The event both spotlighted Booster’s central role in advancing the EU’s innovation strategy and global competitiveness, while also providing potential and existing beneficiaries with insights from top-level speakers and in-depth discussions on its features and services.
Joanna Drake, Deputy Director General at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, kicked off the event alongside Nikolaos Mitrakis, Deputy Head of Unit at the European Commission. Together they provided an overview of Booster’s relevance within the broader context of European research and innovation. Their remarks highlighted the initiative’s timeliness against the backdrop of the publication of the Draghi report and mounting calls to bolster EU competitiveness on the global stage. Drake emphasised Booster’s unique position as a critical cog in Europe’s knowledge and innovation valorisation ecosystem, bridging the gap between research and impactful real-world applications.
Alessia Melasecche Germini, CEO of META Group and leading partner of the initiative, delivered a detailed presentation on Booster’s operational framework and its transformative potential for EU projects, researchers, and innovators. She broke down Booster’s core offerings, emphasising its pillars of dissemination and exploitation, alongside add-on services. She described Booster as a source of trustworthy coaching, expert support as well as its role as a collaborative and support-driven learning experience – ultimately helping researchers unlock their own potential.
Watch the full event online here:
Booster is a collaborative support service designed to mentor EU-funded project researchers grow their project’s impact and real-world application. The process is hands-on and co-creative: Booster experts bring tailored advice and tools, while beneficiaries remain at the centre of the journey.
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Turning research findings into tangible benefits has proven challenging for many EU-funded projects. While Europe is a global leader in generating high-quality research, there’s a well-recognised struggle to translate these findings into market-ready solutions - known as the “European paradox”. Booster’s Go-To-Market support service is designed to address this issue, helping researchers bridge the gap between innovation and impact.
The event offers a glance at the valorisation ecosystem and examines the myriad of free-of-charge support services available for dissemination and exploitation activities.
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One of the main challenges faced by the R&D community is converting their findings into valuable outcomes. Booster takes on this challenge by offering expert and personalised support to increase the added value of Research & Innovation (R&I) projects and bring them out into the world.