Have your say
Circular Research
*By Samuel Moniz
INESC TEC’s mission is to work as an interface between academia and industry by promoting highly scientific and technological projects. More and more, the projects at INESC TEC are developed in collaboration with international partners and in highly competitive environments. I would like to stress, for example, the creation of INESC P&D Brasil, with a model similar to INESC TEC’s, whose goal is to promote multidisciplinary projects with teams from both sides of the Atlantic.
Competitiveness in the world of scientific research and technological development has increased tremendously, and excellence became the standard we all strive to achieve. However, resources are scarce and for that reason it is increasingly important to look at the type and return on investment of the projects we develop. Focusing solely on Scientific Research and Advanced Consulting projects, my recent experience tells me that combining these two types of projects is key for both parties to obtain results. Research projects should naturally be designed according to the problems that science cannot solve just yet; however, we cannot overlook industrial and business objectives. Therefore, the interesting results of these projects is the fact that we reduce the distance that typically exists between scientific knowledge and the real needs of industry, as it proposes a consistent path for researching, developing and implementing technology. In their turn, advanced consulting projects should respond firstly to the industry challenges that are presented to us, but they should also be coherent with the research lines. Only this way is it possible to propose differentiating solutions and to consolidate knowledge.
The ideal model then is that in which the research results are applied immediately in advanced consulting projects, and the results of those projects consolidate research lines and encourage the definition of new problems. This is a sort of Circular Research that benefits from shared resources. The truth is that this approach has been followed at INESC TEC, particularly by CESE. Most projects include fundamental research tasks, as well as the development and demonstration of prototypes with industry partners. However, because reality is complex, it is sometimes difficult to understand the problems, and for that reason it is important to conduct a post-analysis and to systematise the results of the projects. Only with this additional effort will it be possible to capitalise knowledge that can and should be used to refresh ideas for new projects.
For that reason, I suggest developing and implementing a Circular Research methodology which guarantees that knowledge that tends to be forgotten is systematised and shared, so that we can consolidate research lines and boost new projects and collaborations. If conversations are like cherries, which come one after the other, so should projects!
*Collaborator at the Centre for Enterprise Systems Engineering (CESE)
