D-NA2.1 Project Marketing and Strategic Dissemination and Communication Plan

This document provides a plan for the communication and dissemination of the ERIGrid 2.0 project activities and cooperation with project stakeholders. As a project with significant focus on the audience involvement due to its Research Infrastructures (RI) access opportunities, educational and knowledge transfer activities, ERIGrid 2.0 must ensure engagement with certain target groups. Among these major target groups are: industry professionals, researchers and academics, relevant research initiatives and networks, Master and PhD students. The strategic plan makes clear the added value delivered by ERIGrid 2.0 to each of these groups. Correspondingly, the most appropriate channels for the promotion and dissemination are identified in each case.

Furthermore, this plan details the aspect of communication with the already established stakeholders and the potential new ones. It provides guidelines to the project partners regarding the dissemination and stakeholder engagement. Included in this strategic plan is also an overview of the relevant reports and milestones to be delivered.

Upon providing the strategy for communication, dissemination and collaboration, the document moves on to the visual identity and elaborates the project marketing materials and tools used for project promotion. Adopting consistent visual identity in the project contributes to successful promotion. The marketing materials provided are: press releases, flyer, poster, and the presentation template. The tools and platforms used in the project and elaborated in this document are: website, newsletter, and social media. 

In the conclusion of the document it is emphasised that the focus of the strategic communication plan is the engagement with the target audience in order to reach the project objectives. Therefore, the consortium shall invest significant joint effort in communication, dissemination and collaboration.

However, facing the impacts of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID19) as an unprecedented global crisis, the consortium must respond accordingly to the changed situation. We are all experiencing a disruption of our routines of daily life and work, partly general travel bans have been issued by our employers. Thus, in an approach of shared responsibility and solidarity, wishing that all partners and stakeholders of the project can stay safe, the ERIGrid 2.0 consortium wants to stay productive in the sense of reaching the project targets and fulfilling the tasks according to the time schedule. Therefore, we will have to adopt alternative communication patterns and channels to cope with the new situation. Most of the present and upcoming meetings and other activities like trainings will be organised on a virtual basis, and research collaboration will be strengthened via existing platforms like MS Teams, GoToWebinar, ResearchGate, etc. Since the ERIGrid 2.0 partners are familiar with using electronic collaboration tools and holding remote presentations, it can be expected that the activities of the project will proceed as planned.