Interview

Bart Van den Bossche & Peter Meuris - Elsyca

How do you currently assess the status of VIPCOAT as a project? Are the VIPCOAT platform and the project accelerating the development of your company? What is the status today and what do you expect for the future?
The VIPCOAT project has enabled Elsyca and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in close mutual cooperation, to revitalize and further develop their state-of-art multi-ion transport and reaction models for modeling corrosion phenomena.

For the future, Elsyca’s expectations are mainly directly to the potential of incorporating its proprietary simulation software components into business decision workflows of new projects to be constructed on the VIPCOAT OIP platform. This offers the possibility for a new business model consisting in licensing software to a consortium of entities, compared to the actual business model of offering software tools (whether UI operated or coupled to CAD or CAM software tools) via typical PLC + ALC or YLC licensing schemes to individual customers.

Do you think the size of the company is crucial to the success of the project? Does the OIP platform help you individually as a small or medium-sized company?
The definition of projects in an OIP platform, and more in particular the clear definition of these projects in terms of ontology, data flows and business decision workflows, make it easier for SMEs (and also research institutes) to position themselves and to define their role in the global architecture of a project.

What specific advantages do you see for yourself as a member of the consortium as a result of your participation?
The VIPCOAT project has enabled Elsyca and the VUB to regain their leading position in multi-ion transport and reaction modeling.

From a broader point of view, the experience gained in terms of ontology, data flows and business decision workflows will allow Elsyca to actively participate in the definition of the architecture of future R&D projects (in case of an active member of a consortium), and to better tailorize its software components for integration in these workflows.

In the forms of project implementation: How were your teams able to implement the requirements? What is your forecast for the open innovation approach or the digitalization of materials?
The requirements for integration of the different applications based on Elsyca and VUB software solutions into the OIP were extremely challenging, since demanding a status for this software modeling technology that was - at the start of the project -obviously far beyond state-of-art. Important innovative efforts of Elsyca and VUB were needed to finally bridge the gap between this original state-of-art and the actual project requirements.

What social impact would have VIPCOAT project and/or the OIP in terms of open innovation and industrial leadership in the EU? Would it provide a shift/ further development for your company?
The VIPCOAT OIP can become a game changer for handling future R&D projects with multiple partners, in terms of maximizing the impact and results of R&D efforts, accelerate novel product and novel process development, and add to the reusability of project results. The efficiency factor that can be gained here is simply huge, since a typical problem of traditionally managed R&D projects is that not only the know-how being built up during the project is never centralized and controlled in a perfect manner, but also disperses after project closure. The VIPCOAT project as such, while focusing on active paint systems, is to be considered as a benchmark project, whereby the importance of the pioneer function of this project being embedded in the OIP is probably superior to the actual scientific and engineering impact of the project.

Can VIPCOAT OIP accelerate this further development?
The VIPCOAT OIP should by preference manifest itself in the future as a reference platform for embedding a multitude of efficiently architectured R&D projects. However, in order to meet this expectation the TRL level of the OIP should be further raised. Also, a sound solution needs to be created for OIP maintenance and ownership after the VIPCOAT project closure.

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