F4E Annual Report 2009 - Fusion For Energy - Europa

Business IntelligenceF4E’s Business Intelligence (BI) Group has intensifiedits interactions with industries and European fusionlaboratories in 2009. Not less than four IndustrialLiaison Officers (ILOs) meetings were organised in2009; two in Barcelona, one in Brussels and one inCadarache at the ITER site.Both directly and through the ILOs, F4E is buildingup strong relationships with European industries. Anestimated 250 companies met in 2009, either in faceto-facemeetings or during plenary sessions whereF4E had the opportunity to introduce its procurementactivities. Apart from those plenary sessions, meetingswith industries in Austria, France, Germany, Greece,the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Switzerlandshould be mentioned.F4E also participated in events such as theInternational Business Forum for Fusion in Sapporoor the JEC exhibition on composite materials in Paris.F4E sees these efforts as key to reach a relevant andeffective participation of companies, so as to achievea best value for money result while fostering thecreation of a European fusion industry.Supporting pre-procurement activitiesIn 2009, a key F4E activity was the support to preprocurementand procurement preparation. Inparticular, F4E has coordinated or participated inmeetings, seminars and information sessions as partof the preparation of procurement activities aroundthe Vacuum Vessel, First Wall and Blanket, RemoteHandling, Cryoplant, Codac Systems, and ArchitectEngineering.The mapping of manufacturing processes andrequired skills for key procurement procedures hasbeen finalised and distributed to potential sources ofinformation like the ILOs.Supporting tools for Contracts and ProcurementF4E has implemented new tools for supporting itsprocurement activity. F4E Contracts & Procurementis now managing all operational tendering proceduresof the Agency with the “Compass” database,developed and successfully tested by the end of2009. The database is deemed to be a powerful toolfor enhancing the efficiency and monitoring of theprocurement activities.2009 was also the preparatory year for the functionaland technical specification of the coming F4E IndustryPortal.Intellectual Property ManagementF4E hosted the first meeting of the ITER CouncilWorking Group on Intellectual Property Managementand Dissemination of Information from 3-5 March2009 which brought together experts from theMembers and Domestic Agencies to exchange ideaswith the ITER IO. During the three days a draft text forthe “ITER Organization Rules on Intellectual PropertyManagement and Dissemination of Information” wasdeveloped base on the ITER Agreement’s Annex onInformation and Intellectual Property. Discussionsfocused not only Discussions focused not only onnear-term items such as protection of backgroundintellectual property, publication rules and trainingneeds, but also on longer term strategies such as whathappens with the Intellectual Property Rights afterdissolution of the ITER IO. A report was presented tothe ITER Council meeting in June.The first meeting of the ITER Council Working Group on Intellectual Property Management and Dissemination of Information, BarcelonaANNUAL REPORT 2009 FUSION FOR ENERGY47