Raúl Santos de la Cámara

Digital waves instead of shaking hands

“Of course, the past year has been a very different experience for everyone. I must admit that my experience of online events before March this year had not been very positive but the way that ITEA has tackled the situation and made use of the technology we have at our disposal has changed my mind. I feel the contacts, despite the lack of a physical presence, have been very successful. That comes partly from the fact that it’s created a level playing field – we all have to do it this way. In my project meetings online I have been pleasantly surprised. There has been a tremendous amount of efficiency and the meetings have been very productive. Of course, I miss the shared coffee, the informal conversations, moments that can often produce some great ideas. Personal contact is irreplaceable and I can’t wait to start mingling again. Mind you, I don’t miss the travel. That has been a big plus for me. All in all, I think we have not suffered as an ITEA Community. Rather, we have risen above the challenges and shown what we are capable of.”

Perfect for SMEs

“From an SME perspective, I think programmes like ITEA are essential for research ideas to transition from a very preliminary drawing board to near commercial products. I particularly like the general size of consortia in ITEA: not so small that they feel limited but also not that big that they become a patchwork of small groups of people working on their own. The typical 10-12 partners in an ITEA consortium need to work together, which I believe is essential in the production of results that build on each other’s strengths. But with the strong Community behind even that 10-12 partner group feels way stronger: you rely on the Community for things such as dissemination, cross-application of results and also continuation of ideas in future projects. In terms of impact on industry and society, I feel that ITEA projects contribute to our ability as an SME to transfer results into products and services. We see this, for example, in projects like SoMeDi how the Smart City Madrid initiative has been able to incorporate what we have been doing to benefit the citizens.”

The growing world of ITEA

The introduction of new countries in ITEA has very quickly transitioned from being an exotic add-on to a truly essential part of the Community. “In the beginning,” Raúl says, “it felt unusual to have partners from South Korea or Canada in your prototypical international consortium, but over the years this collaboration has strengthened and now it is completely normal to have them. This, of course, has broadened our horizons with new ideas about markets and user needs very different to what we're used to in other programmes. I think that ITEA has been very proactive in promoting these changes and that the events organised (from the PO days to the Innovation Days) really help in building a cohesive Community.”

Part of the bigger picture

“HI Iberia has benefited greatly from participating in ITEA. Several key technologies for us, from Natural Language Understanding to health monitoring applications and Smart City systems, have drastically improved from what we have done in the ITEA projects SoMeDi, ESTABLISH and SCRATCh. We have built an excellent network of like-minded companies in previously unexplored markets for us, from Finland to Romania. Personally, I think many of my favourite projects in the past years have been part of ITEA and for sure my favourite events are ITEA’s by quite a distance, from both the professional and personal perspectives. It is always a great feeling to go to the event and immediately start seeing familiar faces and truly feeling part of the bigger picture there. It comes down to the people, of course, and happiness comes as much from the social side of things as the success of the work. I find the mix of people really enriching.”