How can technology transfer drive innovation and address societal challenges?

The 15^th Meeting of the European Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) Circle took place in Madrid, in late September. The goal? To discuss how technology transfer can drive innovation and address societal challenges, with particular emphasis on stakeholders’ collaboration to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), while ensuring the EU’s competitiveness. The need to increase private investment in innovation and support start-ups, especially in the digital sector, was also addressed during the event – to achieve balance in reducing regional disparities and promoting excellence hubs.

INESC TEC remains the only Portuguese institution to belong to this network of excellence promoted by the European Commission, which brings together the 35 largest European R&D institutions, including the Joint Research Centre (JRC). Since its establishment, TTO Circle has helped drive technology transfer and innovation in Europe, serving as a hub for the exchange of good practices and collaboration among its members.

The 15^th TTO Circle Meeting brought together 80 technology transfer experts, policymakers, and CEOs of deep-tech start-ups from 35 European research and development (R&D) organisations. Daniel Vasconcelos, head of INESC TEC’s Technology Licensing Office, represented the institution at this event – at the roundtable of the panel on “Management of Relations between R&D institutions and Spin-offs/Start-ups”.

“The main themes ended up focusing on the report published in September by Mario Draghi, particularly from the perspective of diagnosing issues and the delay in productivity and innovation between Europe and the U.S.A. – and, more recently, China. In short, Europe is caught in the ‘middle technology trap’ – a new dimension of the well-known European paradox (the inability to transform science into economic growth). While Europe continued to invest in last-century technologies (e.g., combustion engines), the U.S. and China invested in other domains in which they currently lead: automobiles, batteries, electronics, AI, quantum computing, and other technological fields. Biotechnology and green technologies are areas where Europe remains competitive and can provide advantages to leverage soon. Therefore, the discussion also focused significantly on these aspects”, explained Daniel Vasconcelos

Another issue that generated some discussion had to do with the fragmentation of the European collaboration network, where Portugal continues to hold a peripheral position. Some of the TTO Circle members have suggested more mobility actions, so that Europe can focus on the countries with the greatest competitiveness potential worldwide. However, the issue is, of course, controversial – and there are those who advocate an even greater involvement of the number of European regions contributing to this competitiveness.

“Europe needs to mobilise assets, better and faster; it must boost technology transfer, especially concerning deep-tech. In this sense, start-ups/spin-offs seem to be the best solutions to mitigate this loss of European competitiveness. During the roundtable in which I participated, alongside representatives from TNO, Tecnalia, Max Planck Innovation, and Enea, we discussed incentives and programmes (EIC, CONVERGE, etc.), as well as experiences related to the promotion and connection with deep-tech spin-offs,” he stated.

The event also focused on intellectual property management, comparison of practices between TTOs, and copyright in the era of Generative AI.

The Meeting also featured a benchmark work between technology transfer offices; INESC TEC’s Technology Licensing Office, represented by Ana Rita Lopes, was quite active in this work.

INESC TEC and TTO Circle

Since 2019, INESC TEC remains the only Portuguese institution to belong to this European initiative. The 15^th Meeting of the TTO Circle and the invitation made to INESC TEC to act as one of the speakers of this event, consolidates the institution as an important member of the initiative, increasing the capacity to influence European agendas – following INESC TEC’s strategic objectives concerning public policies.

After the event, several TTO Circle members expressed their interest in collaborating with INESC TEC in an area that is also experiencing significant growth at the institution: open-source software.