Final Report Summary - LIFECOMPETENCE (Life Science Competence in Europe)
The objective of LIFECOMPETENCE was to develop state-of-the-art methods and tools for managing research information and competences, and by implementing these make the research competences in ongoing and future projects in the life science and health priority accessible. The purpose is to leverage the research investments made by the European Commission (EC) by supporting increased collaboration between academia and industry, in particular involving small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This shall in the long term serve to strengthen the European Research Area (ERA). An internet-based Competence platform is the key deliverable in LIFECOMPETENCE. The Competence platform will allow the users to identify research projects, researchers and organisations holding a certain competence. The platform will also offer possibilities to analyse research strengths and networks in European life science. This can be used by the EC to answer policy related questions or university managers to obtain a better self-view of their own competences, ongoing research projects and collaborations. By allowing universities and regions to analyse their involvement in EC-funded research projects there will be increased transparency. This will make the organisations and regions more successful in finding the correct partners for future research collaborations.
LIFECOMPETENCE has given universities and regions a better self-view of their research competences. This is expected to make them more prone to enter collaborations, proactively market themselves internationally and thereby strengthen European research. Finally, it is expected that the efforts of LIFECOMPETENCE will make EC and university administration more cost efficient, as they no longer need to collect, quality assure and manually handle as much data.
The main result so far is the development of the prototype. The prototype is based on data about projects in Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) and the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) in the area of life science. The data is organised in such a way that there are links between projects, persons and organisations. This allows the user to make analyses out of different perspectives, e.g. for a field, organisation or region. The prototype is a valuable tool to collect feed-back from users as well as to test the processes for handling the data. In the next release both the data and the functionality will be updated based on the input from the test users. The prototype can already be used for searches as well as strategic analyses. An example of the use is to see how a certain organisation or region interacts with other organisations.
The final product is an internet-based Competence platform for accessing the competences in life science. The vision is that LIFECOMPETENCE was the prime source of information about life science projects and research competences in Europe, especially for the EC, university and regional managers and industry representatives.
LIFECOMPETENCE has given universities and regions a better self-view of their research competences. This is expected to make them more prone to enter collaborations, proactively market themselves internationally and thereby strengthen European research. Finally, it is expected that the efforts of LIFECOMPETENCE will make EC and university administration more cost efficient, as they no longer need to collect, quality assure and manually handle as much data.
The main result so far is the development of the prototype. The prototype is based on data about projects in Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) and the Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) in the area of life science. The data is organised in such a way that there are links between projects, persons and organisations. This allows the user to make analyses out of different perspectives, e.g. for a field, organisation or region. The prototype is a valuable tool to collect feed-back from users as well as to test the processes for handling the data. In the next release both the data and the functionality will be updated based on the input from the test users. The prototype can already be used for searches as well as strategic analyses. An example of the use is to see how a certain organisation or region interacts with other organisations.
The final product is an internet-based Competence platform for accessing the competences in life science. The vision is that LIFECOMPETENCE was the prime source of information about life science projects and research competences in Europe, especially for the EC, university and regional managers and industry representatives.
