The European Commission organizes a Virtual Seminar on Exploitation of Results for the Construye 2020+ partnership

The Construye 2020+ project was selected to receive the Support Services for Exploitation of Research Results (SERR), free of charge, from the European Commission (EC), through Meta Knowledge to market.

On April 30th the European partnership of Construye 2020+ received from the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), belonging to the European Commission, a Seminar on Exploitation Strategies in order to address the exploitable results of the project, given by the external consultant Manon van Leeuwen, from Meta Knowledge to market.

The video conference addressed the Business Model Canvas (BMC), developed in 2000 by Alex Osterwalder, for entrepreneurs seeking to create value and build new businesses or transform their organizations, as well as for those who seek to find innovative ways to do business and replace old ways or outdated business models.

Although the Canvas model works best in a face-to-face way, because you can carry out sketching and discussion dynamics, in panels, with notes on post-its or whiteboard markers, due to the Covid-19, this seminar and the application of the methodology were adapted to a virtual session, without losing creativity, understanding and analysis.

As Manon van Leeuwen reflected: “Surprising results in a company or project do not mean that they have a surprising impact; on the other hand, less excellent results can have an extraordinary impact. That is why it is necessary to study the resources and know where to put the effort”.

After the collaborative work of almost 20 representatives of the project partners –Fundación Laboral de la Construcción, Instituto de Ciencias de la Construcción Eduardo Torroja (CSIC), Fundación Estatal para la Formación en el Empleo (Fundae), Instituto Nacional de las Cualificaciones (Incual), Centro de Investigación de Recursos y Consumos Energéticos (Circe) e Instituto de Robótica y Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (IRTIC),possible exploitation results of the Construye 2020+ project were described: Construye 2020+ courses, ‘Green’ Tag, professional qualification in energy auditor, training for companies, awareness services for the ecological transition of construction companies, social awareness actions (Construye 2020+ Route), policy recommendations in training and policy recommendations in sustainable construction.

More about the Canvas model

The BMC is developed through nine basic building blocks, which show the logical structure for a company to be successful in the market or to exploit its results. These nine blocks cover four fundamental areas of a business: customers, supply, infrastructure and financial viability:

1. Customer segments: an organisation serves one or more customer segments.
2. Value propositions: it seeks to solve customers’ problems and satisfy their needs with value propositions.
3. Channels: value proposals are delivered to customers through communication, distribution and sales channels.
4. Customer relations: are established and maintained with each customer segment.
5. Revenue streams: result of value proposals successfully offered to customers.
6. Key resources: assets required to offer and deliver the elements described above.
7. Key activities: fundamental actions to be taken by the organization.
8. Key partnerships: activities that are outsourced and resources that are acquired outside the company.
9. Cost structure: elements of the business model give rise to the cost structure