GAINS
Galileo Advanced INnovation Services

GAINS builds on two established state-of-the-art initiatives operating successfully at an international level but, so far, independent of each other:

• The European Satellite Navigation Competition (ESNC) is a leading platform for creating business ideas and promoting GNSS applications at regional and European levels. Begun in 2004, it is an annual event that is aimed at the early development of downstream applications based on satellite navigation systems. The ESNC has become a highly visible and prestigious award and represents the ‘innovation platform’ in Europe for the implementation of satellite navigation. It currently has 20 participating partner regions, 150 experts from industry and research, and nearly 300 submitted application ideas from 30 countries in 2009 alone.
• The European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL) offers open innovation methodologies and techniques in the product development life cycle. A Living Lab is an open innovation environment in which user-driven innovation is supported by the availability of established, consolidated services and ICT infrastructure for creating, prototyping and using new products and services in real-life environments. There are 129 operational Living Labs in different domains, spanning from eHealth to energy optimisation and efficiency, and from intelligent mobility to inclusion of the elderly and disadvantaged people.

Description

GAINS will identify additional user-driven business ideas through a specific GNSS Living Lab Prize, in line with ESNC, aiming at facilitating the emergence of User-Driven Open Innovation Demand from Living Labs for services and applications supported/enabled by satellite navigation technologies. From these submissions three different business opportunities will be selected to carry out reality checks in a Living Labs environment. Different Living Labs will be matched with the specific needs of these projects according to their access to user communities, their potential for adoption, and their capability of attracting additional resources for undertaking the ‘reality check’ activities. The Living Lab real-life setting accelerates the concurrent development of the three qualified business ideas into applications and services, bringing in the requirements originated through user-driven market demand creation.

GAINS will help conduct the Living Lab trial and analyse the results from which implementation guidelines will be derived. GAINS will also support the creation of new ventures from these business cases by, for example, identifying synergies and potential combinations early on within the networks or maintaining databases on the current open calls in the various European and regional funding schemes, as well as the investment behaviour of private investment groups.

Objectives

The objective of the GAINS project is the implementation of an ‘innovation highway’ as a seamless process of coordinated Galileo downstream application innovation services in the three main phases: idea recognition, product and services development, and new venture creation.

To achieve this, two internationally leading networks have joined forces: The European Satellite Navigation Competition (also known as GALILEO Masters) and the European Network of Living Labs (ENoLL). 

The heart of the project is a special Living Lab prize within the European Satellite Navigation Competition 2010 for user-driven suggestions for new businesses that respond to actual market needs. The thematic focus for this prize will be on health, energy and the media, and the three best submissions will get the opportunity to conduct a reality check trial in a suitable Living Lab. The integration of ESNC and ENoLL will provide a great step forward in closing the gap between idea generation and application development, by providing access to product development and facilitating the set-up of ‘reality check’ pilots in a  real-life setting for the products and services under development.