EuKnow

euknow is a consulting company specialised in the support to research and innovation organisations. We help companies, universities, research centres and industrial associations to design strategies and pathways to innovation.

Our focus is on facilitating the conditions for the deployment of scientific knowledge and technologies on the field. Many sectors, like healthcare or agriculture, have lived huge scientific advances in the last twenty years. In many cases, this has generated a wealth of technologies, apps, tools and devices. Yet, change does not follow at the same pace. Many practitioners find it difficult to navigate among technological options and to embrace change.

Our approach is to support practitioners in defining the right model for change, looking at all the variables in place, like attitudes, perception, acceptance, workflows, people, skills and business models.

We are active in a broad range of sectors, like agriculture, construction, industrial processes, the bioeconomy, cultural heritage and more. Learn more about our services

Vision and Strategy

We help our clients define their long-term vision. We assist them in the design and adoption of research driven development strategies. We do this through consolidated techniques like future foresight tools or technology watch processes. We help our clients understand in what areas of their business sector change is likely to happen first and where hindrances persist.

We have been providing services in the development of knowledge-based strategies in several areas. In the field of agricultural machinery, we work with industry from Italy, in particular to devise strategies to cope with evolving emissions requirements and decarbonisation goals, with a special focus on small size machinery designed for uneven terrains, where the introduction of innovative functionalities can determine significant variations in the production process and the cost.

We have done work in the field of cultural heritage, in particular, to help film libraries innovate the management of their assets and the enlargement of their users’ base through the adoption of new technologies and new business models.

Positioning

No business or research organisation is an island. We help our clients develop network and collaborations on the international scene. We act as connectors to sources of inspiration, innovation, data, technologies and services.

Since 2010, we have been partners of reference for several research organisations from Belgium, Italy, Israel, Portugal, Slovenia and the UK, to develop their collaboration networks, acquire a wider exposure to new sources of knowledge and to deepen cooperation with other research organisations around Europe, as well with industry.

We have for instance helped a university from the South of Italy gain a central positioning in innovation areas related to short supply chains in the agro-food business, and a research centre from a peripheral region of Israel, to strengthen its capacities in agricultural and environmental sciences.

We have been using several available instruments, including bilateral cooperation agreements among countries, or funding from the European Union through its research and innovation programmes.

Project Development

Projects are fundamental tools in the implementation of strategies. We help our clients set up projects that are instrumental to achieve a given stage of their development strategy. We have huge experience and a wide portfolio of projects development, including experimental or demonstration actions applied to different fields of science.

Following the strategic pathways formulated with our clients, we have promoted, developed and in some cases managed, projects related for instance to: smart farming and precision agriculture, or the deployment of ICT solutions to improve the efficiency and cost performance of regional healthcare systems, or the organisation of short supply chains in the agro-food sector, or the organisation of innovative process for the valorisation of biomass from different sources within the circular economy paradigm.

We pay a special attention to the practical side of projects’ implementation by challenging theoretical assumptions with realistic and complex use cases.

Training and Coaching

We develop training and coaching programmes on R&I strategies, project development, project managing, R&I funding programmes and more. Our training and coaching programmes are fully customised to the needs of our clients and are implemented through a mix of physical and remote sessions, provided by specialised trainers.

We cover issues like: change management, innovation management, knowledge and technology transfer, business modelling, project development and project management.

We have been partners in a number of training courses for small and medium enterprises organised in Italy through the national network of Chambers of Commerce and through the continuous training schemes (fondi interprofessionali) for small businesses.

We have also developed specific modules for strategic thinking for the so-called LAGs (Local Action Groups), mostly active in rural regions and communities, to help different stakeholders come together and represent their vision, ambitions and projects in their negotiation processes with the regional or national governments.

We also provide coaching on strategy and project design, where the focus is on facilitating clients’ development by assisting them in the deployment of their key projects.

Communication

We don’t sell websites. We co-design, together with our clients, communication campaigns and actions that are functional to their higher strategic goals. Our communication campaigns are not off-the-shelf products, as they are the unique results of design thinking applied to all aspects of our clients goals and ambitions.

Our communication campaigns usually take the form of a very diversified menu of actions, ranging from better positioning in social media, to short video production, to high profile referrals or to the organisation of small scale events involving the right targets and stakeholders.

We use user centred design methods to engage people (including citizens, schools or other informal groupings) in the dialogue on science and innovation and on the ways science becomes tangible in our daily lives.

We have active partnerships on innovation in agriculture and on creativity in bioeconomy to revitalise local economies.

Reskilling

This is not just about training. It is about anticipating change. Many sectors will undergo significant change in the coming years, as an effect of technological evolution, knowledge ownership and scale of processes. Jobs and businesses that have so far been considered as traditional will need to change to respond to the new challenges of decarbonisation, digitalisation and increased pressure from global service providers.

We help our clients to see change from different perspectives and develop scenarios for action. We use methods to identify the emergence of critical skill gaps and needs in different sectors, looking at the whole supply chain rather than just at one process. We put the needs to skill new generations of workers and managers (or to reskill the ones already in the market), within the global expected vision of change for the whole sector.

Many sectors where interactions among different players are close and continuous, need a governance approach to reskilling strategies. Bioeconomy is for instance one of those sectors. Change in one operation corresponds to change in one or more phases of the entire supply chain.