With the virtual marketplace ubivent has provided an innovative, interactive, and highly exciting platform for the research funding program „Zwanzig20 - Partnership for Innovation“. In the past, the main focus of research funding has been the build-up of re-search capacities in eastern Germany. For the new program, this focus has shifted towards establishing networks between existing stakeholders. As one consequence of this new focus, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) has deci-ded to support especially those research projects that overcome boundaries of regions, industries, disciplines and organizations. The virtual marketplace that was initiated by the ubivent partner PRpetuum has been an important tool to support the emergence of inter-organizational networks between industry and science during the early phase of the program. Further, the marketplace played an important role for the effi cient transfer of technology and knowledge.

This new approach obviously requires a special emphasis on openness and transparency. Companies, universities, and other research facilities have been encouraged to form so-called initial consortia even before the application deadline. These consor-tia have to adapt dynamically and be open for even signifi cant structural changes. One of the challenges has been the open communication between the stakeholders of this process. To rea-lize this, the BMBF has decided to make extensive use of techno-logy. Both the ubivent platform and the online partner database have been deliberately selected to implement this openness and transparency in the program.

At the virtual marketplace, all the consortia had the opportunity to set up their own virtual booth. These booths, containing various materials – such as vi-deos, presentations, and project drafts – have been used to present the innovative concepts of the con-sortia. To facilitate the exchange of ideas, the visitors of the booths also had the opportunity to directly interact with a dedicated contact person. Thus, the interested public has been able to gather informati-on in a very condensed and easily accessible way. At the same time, the virtual marketplace enabled the consortia to present their topics and fi nd suitable partners. Overall, more than thirty initial consortia have used the possibilities of the virtual marketplace and hundreds of participants visited their virtual booths.

Virtual marketplace for the research funding program

„Zwanzig20“

Hans-Peter Hiepe opens the marketplace in the virtual auditorium

One of the showfl oors with virtual booths of the consortia

success story

„The virtual marketplace offered com-pletely new ways to present innovative ideas and is an important tool for open innovation. Especially the emphasis on interaction and communication has been highly valuable. Through this marketplace, „Zwanzig20“ has been a stimulus for other research funding projects with re-gard to openness and transparency.“

Hans-Peter Hiepe, Ministerialrat BMBF

A very important element of the virtual marketplace have been the event days. A typical event day has been opened with a video keynote in which BMBF staff communicated contents and guidelines of the funding program. After the video, a group chat started automatically for all participants. In this live chat, the visitors had the chance to get all their questions answered di-rectly by a team of BMBF experts. This type of interaction has been considered highly valuable both by the participants and the BMBF. For the participants, it has been great to ask questions to the right contact persons without any need for traveling. For the BMBF, it has been very important that all applicants could get their questions answered. At the same time it has been a huge advantage that all consortia have been treated equally. Corres-pondingly, the events have been well-attended: several hundred participants joined the marketplace for each of these events.

Thus, the ubivent team has contributed signifi cantly to the project success. The stable and easily accessible virtual environment has guaranteed openness and transparency during the entire project. Also, ubivent has tracked all movements on the marketplace and has compiled statistical analysis on a regular base. With the help of these facts, both the exhibitors and the BMBF have been able to keep an overview of the activities and changes on the virtual marketplace. The cooperation of ubivent with the ministry and the agency PRpetuum has thus set an example how the future de-sign of funding programs, research initiatives, and network for-mation initiatives can be conducted in an open and transparent manner. Hans-Peter Hiepe, Ministerialrat at the BMBF, conclu-des: „The virtual marketplace offered completely new ways to present innovative ideas and is an important tool for open innovation. Especially the emphasis on interaction and communication has been highly va-luable. Through this marketplace, „Zwanzig20“ has been a stimulus for other research funding projects with regard to openness and transparency.“

The virtual booth of the BMBF with information about the program

success story

Since 1989, the German government has been ac-tively involved in supporting the emergence of a highly dynamic innovation landscape in eastern Germany. In the past, the focus of this support has been the build-up of research and innovation capacities. Now, this focus shifts towards establishing networks between these stakeholders. Here, especially the program „Zwanzig20 - Partnership for Innovation“ is following a new approach to support the emergence of supra-regional, interdisciplinary, and cross-organizational networks. Openness and transparency are important aspects of the new program. The Munich-based agen-cy PRpetuum is responsible for the entire communica-tion of the program Zwanzig20 and the innovation initiative „Unternehmen Region“ of the BMBF.

ubivent is Europe’s leading virtual event speci-alist. The ubivent platform is a visually ap-pealing, easy to use, high performance, and scalable virtual event solution. The event expe-rience can be individually tailored to fulfi ll all customer specifi c needs. Typical use cases are virtual corporate events (e.g. online conferen-ces and virtual kick-offs) and virtual public events (e.g. online career fairs and virtual trade shows).

For further information please contact us:

ubivent GmbHJulius-Hatry-Str. 168163 MannheimGERMANY

t. +49 621 5 867 967 - 0f. +49 621 5 867 967 - 1

info@ubivent.comwww.ubivent.com

contact.