CREATE-A EUROPEAN INITIATIVE FOR INCUBATION OF UPSTREAM RESEARCH PROJECTS

摘要

In 2006 the "Out of the Box" study [1] fundedrnby the European Commission issued a brochure,rnas a response to the ACARE 21st century view.rnThe project resulted in many ideas about thernfuture of air transport. Besides the collection ofrnabout 100 ideas for innovative air transportrnconcepts and elements, the need for anrninnovation process was expressed.rnFollowing the positive reaction of thernaeronautical community about "Out of thernBox", the EC has supported a study in 2008rnnamed CREATE [2] to investigate whatrnmechanisms and concepts can be developed tornimprove and encourage more long termrn(upstream) research projects in Aeronautics.rnCREATE also investigated, what actions need tornbe taken to initiate an "incubation process"rnwith all the critical process elements needed tornimprove and develop the novel or alreadyrnexisting idea or the feasibility concept to such arnmaturity level, that the normal national andrnEuropean funding instruments can be used tornbring the idea/concept to the next and higherrnTRL level.rnThis paper will describe a proposal for arnprocess, which is proposed by a group ofrnexperts, in order to support chances for morernradical innovative ideas and concepts inrnaeronautics than just the further optimization ofrna well established classical air transport system.rnThe paper describes such a process where 3rndifferent steps have been identified: First arncreative step which may require contributionsrnfrom several stakeholders and a mixture ofrnparticipants, experienced personalities as wellrnas young and innovative persons to properlyrndefine and shape the innovative idea/conceptrnwith the final aim to define an initial projectrnproposal. Second a rigorous assessmentrnprocedure, which allows selecting the mostrnpromising concepts from a variety of differentrnproposals. The final, and culminating part, isrnthat of incubation. The assessment process hasrnbeen defined after using the experience ofrnseveral existing assessment processes, whichrnare applied and installed today whenever basicrnor innovative research proposals have to bernevaluated. There is however a very commonrnitem: "excellence" is the sole and only criteriarnand a competent research team is mandatory tornguarantee a qualified output.