The purpose of the Consultancy Services scheme is to provide assistance, in the form of access to a specialist consultant and funding, in the new implementation of CAPE-OPEN interfaces or the improvement of existing interface implementations. CO-LaN’s intent in providing this service is to encourage the full implementation of efficient and error free interfaces, and consequently to increase the uptake and seamless usage of the CAPE-OPEN interfaces.
Benefits of the Consultancy Services scheme to the recipient
According to the scheme launched in 2013, CO-LaN funds up to 80 hours of Consultancy Services. The Consultancy Services are currently provided by Jasper van Baten of AmsterCHEM (the Provider), one of the world’s leading experts in CAPE-OPEN. Jasper implemented many CAPE-OPEN interfaces and has an impressive record of delivering development services.
Terms & Conditions of the Consultancy Services scheme
Funding and selection process
- The Consultancy Services scheme is open to any Associate Member of CO-LaN.
- Applications for the Consultancy Services scheme are reviewed annually.
- Acceptance of an application is at the sole discretion of the CO-LaN Management Board.
- No single Associate Member is permitted to receive more than a total of 80 consultancy hours in the five year period from the start date of the Consultancy Services scheme, unless agreed by the unanimous decision of the Management Board.
Confidentiality
- No intellectual property right is conferred on CO-LaN through the use of the Consultancy Services by a CO-LaN Associate Member.
- If the results of the work carried out by the Provider is deemed to be confidential, the recipient of the Consultancy Services needs to put in place a separate confidentiality agreement between them and the Provider.
- CO-LaN does not expect to be party to any such confidentiality agreement, but would need to approve the terms of the confidentiality agreement between the recipient and the Provider, before the CO-LaN funding is released. In particular, such an agreement must not prevent the Provider from working for any other CO-LaN Associate Member in the future.
Liability
- CO-LaN will accept no liability for any issues with CAPE-OPEN interfaces developed under Consultancy Services.
How to apply?
CO-LaN regularly issues calls for Consultancy Services requests. These calls are announced on the CO-LaN website and advertised in the CAPE-OPEN Newletter. To apply for the service CO-LaN members can download the application form from the CO-LaN document repository.
Latest call: February to March 2019. Management Board requested some modifications to the application form (see discussion/decision on December 13, 2018). Two requests related to COBIA-based developments have been approved on April 2, 2019. A request for the development of a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation was approved on July 11, 2019 and a request for help in resolving issues in a PME was approved in June 2019.
Funding awarded (over 56 K€ since 2013)
The Consultancy Services scheme has been conducted many times over the last six years.
The first action, awarded in 2013, was reported at the CAPE-OPEN 2014 Annual Meeting: the Unit Operation socket in UniSim Design (Honeywell) was re-engineered. The following was delivered for a total cost to CO-LaN of 10,000€: ATL-free CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation socket for Honeywell’s Unisim® Design R410+, featuring support for persistence, parameters, thermodynamic interfaces in both version 1.0 and version 1.1, connecting streams by mouse and more.
The second action on the wrapping of a ChemSep Property Package has been completed in April 2015 and has been reported at the CAPE-OPEN 2015 Annual Meeting. Another action was advising Vortech on developing a CAPE-OPEN thermodynamic socket in Modelica. Another one was to develop a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation socket in VMGSim.Total budget for these actions was 20,120€.
Another action conducted in 2016 (approved in 2015) was to advise AspenTech on their implementation of version 1.1 of the Thermodynamic and Physical Properties interface specification in Aspen Plus by conducting interoperability tests.
Intelligen, Inc. has been helped in 2018 with the implementation of a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation socket in SuperPro Designer®. CO-LaN spent a total of 10,000€ for this action.
In 2019 CO-LaN has decided to award Consultancy Services to four recipients: HTRI for the development of a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation using COBIA as middleware, KBC for the development of a CAPE-OPEN Property Package Manager, also using COBIA as middleware, Optimized Gas Treating, Inc. for the development of a CAPE-OPEN Unit Operation and AspenTech for help in the resolution of a number of defects related to the implementation of CAPE-OPEN interfaces in Aspen Plus. These four actions are currently underway for a total expected budget of 13,200€.
Questions
Do not hesitate to contact CO-LaN Chief Technology Officer if you have questions about the Consultancy Services scheme and its application.