The Workshop on Technology Transfer (TT) and Industrial Liaison (IL) in Research Infrastructures (RIs) organized by CERIC through the ACCELERATE project gathered experts based in 12 different European countries specialized in the different key aspects of the TT and IL value chain. The objective was to design a successful collaboration between Research infrastructures and the Industry through the consolidation of the RIs network.
The presentations of the invited experts covered a wide range of topics, including the Technology Transfer practices at the National Research Council in Italy (CNR) and procedures for partnering with industry at Fusion for Energy, the pillars of the space brokers network at the European Space Agency (ESA) and financing opportunity for technology transfer projects at the European Investment Fund (EIF). Furthermore, to have a tangible viewpoint example from industry, of special interest was a talk by a representative of Philipps who introduced the participants to the industrial perspective of collaboration with Research infrastructures.
Core parts of the workshop were two working sessions with the aim to shape the expectations and goals on IL and TT between CERIC and its PFs. Moreover, discussions were also focused on strategic and operational challenges of commercialisation of Research Infrastructures’ solutions to the industry.
The participation of the invited experts in the working sessions brought additional value for the discussions with their wide knowledge and different perspectives on the fields.
As an outcome, major aspects for successful collaborations were highlighted and included: the internal environment of an organisation, the internal or external limitations of IL/TT operations as well as necessary external support.
The diversity of the participating organisations helped seeing the different aspects and challenges and stimulated the discussions about possible solutions for each environment.
Through the workshop and thanks to the active contribution of all the participants, it was possible to define common actions to be carried out in the short- and medium-term between CERIC and its PFs, being a very fruitful starting point to develop a realistic, efficient and collaborative long term action plan.
