The consortium highlights the project’s open and inclusive approach, welcoming external stakeholders to contribute to its efforts.

PILLAR-Robots emphasizes a well-structured approach to engaging a diverse range of stakeholders, from industry experts to academia. This involvement strategy ensures that feedback from all parties is integrated into the project development, especially in the three use cases: post-harvesting agri-food, edutainment, and SME industry and retail. 

Involvement of stakeholders is essential for gathering technical feedback, demonstrating the technology’s feasibility, and evaluating its scalability across various settings.

Key Aspects in the stakeholder involvement:

1. Collaborative innovation – By involving these stakeholders in different project phases, PILLAR-Robots fosters innovation that directly responds to real-world challenges. This approach ensures that the technology developed meets both technical and practical needs.
2. Strategic communication – Open communication channels are central to the involvement strategy. Regular updates, workshops, and feedback sessions enable stakeholders to stay involved and contribute to shaping the project.
3. Focus on ethical and societal Impact – This demonstrates the project’s responsibility in considering public perception, legal frameworks, and ethical standards.

PILLAR-Robots’ structured approach aims to keep stakeholders informed and encourages their engagement in the project, offering them an early opportunity to explore this technology. Stakeholders are invited to participate in key areas, including use case demonstrations (WP7-9), impact assessment (WP10), and dissemination & exploitation activities (WP11).

Stakeholders from all types of backgrounds are welcomed, with particular relevance for what can be described as intermediary users. These include organizations that serve as bridges between technology and the broader market, rather than acting as direct end-users. The focus is on intermediaries such as technology integrators, sector consultants, and research institutions, which provide specialized expertise, and the infrastructure needed to assess and validate new technologies. Industry associations and technology clusters also add value through their extensive networks, supporting the spread and adoption of technology across various sectors.

PILLAR-Robots is committed to obtaining high-quality stakeholder feedback through both structured channels and spontaneous input methods:

• Conducting interviews, focus groups, and surveys to capture a broad range of perspectives.
• Observing directly during project activities to gain a deeper understanding of stakeholder needs.

Stakeholders are categorized into three phases that reflect progressively deeper involvement:

Levels of involvement	Activities	Expected number of stakeholders	Requirements
Initial	WP11	150	Consent to share basic information.
Intermediary	WP7-9, WP10, WP11	50	Individual letters of intent identifying areas of interest.
Advanced	WP7-9, WP10, WP11	10	Business and collaborative agreementsAssociate partners

This framework offers stakeholders a valuable opportunity to contribute to the direction of PILLAR-Robots and engage in early collaboration on the project’s innovative solutions.