As of January 2026, the digital landscape is at a turning point. The push for sustainability in ICT has moved from corporate ambition to a global requirement. At the EXIGENCE project, we are now entering our final six months. With our conclusion set for June 2026, we are reflecting on how the robust strategy we established back in 2024 (D4.7 – Innovation and Exploitation Plan) is now powering our final exploitation activities.
Strategic Roadmap for Impact
To ensure our research creates a legacy, the consortium – led by F6S as Exploitation Manager – implemented a four-phase strategy. This iterative process has allowed us to refine our innovations from raw concepts into protected, high-potential products.
- Identify (2024): Pinpointing high-potential results and target audiences.
- Characterise (2025): Defining unique value propositions and market fit.
- Own (2025): Establishing IPR and ownership structures.
- Exploit (Current): Defining business models, risk assessments, and post-project roadmaps
The Foundation: Our 2024 "Identify" Phase
Our journey began with the Identify Phase. The goal was to look beyond the initial project description and pinpoint Key Exploitable Results (KERs) with the highest potential for industry take-up.
By M9, we had successfully identified our six core pillars:
- KER1: Energy-Aware ICT Metering Solution – Providing the transparency needed for carbon footprint monitoring.
- KER2: Energy-Aware Orchestration Product – Dynamically balancing high-performance computing with emission reductions.
- ER3: Incentive Mechanisms – Encouraging energy-efficient behavior across the stakeholder spectrum.
- ER4: Real-World Use Cases – Demonstrating the practical potential of sustainable ICT services.
- ER5: Green ICT Digest – A vital resource for the latest standards and best practices.
- ER6: Energy Consumption Metrics – A standardised set of metrics for intra- and inter-domain reporting.
The Path to Market: The “Characterise” Phase
While the Identify phase told us what our results were, the Characterise phase was dedicated to understanding how they fit into the real world. During this period, which concluded in mid-2025, each result owner led a deep-dive analysis to transform technical innovations into value-driven solutions.
Under the framework provided by F6S, this phase required the consortium to answer critical questions through a structured “Result Exploitation Roadmap.” We focused on:
- Unique Selling Points (USP): Defining exactly how our solutions outperform current “business as usual” methods.
- Market Mapping: Identifying specific customer segments and analysing the competitive landscape.
- Problem-Solution Fit: Ensuring our tools directly address the carbon-monitoring pain points of modern organisations.
Securing the Intellectual Property: The “Own” Phase
Innovation requires a secure legal foundation. In late 2025, we finalised the Own Phase, dedicated to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR). Facilitated by F6S through targeted workshops, we developed a Results Ownership List to clarify:
- Foreground & Background: Identifying new knowledge vs. pre-existing technology.
- Ownership Structures: Defining single or joint ownership among project partners.
- Access Rights: Establishing how results are made available to third parties or consortium members.
- Exploitation Interests: Explicitly confirming which partners will lead to the commercialisation of each KER.
This phase ensured that by the time we reached 2026, all legal barriers to market entry were cleared.
The Final Push: What Happens Between Now and June 2026?
We are currently in Phase 4: Exploit. This final stage is about the “Go-to-Market” reality. As we approach the project’s end in June, our activities include:
- Business Modeling: Finalising 1-year and 3-year revenue projections and cost estimations.
- Risk Management: Using Priority Maps and Risk Matrices to mitigate potential barriers to adoption.
- Road Mapping: Planning specific actions to be executed 3–6 months after the project ends to ensure the momentum continues.
The transition from our 2024 planning to our 2026 reality has been a journey of rigorous validation. By following this structured path – Identify, Characterise, Own, and Exploit – EXIGENCE is not just finishing a project; we are launching a suite of tools that will empower the ICT sector to meet its sustainability goals for years to come.
Stay tuned for our final results and the release of our Innovation and Exploitation Activities Report (D4.8) this June!
Read EXIGENCE D2.1 – Metrics for Energy Consumption and Efficiency Metering: HERE
Author
F6S Innovation
Melissa Tang, Communication Manager at F6S Innovation, plays a pivotal role in various EU-funded initiative. Her expertise, built on a foundation of a BA in Design and Advertising and a Master’s in Communication and Media Studies, is further strengthened by hands-on experience leading communication, dissemination and exploitation efforts in over 15 research and business projects.