Phase 1:  Concept paper development

The Pilot Project Concept Paper is essentially a proto business plan or technology development blueprint aimed at developing system-level prototypes for aerospace applications. The purpose of the Concept Paper is to characterize a potential area of mutual interest from the selected concept topics. It will be used to guide discussions at the CANEUS Conference workshops.  The Pilot Project “blueprints” are developed using the following step-by-step approach (see schematic below):

MNT topical areas such as materials, devices and technologies are selected for soliciting promising concepts. Proposals for generating the Pilot Project blueprints or “Concept Papers” are then received, peer reviewed and funded. Committees are setup to coordinate the development of each Concept Paper in collaboration with the selected proposer. The Concept Papers are to be prepared in advance of the CANEUS conference and will be discussed at the Process Workshops during the latter half of the conference.

The primary purpose of the Process Workshops is to further refine the Concept Papers so that they can be made into detailed “business plans” for system-level prototype development. Each Process Workshop session has been designed to debate a particular key consideration pertaining to the pilot project process. Thus, the Concept Paper coordinating committees are responsible for identifying beforehand, the issues that are common to all the Concept Papers as well as concept-specific issues that fall within the purview of each Process Workshops session. The Process Workshop panelists and attendees subsequently discuss these pre-selected issues and the results communicated back to the coordinating committees.

After the conference, the Concept Paper coordination committees are re-convened to incorporate the findings from the Process Workshops. The end products for this step are expected to be robust, MNT pilot project blueprints that are ready for presentation to potential sponsors for funding.

The development of prototypes for each chosen concept topic is the end product of this phase. These prototypes will be sufficiently refined so that effectiveness of the embodied concept can be evaluated in practical applications. The Prototype Development Teams will be semi-autonomous, answerable to CANEUS and to their respective investors on previously determined quantitative metrics.

• Each Pilot Project Team will contain within it the complete set of expertise required for transforming the selected MNT concept into a prototype of a mission level and/or commercial product.
• In keeping with the above incubator analogy for the CANEUS organization, each Prototype Development Team could thus be viewed as an incubator entity with team members responsible for developing the MNT concepts into system level prototypes that could be either transitioned into an aerospace mission incorporation or development of commercial products.

On a case-by-case basis, contingent on successful demonstration of prototype level product, CANEUS will set up transition teams to guide the transfer of technology by either incorporating it into a significant aerospace mission or transitioning it to a commercial level manufacturable product. The transition could either involve the raising of additional public and private capital in order to "mature" the prototype level product or the actual transfer of the technology to an established aerospace firm or a participating agency.