Technology Transfer Bottlenecks and Lessons Learned in Humanitarian Demining EU-funded Research: Analysis and Results from the EC DELVE Project

The EC DELVE Support Action (www.delve.vub.ac.be) has analyzed the bottlenecks in the transfer of Humanitarian Demining (HD) technology from technology development to the use in the field, basing itself on the assessment of the European HD Research and Technology Development (RTD) situation from early 1990 until 2006. The developments in HD during the last 10 years underline the fact that in a number of cases demining related developments have been terminated or at least put on hold. A number of lessons learned were drawn, bottlenecks identified and broadly classified as either Confidence, Cost, or Communication related. The study also showed that the funding provided by the European Commission (EC) has led directly to the creation of an extensive portfolio of HD technology development projects. However, the range of instruments available to the EC to finance the necessary R and D was limited to pre-competitive research. The EC had no tools or programs to fund actual product development. The corresponding consequences are detailed in the study. The separation of the Mine Action and RTD funding streams in the EC did also negatively affect the take-up of new technologies. As a main conclusion, creating coherence between: (1) the EC policy based on political decisions, (2) RTD, testing and industrialization of equipment, and (3) timely deployment, requires a new way of coordinated thinking: 'end-to-end planning' has to be supported by a well organized and coordinated organizational structure involving different DGs (Directorate General) and even extending beyond the EU. This was not the case for Mine Action. (author)