“Financing Knowledge Transfer in Europe” (FinKT)

The overall goal of the project is to analyze the legal and institutional context and the financial instruments that facilitate the transfer of knowledge and technology from universities and public research centers to industry in Europe. The project will focus on the analysis of different forms of partnerships between universities/research centers and financial institutions, and on the assessment of innovative financial instruments dedicated to the commercialization of research, such as university seed funds or IP funds. A specific attention will be devoted to the functioning of the markets for technologies, in order to understand in more depth how the recourse to different sources of funding can advance the ability to commercially exploit university-based inventions, through patent licenses, patent sales and academic spin-offs. The project ultimately aims to improve national and regional policy making within the European Union, by advancing state of the art understanding of the importance of financial institutions to innovation development by exploiting IPRs owned by research organizations and universities. This goal is in line with the Europe 2020 Strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, which has singled out innovation as one of the key drivers for competitiveness and has emphasized the importance of novel financial instruments to support research and innovation. More precisely, the project will involve three different research lines, the definition of a set of policy guidelines to foster technology transfer financing, and a series of training and diffusion activities. The proposal is articulated in six wirk-packages. Research activities are focused on three main work-packages investigating technology transfer by universities and the related financial instruments at different levels of analysis, and one work-package aimed at deriving policy recommendations: • Work-package 1: The institutional context for technology transfer and IP finance in Europe: a multi-country comparison • Work-package 2: The determinants of IP exploitation of universities and PROs: licensing, patent sale and start-ups • Work-package 3: The design and impact of financial instruments for technology transfer • Work-package 4: Policy guidelines Diffusion and training will be articulated in two main activities aiming at increasing awareness and skills on technology transfer activities: • Work-package 5: Training activities: Summer School on Economics and Management of IPRs • Work package 6: Diffusion activities