META Group special training

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The Third Mission of universities involves activities aimed at transferring the results of academic endeavours into tangible benefits for local and regional environments. It serves as a crucial avenue for universities to showcase the value of knowledge in human development, going beyond the traditional roles of education and research. The economic value generated through Third Mission activities is a testament to its significance in fostering innovation and engagement. 

Bridging a gap

The Third Mission is deeply intertwined with the territory it serves. It focuses on transferring technologies from laboratories to the public, managing intellectual property, facilitating technology transfers to companies, and fostering the creation of spin-offs. Additionally, public engagement and connection with social ecosystems play a vital role in the success of the Third Mission, emphasising its role in bridging the gap between academia and society. 

According to a study conducted by PROMISE (1) among 122 European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), at least 90% of them included Third Mission in their main strategic documents and policies. They also divided the policies related to it into subcategories: Entrepreneurship and Technology transfer, Job market readiness and relevance of student education, Societal relevance, regional responsibility, and community engagement, Industry, Government and NGO collaboration and knowledge transfer, and Third Mission overall. The following graphic highlights how HEIs approach Third Mission, with a focus on establishing aims, supporting Third Mission work, or a combination of both. 

As it shows, “Societal relevance, regional responsibility and community engagement” is a policy area with 76% of institutions having policies and providing aims, support, or support and incentives. It suggests a shared commitment among these institutions to actively contribute to the well-being and development of their surrounding communities and regions, aligning with broader societal needs and responsibilities, which is core to the spirit behind the Third Mission itself. 

META’s action in Padua

Through a three-step competence building action, META Group empowered the Third Mission Office of the university of Padua, further solidifying its position as a leader in impact mobilisation. The workshop, attended by representatives from various departments, underscored the necessity of a unified approach to the Third Mission. It provided a platform for sharing insights and strategies to maximise the impact of universities in their broader communities. “Working across Europe we had the opportunity to meet with many people working on third mission and we learned a lot about challenges and solutions. When we are asked to help, we share this experience, which is not so common”, highlights Andrea Di Anselmo, President of META Group. 

We help them understand how to make things happen and provide a logic framework but also operational hints and tools.

The Third mission, a booster for innovation

In the heterogeneous landscape of academia, there is no standard recipe for success; however, two fundamental principles apply universally. Firstly, collaborative teamwork is essential, and if universities fail to cultivate a multidisciplinary approach, success becomes elusive. Secondly, the emphasis should be on need-oriented activities rather than being solution-driven.  

In this context, it is crucial to recognise that technology is not the primary driver; instead, the focus should be on addressing the problems at hand. As universities navigate this evolving terrain, the Third Mission emerges as a guiding light of innovation, collaboration, and success. European universities, in particular, are embracing this mission, positioning themselves to shape the future and drive societal progress by effectively leveraging knowledge. 

Read more about the Third Mission: 

• Compagnucci, F, Spigarelli, The Third Mission of the university: A systematic literature review on potentials and constraints, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Volume 161, December 2020. Available here.
• Elena Pérez, S., Arregui Pabollet, E. and Marinelli, E., The role of universities in regional development through Smart Specialisation Strategies: Evidence from two Spanish regions (Catalonia and Navarre), 2017, ISSN 0213-3865, (92), p. 43-67, JRC108598. Available here.  

(1) PROMISE is the Platform for the Support of Responsibility and Openness and their Monitoring in Innovation and Science Ecosystems. It was developed by the EU funded research project SUPER MoRRI.

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Three decades ago – while the world was enjoying Nirvana’s last album and Nelson Mandela was receiving the Nobel Peace Prize – in the heart of Italy, META Group emerged as a knowledge-based consulting firm founded by a group of visionaries.  

What initially began as an engineering firm in Terni (Umbry region), expanded its horizons to become an international powerhouse, with a presence in Italy, Belgium, Poland, and Slovenia. Very soon, the company became pioneers in the field of Regional Innovation and Technology Transfer Strategies, collaborating with RITTS Umbria.  

Fostering entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer and innovation

In 2000, META Group shifted gears with a strategic focus on University spin-offs. Our approach, rooted in a technology-driven and problem-centric methodology, proved revolutionary. This shift not only spawned proprietary tools and methodologies but also became the cornerstone of our commitment to fostering entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and innovation. 

Our problem-solving approach is based on the observation that solution-based strategies often falter. By learning from our experiences, we emphasised the importance of understanding customers and the problem/customer fit. The lean start-up approach became integral to our structured methodology, especially when collaborating with researchers. 

Contractor for the European Commission: Horizon Results Booster initiative

Since 2020, we have been at the forefront of the European Commission’s Horizon Results Booster initiative. This game-changing endeavour aligns clearly with META Group’s core mission: optimising the utilisation of research outcomes. Our participation in this initiative brings us immense pride, recognising our potential to catalyse transformative impacts. The Horizon Results Booster is distinguished by its reliance on a top-notch group of experts proficient in a diverse array of topics.  

Their role is to assist, guide, and support EU funded research teams in maximising the broader impact of their results. This initiative stands as an example of our commitment to pushing the boundaries of innovation and ensuring that research results not only flourish but also contribute significantly to societal progress. 

META Group Inspiring and reshaping innovation and research

For nearly three decades, we have nurtured entrepreneurship at both micro and macro scales—mentoring researchers, empowering entrepreneurs, developing innovation strategies, and managing regional co-investment early-stage funds.  

Today, META Group encapsulates this wealth of experience in a diverse range of solutions and proven methodologies, addressing the most pressing challenges faced by research and innovation actors worldwide. Our journey continues to inspire and reshape the landscape of innovation, ensuring that knowledge finds its way from inception to market fruition. 

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Her academic pursuits took her beyond the boundaries of her hometown, leading to immersive experiences in Rome, Warsaw, and frequent travels to Norway to learn the Norwegian language. She joined META Group as an intern in 2018 and have been since them, developing her career within our company.

What do you do at META? How is a typical day for you? 

My role involves monitoring exploitation-related activities in re-MODULEES and iEPB, as well as providing assistance in the service delivery of Horizon Results Booster assignments.  

Each day is unique, as some days I am occupied with service delivery, and online meetings, while on other days I am fully dedicated to reporting and analysing the documentation received. Maintaining the smooth flow of activities and ensuring a clear understanding of processes are crucial aspects of my work.

Ensuring the use of research results

What is it like working on exploitation?  

I am responsible for the exploitation-related activities of the European projects, ensuring that the developed results will be used at the end of the grant period. Sometimes, explaining why it’s crucial to think about the long-term sustainability of results during an ongoing project can be challenging. 

What project(s) or assignment(s) are you currently involved in? What is the most exciting part of this project? 

I am currently involved in re-MODULEES which is approaching the end of the project (April 2024), iEPB which has recently been launched and HySCALE which started a few months ago.  

As re-MODULEES is the first project for which is am responsible, for me, it is exciting to observe that after such long support in exploitation activities, the partnership aims to valorise the results and cares about achieving the impact beyond the project end. The project has a real potential to facilitate the deep renovation of residential buildings supported by a platform and digital/physical HUBs.  

What is the most challenging part of your job? 

Sometimes it is difficult to collect documentation relevant to feed activities’ development. It strongly limits the progress of the process, that’s why I always try to be clear that my job relies on inputs received from Beneficiaries/Partners. For the preparation of an exploitation pathway, all I need is collaboration. 

What do you like the most about your job? 

I love talking and being in contact with people from different parts of the world and collaborating to achieve shared goals and objectives. Furthermore, I like that I have passionate and professional colleagues. As I had to learn everything from scratch, I was lucky to meet my META colleagues, as they taught me a lot and I know that I still can count on their help.  

We encourage them to think with a problem-oriented logic, to find concrete solutions to the identified problems of potential customers/market. 

What are some of the challenges facing the clients, partners, or beneficiaries you work with? How can they be addressed in your opinion? 

Our Beneficiaries/Partners often have in their hands fantastic results, but they do not know how to push them “on the market” and turn them into concrete benefits.  

We are their facilitators in helping to understand how to follow a strategy to avoid situations such as the one described above. We encourage them to think with a problem-oriented logic, to find concrete solutions to the identified problems of potential customers/market. 

A Nice METAmemory (a memory or story related to you and the company that you like)  

A nice METAmemory was in…. Nice! It was when, after the pandemic I attended my first consortium meeting ever in presence. It was an amazing experience, as for the first time I met colleagues with whom I was in contact just online until that moment.

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In this challenging environment, characterized by obstacles and difficulties, but also moments of inspiration and a collective resolve to work together, the FUTURE4PRIMA project shines as a beacon of action, hope and a catalyst for profound transformation.

A collaborative journey

The recently granted FUTURE4PRIMA project, led by PRIMA Program, will be embarking on a collaborative journey starting on January 2024, with 21 partners across the Mediterranean. This coalition includes R&I Ministries as well as universities and research organizations, uniting their expertise and dedication to a common cause.

Strengthening collaborations for a resilient future

FUTURE4PRIMA is set to reinforce and expand collaborations between national R&I funding institutions, particularly in the areas of sustainable agri-food systems and water management in the Mediterranean.

Building upon the legacy of the Horizon 2020 Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), this project aims at extending the Program’s activities to widening countries and, crucially, reaching out to third countries bordering the Mediterranean.

This expansion aims to pool resources, focus on shared priorities, and address emerging challenges in the region, aligning with the European Green Deal’s objectives and the UN Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

FUTURE4PRIMA seeks to add an integrated approach to resource management, encompassing ecosystems, energy, and health, thereby broadening PRIMA’s original focus on sustainable water management and agri-food systems.

Charting a path forward

FUTURE4PRIMA outlines four key objectives that underpin its mission:

1. Creating an Enabling Environment: The project seeks to establish an environment conducive to cross-sector R&I collaborations and strategic coordination among research funding organizations. This is vital for addressing resource efficiency and climate change challenges on a global scale.
2. Fostering Policy Uptake: FUTURE4PRIMA aims to foster the adoption of improved regulatory aspects that facilitate R&I cooperation, strengthening the international dimension of the European Research Area.
3. Accelerating Market Uptake: To drive innovation ecosystems and market uptake in widening and southern neighborhood countries, the project will support the adoption of innovations.
4. Providing Access to Information and Tools: FUTURE4PRIMA will offer access to information and tools to measure progress towards achieving the EU Green Deal and the SDGs.

Over the course of 48 months, FUTURE4PRIMA will:

• Develop shared R&I strategies among national funding agencies.
• Establish strategic orientations for the renewed PRIMA partnership within the next EU Framework Programme.
• Overcome implementation obstacles, streamline procedures, and harmonize national R&I processes.
• Bridge gaps in the EURO-MED project portfolio, promoting research uptake that addresses market and social needs while unlocking innovation potential.

This collaboration lays the foundation for a comprehensive update of the PRIMA Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA), offering a promising path towards a brighter and more sustainable future for the Mediterranean and beyond.

Regarding META Group’s involvement in FUTURE4PRIMA, Adelaide Moscatelli, Project Manager, highlighted that: “We are very pleased to participate in FUTURE4PRIMA. By validating the innovation potential of the projects, we will ensure that the benefits they ought to generate effectively reach the Mediterranean region. This approach will allow to profit from the long-term impact of these ambitious initiatives”.

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Rosellina Di Santo joined META Group’s Brussels office in 2021, after more than 12 years in Belgium working for both intergovernmental and industry-based organizations. During these years, she managed projects of different nature at EU level. Rosellina graduated from the University of Turin in Strategic Science. After different study and working experiences in Rome, Prague, and Washington Dc, she specialized in Strategy Execution at the Harvard Business School online programme.  

Passionate about the noble art, in her free time she enjoys long walks in the forests but also swimming, painting and, in special occasions, going to the Opera. In the office her fondness for chocolates is not a mystery to her colleagues.  

Horizons Results Booster: structured mindsets and interdisciplinary approaches

What is your role at META and what is your typical day?  

I am part of the Management Team of Horizons Results Booster which is a very large initiative. My typical day includes a lot of contacts with possible beneficiaries, experts, partners, colleagues, and, of course, the European Commission. Interactions with others is important in what I do and being able to work in a very multicultural environment – not only related to the different nationalities but also to the very different education backgrounds – is an essential part of my role. It is also one aspect that I enjoy a lot.  

What is it like working on Horizon Results Booster? What does it involve?  

Working on Horizons Results Booster requires a lot of structured mindsets, management of complexities, interdisciplinary approaches. Holding a solid experience in managing interactions at EU level is key as well. Different requests, approaches and point of views should always converge in a consistent scope and shared objective. In my daily work, problem solving is as crucial as building effective cooperation. This could reflect also the ultimate aim of the support provided through the HRB initiative.  

What do you like the most about your job? 

During my career path at European level, I have been focussed on the importance of strategic thinking and strategy implementation in different contexts. Beyond the interactions with different entities, the aspect I like the most in my job is contributing to provide support to beneficiaries facing different challenges. Beneficiaries most of the time are highly relieved and pleased to know they can avail of different services.  

Sustainability: one of the main focuses for all sectors

What are some of the trends you see in the sector you work in?

First of all, sustainability is one of the main focus for all sectors. Indeed, sustainable development is an integral part of the EU internal and external policies and does not only relate to a vision for the future but also -and more importantly – to tangible goals.  

One of the surprising elements is the fact that clear objectives could be achieve only through an effective strategy, and setting up an effective strategy could often result to be an enigma to solve. Creating value should be one of the most important elements of a strategy, and going through the complex process of value creation, which relies on a structured plan and entails customers satisfaction as much as employees’ satisfaction, is becoming more and more crucial for sustainable development.  

In this process it is important of course to look at financials (which are indeed the aspects where the strategy will be reflected in its efficacity), but also at the environmental and social aspects which are now considered part of multidimensional values, achievable through innovative perspectives.  

If you had to share with us a nice META memory what would that be?

I remember always with pleasure the three days I spent in Umbria meeting the Italian team and of course enjoying the high-quality food of the Umbria region – which is always memorable!.

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The EIC Transition scheme is a new and competitive funding scheme in Horizon Europe with the aim of supporting innovation activities that go beyond experimental proof of principle in the laboratory and to support the maturation and validation of new technologies demonstrated in relevant environment. 

It starts with the outcomes obtained from EDIT project, an initiative that proposed transformative technology for the early detection and management of bladder cancer. This time, PHIRE aims to bring close to market a novel high-resolution theranostic medical device effective in the clinical applications for cancer lesions smaller than 1 mm. It will be ready for application in human bladder cancer and effective both in male and female patients. 

Bladder cancer is the 10th most common cancer globally, with more than half million new cases every year. At the same time, it is the most expensive cancer to be treated with an expenditure of 9 billion dollars every year. The reason for such high expenditure is due to the fact that the current diagnostic imaging techniques do not allow detection and thus surgical removal of bladder tumor smaller than 1 millimeter, and in particular when they are flat. Second, half of the bladder cancers are resistant to the therapy. Because of these diagnostic and therapeutic limitations about 200.000 patients every year, and for many years after diagnosis, have tumor relapse and undergo multiple surgical and therapeutic interventions. 

PHIRE: improving patient’s quality of life while reducing the costs of cancer management

The PHIRE consortium coordinated by San Raffaele Hospital is composed by interdisciplinary partners. Among them, a public university as the University of Bologna, a small-medium enterprise as Ascend Technologies LTD, a company as META Group, and the industrial partner Fujifilm Visualsonics. 

META Group will be the partner in charge of exploitation, dissemination, and communication. “Thanks to its long track record and wide experience in exploiting research results and maximizing impact, META Group will ensure that the main solutions developed through the project will be adopted. PHIRE will contribute to reducing the frequency of bladder tumor relapse and the number of patients with relapsing tumors. This will have a drastic positive impact on the quality of life of patients and reduce the social cost of patient management”, said Marco Franchin, META Group’s expert and project manager. Regarding the partners that will work on this initiative, he highlighted “the strengths of the consortium, which is made up of organisations which are leader in their area of expertise, such as Ospedale San Raffaele, the University of Bologna and Fujifilm Sonosite. They have already worked together in previous research projects.” 

The future perspectives of this study are the application of the PHIRE platform in clinical trials, to improve the quality of life of patients while reducing the social costs of bladder cancer management. 

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The upcoming recast of the EPBD is part of the comprehensive policy package to enable action to meet this increased ambition. Member States have struggled in the past to transpose EPBD provisions, causing relevant instruments (i.e., EPCs) to be implemented with significant gaps and deficits.

iEPB is a LIFE project funded under LIFE Clean Energy Transition programme, which aim is to upgrade the energy performance of the EU’s building stock by increasing the synchrony between multiple EPB (Energy Performance of Building) assessments, notably between existing Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and other complementary instruments, like the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) and energy renovation recommendations.

Such integration will be made by developing a common data model for EPB Assessments, which could be further expanded and scaled in the future to enable the integration of additional assessments. This new data model should become common and applicable across the EU, increasing coherence and harmonisation among Member States.

The proposed action will support the Member States in reacting to the upcoming EPBD recast provisions while tackling existing deficiencies of the Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) design and implementation (top-down approach). It is also geared toward supporting the market up-take of EPB Assessments’ instruments, notably EPC and Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) by fostering the implementation synergies between them and providing added value to key stakeholders (bottom-up approach).

iEPB consortium

iEPB is coordinated by the Instituto Valenciano de la Edificación (IVE) and the consortium is made up of experts in relation to EPBD policy at EU level and national/regional implementation; experts in official EPC software, who will manage the digital tool development; companies with expertise in marketing and exploitation of research-to-market results and European outreach.

According to Eva Lucas Segarra, project coordinator: “The most interesting part of this project is that it considers all the relevant stakeholders related to the energy performance of buildings. It will enhance the current EPB Assessment’s value chain by improving cost-effectiveness of practice for EPB assessors allowing them to harvest all the relevant building data for any EPB assessment in a one single visit, reflecting new systems and innovative technologies from product manufacturers, supporting Member States in the implementation of the upcoming EPBD recast provisions and, what really makes the difference, improving the understanding, use, accuracy and trust of EPB Assessments by end-users.”

The added value of the proposed approach for building professionals, product manufacturers and end-users will be demonstrated in three different operational ecosystems: Spain, Netherlands and Austria.

The piloting countries have been selected to represent different degrees of EPBD implementation notably regarding EPCs, building stock characteristics, diverse market structure and culture.

In each ecosystem, representatives of key value chain stakeholders have been identified and engaged to ensure the involvement of real actors and access to actual building data to validate iEPB’s solutions.

Expected outcomes from iEPB

One of the main outcomes of iEPB will be development of a digital tool – iEPB web app – with two interfaces, one for building professionals and the other for end-users. The former will be geared to facilitate the data gathering process in on-site visits to buildings by EPB assessors and independent experts, proving the added value of iEPB schema’s multi-EPB assessment integration. On the other hand, the end-user interface will enable end-users to access the joint multi-EPB assessments’ results in a flexible, interactive, and understanding manner. Both interfaces will be adapted to each national context.

The project started officially on October 1st and was launched during the Kick-off Meeting that took place in Valencia, Spain, on October 3^rd and 4^th. In iEPB, META is the work package leader for the exploitation of project results. “iEPB has an outstanding potential for making a concrete change in the European building sector. META supports the achievement of the iEPB impact and designs effective exploitation strategies. Exploitation is one of the pillars leading to a real use of more EU-compliant, consistent, and accurate Energy Performance Building Assessments.” remarks Maddalena Lukasik, Project Manager at META Group.

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