking about the potential for reuse or use of the knowledge that they're creating, or of the specific solution or technology beyond just the scope of their sub-project. In terms of exploitation, we're talking about how the sub-project results or the sub-project knowledge can be used or reused after their implementation. And finally, we'd like to know about their organisational capacity. So we want to make sure that they've really thought about their budget, of course, that it aligns with the requirements of the call, but also that their resources are properly distributed and that they're going to be able to fully execute their sub-projects.