Techno-economics

Techno-economic research applies a multi-disciplinary approach to provide evidence-based responses to the socio-economic impact of technological innovations and policy challenges. It involves a portfolio of qualitative and quantitative methodologies that take into account the uncertainty caused by the involvement of multiple stakeholders, the dynamicity of uptake and pricing, as well as boundary conditions, such as specific policy or regulation and geographic and demographic characteristics.

Subdomains include cost modelling (infrastructure, equipment and operational cost) for network or service deployments, cost allocation (relating cost categories to specific services), investment analysis (supporting technology choices, network migration decisions, etc.), business modeling for a wide range of actors (equipment vendors, operators, service providers, public bodies) and value network analysis (focusing on  the interrelations between the actors). Further refinement is added by considering the impact of uncertainty and competition using sensitivity analysis, game theory and real options.

Important techno-economic research questions pop-up in different application domains: What are best practices for successful FTTH deployments? What are appropriate technology choices in a smart city context? How to optimally rollout e-health services for all actors? What is a sustainable sensor solution in a manufacturing setting? etc.

Staff

Sofie Verbrugge, Didier Colle

Researchers

Marlies Van der Wee, Bram Naudts, Frederic Vannieuwenborg, Jonathan Spruytte

  • RECODIS, Resilient Communication Services Protecting End-user Applications from Disaster-based Failures.
  • ICON MoniCow, Monitoring and localisation of animals: focus on Cows.
  • FP7 UNIFY, Unifying Cloud and Carrier Networks
  • ICON HIPS, Innovation through optimized an integrated patient and supply flows in hospitals
  • ICON MECaNO, Media Contribution Network Optimization
  • ICON TERRAIN, Techno-economic research for future access infrastructure networks

Out standardized methodology techno-economic evaluation can be used for a wide range of planning problems.
Out standardized methodology techno-economic evaluation can be used for a wide range of planning problems.

 

 

Technological innovation leads to business opportunities and challenges, techno-economic analysis allows to make the trade-off.
Technological innovation leads to business opportunities and challenges, techno-economic analysis allows to make the trade-off.