CHANGING THE GAME FOR TECH TRANSFER OFFICES

This is the title of an article published in the January/February 2012 edition of the World Intellectual Property Review written by Daniel Nadis, the CEO and founder of Occams Resources, a Collaboration 2.0 software company providing practical solutions to the academic research enterprise. He advocates a Collaboration 2.0 paradigm for university technology transfer offices which would allow them to take a horizontal approach to their work (across TTOs, geographical markets and technologies) and not simply vertical within the university, thereby allowing them to change from overworked and under-appreciated academics to self-directed, successful participants in the burgeoning marketplace of knowledge transfer.

The full article can be found at http://www.occamsresources.com/downloads/occams-wipr-jan-2012.pdf

EUROPEAN CREATIVE DISTRICTS

This call for proposals published by DG Enterprise and Industry of the European Commission will support two large-scale demonstrators called “European Creative Districts” that aim to assist traditional industrial regions in their transition from a traditional economy with strong “heritage” value and cultural identity to a sustainable and innovative economy. The initiatives should address the specific needs of innovative companies in the creative industries to strengthen their capacity to innovate and grow as well as stimulate the demand for their services by companies or organisations from other sectors with a view to boosting the role of creative industries as a catalyst for regional development.

The call for proposals will be implemented through a 2-stage procedure: in a first stage, applicants are requested to submit a “concept note” of maximum 5 pages and then, in a second stage upon selection, a full proposal aimed at launching a “European Creative District” to be co-funded by the European Commission. Following the evaluation of the “concept notes” , a maximum of 5 applicants will be invited to prepare full and detailed proposals. A maximum of two proposals will be awarded a grant.

The deadline for submission of concept notes is 4 May 2012. An information session will be organised in Brussels on 12 April 2012. Further information can be found at  http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/newsroom/cf/itemdetail.cfm?item_id=5782&lang=en

INSPIRING NEW REPORT: OPEN INNOVATION IN SMEs

A team of researchers led by Dr. Wim Vanhaverbeke of the Vlerick Leuven Gent Management School (B) found that open innovation can create new opportunities for all types of SMEs – from start-ups in high-tech markets to players in traditional markets – beacause they can change business model without having the required technologies in-house. Those which know how to manage a network of innovation partners can seize new opportunities to become highly profitable, but the networks are only sustainable when the value created jointly is significantly larger than that realised by the partners on their own.

The full study can be downloaded at http://www.exnovate.org/gallery/documents/open-innovation-in-smes.pdf

EXPERT WORKSHOP ON KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER

On behalf of the European Commission’s General Directorate Research and Innovation, the Knowledge Transfer Study 2010-2012 is conducting a workshop about intellectual property management in knowledge transfer from universities and other public research organisations in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia. The workshop will take place on 25 April in Prague.

Universities need to manage their expectations regarding the generation of income through knowledge transfer, while at the same time maximising its impact. This workshop is intended then to discuss challenges of knowledge transfer, good practices, and ways towards more systematic approaches. The workshop targets knowledge transfer experts from universities, public research organisations, knowledge transfer intermediaries, governmental organisations, enterprises and business associations.

More information can be found at http://knowledge-transfer-study.eu/workshops/east-central-europe-cz-sk-hu-si

INNOVATION PERFORMANCE IN EU STEADY, BUT SWITZERLAND STILL LEADS THE WAY

The European Commision, in collaboration with MERIT (NL), published the second edition of the Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) at the beginning of February. The IUS replaces the previous European Innovation Scoreboard (EIS), which was published from 2001 to 2009. It helps monitor the implementation of the Europe 2020 Innovation Union flagship by providing a comparative assessment of the innovation performance of the EU27 Member States and the relative strengths and weaknesses of their research and innovation systems.

The IUS includes innovation indicators and trend analyses for the EU27 Member States, as well as for Croatia, Iceland, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey. It also includes comparisons based on a more reduced set of indicators between the EU27 and 10 global competitors. Switzerland is the overall innovation leader, outperforming all Member States. Its growth performance of 1.3% in the last five years is also above that of the EU27.

The IUS 2011 distinguishes between 3 main types of indicators and 8 innovation dimensions, capturing in total 25 different indicators. The member states  are placed in 4 performance groups.

• The performance of Denmark, Finland, Germany and Sweden is well above that of the EU27 average. These countries are the ‘Innovation leaders’.
• Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK all show a performance close to that of the EU27 average. These countries are the ‘Innovation followers’.
• The performance of Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain is below that of the EU27 average. These countries are ‘Moderate innovators’.
• The performance of Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania and Romania is well below that of the EU27 average. These countries are ‘Modest innovators’

The full report can be downloaded at http://www.proinno-europe.eu/inno-metrics/page/innovation-union-scoreboard-2011

META GROUP WINS ESIC2 TENDER

In May 2011, TII member META Group based in Terni Italy submitted an offer for services in response to a tender issued by the European Commission to assist with the exploitation of research results under the thematic priority of Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies (NMP).  Early this year, their efforts – and patience – were rewarded when the company signed a framework contract worth EUR 4 million with the European Commission, thus signalling the go-ahead for work under ESIC2 (Exploitation Strategy and Innovation Consultants).

TII helped to mobilise a team of experts to be part of the winning bid. Following a call for experts among the TII membership last spring, 19 members were selected to form part of the expert team which will be called upon to provide services to current NMP projects, such as

• project risk analysis
• exploitation strategy seminars
• assistance at project meetings
• business plan development
• assistance with standardization
• assistance with patenting
• ad-hoc assistance and presentations
• drawing conclusions and making recommendations

Notification of the award of the contract can be found at  http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:57085-2012:TEXT:IT:HTML&tabId=1

TAKE IT UP AT THE TII 2012 CONFERENCE

As part of the TII  2012 conference, the TAKE IT UP project (promotion pillar of the Europe INNOVA initiative promoting novel innovation tools and services) will be debating a Copenhagen Declaration which proposes general guidelines for public support to help SMEs find their first clients . It encourages the EC to develop a collaboration framework and knowledge exchange system that facilitates access to information on this issue for policy makers and promotes the adoption of common practices at national level. Three exemplary schemes will be promoted as effective in facilitating a company’s search for its first clients:

• innovative public procurement
• technology showcase scheme
• soft landing scheme

The text which serves as a basis for discussion can be found at http://www.tii.org/index2.php?sssm=tii_en-22

Rendez-vous in Copenhagen to pursue the debate!