Interview Guide

Interview Guideline

Here are some general guidelines regarding an interview. Typical duration = 30 – 45mn.

1/ Prepare !

• How was the expert detected ?
• If relevant, read (at least) abstract of the cited publication in the email sent to the expert
• Visit expert web site if available
• Prepare / refine the interview guide below depending on context

2/ Interview guide

2.1 Introduction

• Introduce yourself, your company (a few words, just to capture interest)
• Context of the call
  • How the expert was detected

• The Question in brief detail : summarize the key aspects (use the project Question)

2.2 Expert vs. Question

• Prompt Expert to introduce his team and work : starting year, team size, main activities in the domains related to the question – usually experts are keen to speak about their work ! -
• More specific questions about possible contributions (core aspect of the interview – make sure to get sufficient feeling about the relevance of the expert (group) :
• existence of off-the-shelf solution that would approach the Question requirements ?
• difficult points / aspects of the question ?
• clarification requirements about the question?
• TRL (explain) ?
• …

2.3 Collaboration aspects

• Feasibility to produce a contribution: available resources, possible collaboration schemes
• Ongoing and past collaborations
• Intellectual Property policy, if relevant

2.4 Next steps – depending on interview results

Prepare potential next steps:

• IF seems promising / interesting contact
• IF does not look promising / interesting

3/ Follow up actions

Make sure to follow up on the next steps !

For additional guidance, please contact us !