6.2: Results of target group online survey

In its INFRADEV-3-2015 call, the European Commission recognised the challenges and difficulties faced by new pan-European infrastructures such as ESS in the process of becoming fully operational, when technologies, services and procedures need to be finalised and users’ trust and awareness must be built. As a response to the appeal of the European Commission on research infrastructures to give specific attention to interactions with end-users, one of the strategic goals of BrightnESS is to gain the trust of future users of ESS from science and industry, and to understand the role of key actors in the innovation ecosystem that ESS will foster. To this end, the BrightnESS team, within the framework of Work Package 6 entitled Collaboration, Communication, and Dissemination, and Work Package 3 entitled Organisational Innovation designed and carried out activities with the aim of acquiring a profound understanding of target groups relevant for ESS and its partners. In 2016, BrightnESS launched three parallel initiatives aiming at identifying the needs and expectations of:

• Scientific and academic users
• Industrial users
• Actors in innovation ecosystems

The ultimate goal of the set of activities was not only to gain a deeper insight on each of the groups, but also to use the findings to develop tailored outreach and engagement strategies, and to shape ESS policies for access and innovation. Each group was assessed through a custom-made approach, which best conformed to the group specifics.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17199/BRIGHTNESS.D6.2