Communication and Dissemination activities in a European collaborative project by Benkei
Presentation of Presentation of Benkei and its role in ICARUS
Benkei is a French consulting company that assists its clients in defining and implementing their innovation strategies and collaborative projects.
It was created in 2013 and is located in Lyon and Grenoble. Benkei intervenes in France and Europe. The company is involved in different activities such as the preparation and management of collaborative projects, as well as communication, dissemination and exploitation of the project results.
In the ICARUS project, Benkei leads the Work Package “Communication, dissemination and outreach activities” and monitors the results obtained.
Among other things, Benkei manages the website and social media of the project, the dissemination of materials to stakeholders as well as the creation of project videos. In collaboration with the consortium, Benkei manages an Advisory Board composed of industrial stakeholders.
Presentation of Communication and Dissemination in a European project: Definition, Objectives and Activities
Dissemination: Make the results public to increase project’s impacts
The goal of the dissemination activities is to make the project’s results public to increase the impact of the action. In addition, sharing the information generated during the project contribute to the advancement of world class knowledge, allowing other researchers to go a step forward.
To do so, the consortium follows as much as possible open sciences practices, which aim at sharing widely as much as possible the knowledge generated, and results obtained during the project. The goal is to target the scientific community but also a wider audience that can learn from the results: authorities, industry, policymakers, sectors of interests, civil society. Potential customers may also be interested in the solutions developed in the project.
The results are published in scientific magazines, scientific or targeted conferences, workshops, databases, and any other communication mean as soon as they are available. Consortium must agree at first with the publication of these results. In addition to sharing results so that others can learn from them, the dissemination activities can maximize results’ impact while contributing to the advancement of the state of the art and making scientific results a common good.
Communication: Promote actions and results
The main goal of the communication activities is to inform and promote the project activities and results. The objective is here to engage with stakeholders. In a more general point of view, the communication activities allow to raise awareness on how the public money is spent while showing the interest of European collaboration.
The communication activities should already be a part of the proposal. To maximize their efficiency, it is better to start communicating on the activities as soon as they begin and continue throughout the entire lifetime of the project. A good communication should be planned by establishing a comprehensive communication plan with clear objectives and indicators.
The definition and application of a robust communication strategy brings a lot of upsides:
- By raising the interest of potential customers
- By attracting talented students and scientists
- By generating market demand for the products or services developed
Social media accounts and website: Another important aspect of the communication and dissemination activities is the creation and maintenance of several social media accounts, as well as the publication of news, events and advancements of the project in the form of posts, articles and videos on different platforms, so that a variety of profiles can be reached.
ICARUS activity
Communication and Dissemination strategy and Exploitation
The first communication and dissemination measures were the definition of the visual identity of the project, followed by the creation of the project website, LinkedIn account and Youtube channel. Shortly after that, Benkei, together with partners, released the external communication and dissemination plan aiming at precising the type of activities and variety of audiences to maximize the promotion of ICARUS and its impacts. A first brochure, briefly presenting the project, was also created.
Since then, Benkei has followed and facilitated the communication and dissemination activities of the partners thanks to the creation of a leaflet for the project consolidating the main information in a 1-page document, the supply of templates and guidance regarding articles and videos.
Social media accounts and website.
To share the projects news, events and advancements on different platforms and reach a broad audience, we have created so far:
- A LinkedIn account publishing frequent project news and events. (https://www.linkedin.com/company/74373570/)
- The website of the project (https://www.icarus.eu.com/)
- A YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@ICARUSH-ey5tg) dedicated to ICARUS to support the project videos.
Project videos
So far, 5 videos have been published online, respectively presenting:
- ICARUS project; a 7min long video presenting the main objectives and challenges of the project, as well as the members of the consortium and the value chain addressed by the project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umgWwY4VLfo&t=230s)
- The results of the initial waste inventory regarding Silicon’s waste; the contaminants found and their concentration into the different samples studied. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K4AXNdrv7dc)
- The first pilot campaign led by SINTEF and NOSI on the production of silicon metal utilizing waste from the PV industry. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsIgIau9PlU)
- The waste assessment by bifa. (https://youtu.be/9-UWaVjAzg8?si=vwQnyB738v6MzlOU)
- Project’s advancements at the M30 meeting in Cyprus (https://youtu.be/CZK7_qLenEU?si=byT2uXnGwxD13Ft4 )
Next steps
In the coming months, more results of the project will be published in the form of new videos and articles. Short videos presenting each of the 4 pilots of the project will also be published on the LinkedIn account of the project as well as ICARUS’s Youtube channel.
