Training as an affordable and powerful lever to stimulate the evolution dynamics of a newly designed technology platform at the frontier between academia and industry

Abstract

Technology platforms spanning several scientific and technological fields hold great promise, both as future innovative tools for industry and as future experimental tools for academia. However, some of their characteristics are also still unknown and need to be designed. A classical approach to initiate their evolution dynamics is to seek funding for a subsequent design project. Using a single case study, we show that a much less costly approach is possible: adding training to the platform can play a central role in increasing the intensity of its use, with both scientific and industrial impacts. Yet, this approach requires that the training knowledge enables the exchange of ‘independent knowledge’ between platform designers and users: this demanding condition requires further research to characterise this promising training model which we propose to call “double impact training”.