How it works

A company must make a formal initial request for support using the online registration form on the ACTPHAST 4.0 website.

All registrations of interest come through to the ACTPHAST 4.0 Central Contact Point (CCP) and are assigned to a Central Business Coach for rapid follow-up driven by the company's business need.

Once qualified as a “potential” innovation project, the details of the request are passed to the ACTPHAST 4.0 Technical Coordination Team (TCT) in order to identify and appoint the most suitable technical expert from the pool of up to 200 top photonics experts amongst the ACTPHAST 4.0 Partners, who offers the best match with the requirements of the company.

Once a suitable expert is appointed to a project, the next step is for that person plus the Business Coach to arrange for an in-depth discussion with the company about the potential project under NDA and to jointly submit a scouting report.

If the scouting report provides a positive recommendation to proceed with a full project proposal, and this recommendation is accepted by the TCT, then a suitable person from the ACTPHAST 4.0 Partners is selected and appointed to act as Project Leader to write the detailed proposal together with the Business Coach and the company.

The ACTPHAST 4.0 TCT members meet once every two months to evaluate submitted Innovation Project Proposals and decide which proposals should be approved for support.

Where an innovation project is approved for support, the next step is the process of preparing and signing the contract document between all of the relevant parties to the project.

Once the contract is signed, the project commences with a formal kick-off meeting between all of the parties and project team members. The Business Coach stays in continuous contact for post-project follow-up on impact and to make connections with the Photonics Pilot Lines and Venture Forum where appropriate for full commercial exploitation of the innovation.