In order to strengthen the industrial implementation of the research and cooperation between the partners, an industrial reference group has been established where there is one expert from each partner. The mandate of the industrial reference group states that an annual report has to be presented to the SFI CASA Board about how the implementation is carried out.

A survey has been completed to facilitate the interaction between the research group and the partners with respect to implementation. The partners were asked to define what implementation means, how implementation was carried out and how the partners disseminated the obtained results in their own organization. In addition, the partners have been asked to define what is within and beyond the scope of the Centre and how they define an active partner or a partner who only follows the research activities.

The answers from the partners show that implementation is defined as short- and long-term activities. In a short-term perspective, a key issue is the training of the partners to use the tools that are developed, whereas for long-term activities they expect that the technology will be implemented into their daily processes. Implementation in such processes means for instance that the models developed are incorporated into the commercial solvers used by the partners and that the models are robust, accurate, user friendly and well documented.

All implementation in the Centre starts with the proof of technology through master’s projects at NTNU linked to the Centre’s activities. The partners launch the topic of the master’s projects through the industrial reference group. At a later stage, an internal evaluation of the technology is carried out by the partners hosting master’s students. PhD candidates can also contribute here. The proof of technology and the internal evaluation are within the scope of the Centre, whereas concurrent projects are outside. All implementation is followed by training courses at NTNU or at the partners. These courses are linked to a validation strategy on several scales.