Strategy

Is it possible to implement a project as complex as the creation of a radical interventions to stop ageing without a strategy? No, because we one step away from failure — the funding for gerontology research is small, the society is wary of extending life, scientists are working on their individual narrowly specialised projects. One careless movement and we fail. We need to know what we are doing — as they say, "Measure thrice and cut once!" A good example of a strategy is a document titled "Towards the European strategy for particle physics", created in 2006 by a group of 32 scientists in a CERN study group. Its 199 pages cover in great detail the development prospects of elementary particle physics and other related sections of physics, future education of students, joint research organisation, funding, the issue of interacting with the EU, etc. So what is strategy? Strategy — is not just picking one approach from several options that come to your mind. Strategy is a document describing the overall action plan and the approaches you take to implementation of various aspects of the project.

Strategy (From Ancient Greek στρατηγία, "generalship") is an overall plan of action covering a long period of time intended to accomplish a specific complex goal. The aim of the strategy is effective use of available resources to achieve the main goal.

Within the "Science vs. aging" project we want to develop not only a scientific program and an industry report on the fight against aging, but a strategy to combat aging as well. The document describing the project strategy will have several sections. For example, it will cover:

  • how project participants will work together to create a road map for research on aging,
  • what methodology will be used to guide this work,
  • how to promote the road map (with the help of the media, PR, lobbying, etc.),
  • where and how we can get the investment and funding for the various sub-projects,
  • which organizations can be our potential allies,
  • and much more.

Any big project that doesn't have an implementation strategy is doomed. A good strategy (also called feasibility study or business plan) usually costs from 0.75% to 1.5% of the total project cost, but large organizations spend that, because only well planned and designed projects end up successfully implemented. In order to create a successful strategy, we need to combine the expertise of many specialists from different areas. The coalition will help us do that and as a result of its work the right strategy for the project will be created.

Section: 
Project Materials