"The CAP2M-SCHED proposal is a direct consequence of the RTD achievements of its pre-cursor project, CAP-SCHED (Research for SMEs, No.222487), in which groundbreaking, industry-guided RTD has been carried out to develop an intelligent scheduling (short-term planning) solution. Improved schedule optimisation has significant economic impacts for companies who must regularly & rapidly solve process scheduling problems.Although software packages are available on the market to assist with scheduling, their usefulness is limited, because they depend on the human operator to simulate scheduling scenarios ‘by trial & error’ so as to find an adequate solution.The innovative approach of CAP-SCHED allows the process (human) operator to interactively set various parameter values based on his/her intimate knowledge of the process, and to be assisted at the same time by automated, algorithmic constraint-solving capabilities which use domain-specific knowledge (heuristics) to optimise the remaining parameters within given operating constraints.A major objective of the project is thus to promote confidence that the CAP-SCHED solution can be perceived by prospective commercial partners & industrial customers to confer highest added-value and return on procurement investment.CAP2M-SCHED therefore aims to allow the partners to move with confidence towards market readiness and subsequent commercial exploitation of the CAP-SCHED results, via actions to :* test & consolidate prototype CAP-SCHED process scheduling solutions;* verify the performance of prototypes on a number of typical industrial exemplar processes;* evaluate & fine-tune the capabilities of CAP-SCHED to cope with diverse process conditions encountered in practice;* refine market analysis, business modelling & associated marketing strategy.The work of CAP2M-SCHED therefore reflects the ambition & commitment of core SME partners to ensure that results can be moved to a position of market-readiness."