Open Mind

From lab to market: Strengthening the role of Technology Transfer Offices in bringing knowledge to the market is sponsored by European Commission — Horizon Europe. Expected Outcome: Project results are expected to contribute to the following outcomes: Increased commercialisation of academic research results, by facilitating access for industry, startups and scaleups to the intellectual assets of academic research; Strengthened collaboration between industry and academia, reflected in an increased number of technology transfer deals and joint R&D projects resulting in market-ready innovations; Introduced more startup friendly intellectual asset transfer/licensing policies in universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs; Increased number of spinoffs by enabling researchers to overcome the barriers to commercialising their intellectual assets; Reduced transaction costs related to Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) negotiations by establishing more standardised asset transfer policies across universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs; Optimised transfer/licensing processes by universities/research and higher education institutions/RTOs based on grouping intellectual assets in portfolios that can be commercialised in package deals that are more attractive for industry and investors. Scope: Academic knowledge producing organisations (universities, research and higher education institutions and RTOs) are acting as innovation engines by fuelling startups and industries with new knowledge, technologies and skilled individuals. This potential can be nurtured with efficient intellectual management strategies and effective Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). However, Europe’s potential of research valorisation is underutilised. Currently, it is challenging for industrial actors to identify and access academic results that have potential for commercialisation. On the one hand, a relatively complex fragmented landscape of TTOs generates high transaction costs discouraging companies, especially startups from engaging in collaboration or accessing academic research for commercialisation. On the other hand, the lack of financial and non-financial incentives for academic researchers hampers their commitment. Indeed, in many cases, researchers cannot fully appropriate royalties from the licensing of intellectual assets and knowledge valorisation activities are not recognised for their career progression. In this regard, the Draghi report [1] recommends European universities/RTOs to adopt a more coordinated, commercialisation minded, and startup friendly intellectual asset management approach [2] . Participating beneficiaries should engage in the following activities: adopting startup-friendly intellectual asset management strategies; accelerating the commercialisation of academic research results under fair and transparent conditions in an attractive way for innovative companies and investors, in particular for critical technology areas related to the EU’s economic security; reinforcing the adoption of best practices in intellectual asset management [3] including the equitable sharing of value generated in R&I activities; improving the support to researchers and students in commercialising research results; enhancing intellectual asset management practices by establishing portfolio approaches to market intellectual assets in package deals; facilitating the collaboration between researchers, startups and innovative companies. More specifically, project participants should: Identify and share best-practices developed to support knowledge valorisation [4] ; On this basis, create a common set of tools for start-up friendly licensing/transfer [5] to be adapted to the specific national/regional context with templates, strategies, successful case studies and business models. The toolbox could include standardised rules and processes together with flexible and adaptable clauses to support negotiation, conclusion and implementation of licensing agreements; Develop a common incentives and benefit-sharing model ensuring incentives for researchers and students to engage in com Programme areas: Horizon Europe (HORIZON), Innovative Europe, European innovation ecosystems Keywords: IPR management, Market-creating innovation, Technology transfer