Heiko Poth is a Chemist graduate and boasts a rich 15-year tenure spanning both academic and industrial research and development domains. Heiko leverages his extensive background to bolster European research and innovation endeavours across diverse realms encompassing medical, social, and engineering sciences. His responsibilities span from facilitating the transition of European industries towards an emission-free future to steering life science initiatives aimed at catalysing societal progress.
1. RELiEF is a research project with twelve partners developing new Lithium recycling technologies in a collaborative effort. What are the main challenges managing the research, innovation and intellectual property in such a project, and what is your role in this?
The main challenge for innovation management in almost all projects such as RELiEF is that you have multiple results that are jointly generated by multiple partners. These results constitute intellectual property (IP) whose rights (IPR) need to be clarified. How has each partner contributed to the different results and what share of ownership should be allocated to them accordingly? These things need to be negotiated and defined by the consortium as early as possible, so that all partners can effectively protect their IP/IPR and receive their fair share of the benefits from the exploitation of the project. EURICE's role is to advise, support and guide the partners in this process and to act as a neutral mediator in case of disagreement.
2. What strategy is the RELiEF consortium pursuing to manage the IP/IPR generated in the project?
Collaborative projects like RELiEF are complex and require considerable effort from the partners. To make this effort worthwhile, it is necessary for them to pursue their specific interests in the project and achieve their individual goals. Depending on the type of institution, these interests and goals can range from commercialisation of new products, to scientific publications, to the creation of new standards or regulations. The intellectual property generated in the project, which is important for the partners to achieve their goals, needs to be protected, for example through patenting. Sometimes the interests of the partners conflict, for example when the academic partner wants to publish new results, but a commercial partner wants to protect them to maintain a competitive advantage in their industry. In addition, RELiEF is funded by the European Union through the Horizon Europe programme. The aim of such publicly funded projects is to maximise the impact for all stakeholders, not just the consortium partners, in order to make the best use of taxpayers' money. This implies that research results are shared as early and openly as possible, so that the scientific community, the general public, industry, etc. can also benefit from them. Therefore, the basic IPR strategy in such a project is always "protect as much as necessary and disseminate as much as possible".
3. What tools are employed by the partners in order to implement this IP/IPR management strategy?
Several tools are available. First, internal coordination between partners is important, e.g. to avoid publication of results that other partners consider sensitive. This requires early and transparent communication via a fast and efficient internal communication platform. Then, for IP that needs to be protected, the usual IP protection tools are used: patenting, registering trademarks or designs, keeping trade secrets, and so on. When it comes to disseminating the IP, the consortium chooses the appropriate tools depending on the stakeholders it is addressing. On all these issues, EURICE acts as a partner to ensure effective and continuous internal communication and the selection of appropriate protection and dissemination tools.
4. Can you tell us a bit more about dissemination in RELiEF?
RELiEF has quite a diverse group of stakeholders. First and foremost, of course, there is the battery and recycling industry. Then RELiEF is developing some very innovative chemical processes that are also of interest to academic institutions and research organisations. We also have government and regulatory bodies as important dissemination targets, as RELiEF has the potential to significantly improve the lithium supply situation in Europe, which may have an impact on regulations in the areas of raw materials, battery production and recycling. Of course, there is also the interest of the general public in such important issues as lithium supply, which affects the daily lives of European citizens who use lithium battery technologies in everything from mobile phones to electric vehicles. They have a right to know what is being done with their taxes and how they will benefit from such projects.
5. I assume you need to address these different groups in different ways?
Of course. Through different channels and with different messages. The general public is more likely to enjoy watching a Youtube video about the project that does not require you to be an expert to understand it but tells you clearly what it is good for, while academia want a „proper “scientific publication talking about experimental setups, numerical results and so on. The industry on the other hand wants a clear presentation of how their business can profit from the project. So, you need to create all these different materials and make sure they arrive in the hands where they belong. In RELiEF, we have two dedicated partners, TechConcepts and EURICE, that are specialised in identifying, contacting and involving stakeholders in a strategic, targeted way. I believe the consortium benefits greatly from this.
6. Once the interest of the stakeholders has been gained and they are involved, is then everything on track and we can be sure to see the results of RELiEF in application soon?
It is not that simple. It is a long way from the level of laboratory equipment typically achieved in research projects such as RELiEF to an industrial process. RELiEF will produce a demonstrator for the new, innovative lithium separation processes at a scale that will provide a convincing, reliable proof of concept. Adapting to the real working environment, achieving industrial performance parameters, ensuring long-term sustainability, up-scaling to serial or even mass production - these steps on the road from idea to market are often more difficult and challenging than the initial development in the laboratory, and can take several years and require much higher funding than the original project. It is very important to be aware of this and to prepare for the future while the project is still running. In RELiEF, we are very proactive in developing the necessary strategies and working with partners to develop concrete and specific plans for the translation of our innovative technologies from the laboratory to industry.
7. So, you have to think bigger than just the project itself.
Always. At Eurice, we think in terms of innovation ecosystems. These ecosystems are basically partnerships and infrastructures established in a specific technological or scientific field that provide a habitat and resources for new ideas, which are then nurtured from the first concept to the final application in industry and society. Energy storage is such an ecosystem, and battery technologies, including raw materials and recycling, are part of it. RELiEF makes an important contribution to this ecosystem by developing new recycling technologies to demonstrator level, but it does not stand alone, it is one building block in this larger field and needs to interact with the other blocks. One aspect of this interaction is RELiEF's participation in the "Cluster Hub for the production of raw materials for batteries from European resources". This is a collaboration of projects working to secure battery raw materials from European sources to achieve raw material independence, thereby strengthening Europe's economy, environmental health and resilience. RELiEF is one of 13 projects in this cluster, so there is a lot of potential for exchange and cross-fertilisation. These interactions could also lead to very beneficial collaborations in the future development of RELiEF's recycling technologies beyond the life of the project.
