Workspace Europe: Connecting Ideas, Empowering People, Finding Solutions together

Ideas do not emerge from an ivory tower – they are born where people with different perspectives come together. The new online co-creation platform EU.FFICIENT is built exactly on that promise: It aims to connect experts from academia, industry and public administration so that joint solutions can be shaped faster and transferred into practice. The platform works like a social media platform: Profiles, topic-specific communities, news feeds, chat functions, learning modules and small challenges are designed to keep collaboration alive beyond the first contact and turn it into specific projects. Users can therefore organize themselves in moderated groups, known as communities of expert facilitators, in which relevant content is shared and exchanges can give rise to concrete work packages for newb projects.

EU.FFICIENT was launched in 2024 and is funded under Horizon Europe. The consortium includes partners from nine countries, including IPEK – the Institute of Product Engineering at KIT, which played a key role in the conception and methodological development of the platform´s design. The goal of the project is not purely to create a network, but rather a usable space for transfer. Annika Bastian from IPEK sums up the project: “Structured exchange and targeted networking create added value for all involved – a step towards sustainable technology transfer at the European level.”

In practical terms, this means whoever submits a question, for example a small or medium-sized enterprise facing a technological hurdle, finds potential partners, mentors and specific learning opportunities on the platform. It invites users to share their own challenges and work together to plan prototypes and field trials iteratively. Instead of stopping at the initial exchange, contacts can be made on the EU.FFICIENT platform so that an idea can gradually develop into a joint project. Those who have little experience with transdisciplinary work or specific areas of technology receive additional support: Live training sessions, on-site events, workshop templates and short e-learning courses show how heterogeneous teams can successfully work together and how an idea can grow into a pilot. A self-assessment module helps users to assess their own knowledge-level and suggests tailored learning offers. Thus EU.FFICIENT becomes more than a meeting place: It is a workspace plus learning lab where collected results and materials remain in the community and can be reused by others. But beware: Strict community rules ensure that members only share what they are allowed to share.

EU.FFICIENT was developed iteratively with user feedback and real-world testing. It is intended to be a living ecosystem that will continuously grow on an open- source basis. With the launch of the platform, four communities were initially started: Advanced Manufacturing, Mobility, HealthTech, and AI/ Digital – areas in which research and practice need to be particularly closely interlinked. In the short and medium term, thousands of experts should be reached, and in the long term, the project aims to connect experts in dozens of countries. For researchers and transfer actors, this offers a practical opportunity: Those who want not only to inform but also co-design will find tools and partners here to turn ideas into real applications. An open creative space – and the more diverse hands work together, the greater the chance that good ideas will become real solutions.

Images:

• Institut für Produktentwicklung / KIT
• EU.FFICIENT