ASTP Annual Conference 2024

Standardisation of key emerging technologies (including AI, Data, Cyber Security, Quantum etc), and related products and services, is a critical enabler for the digital and green transformations of the European economy and society in the coming years. 

In February 2022, the EU launched a new European Standardization Strategy with a focus on the systematic use of standardisation as a powerful, but currently relatively underutilised, innovation and scaling platform for European industry.

This workshop will discuss the many benefits of standardisation as a knowledge and technology transfer channel, and how the strategic integration of Standardisation and RDI activities can deliver greater success in the commercialisation of research results at scale. Witness real life examples of how some European researchers and innovators successfully scaled their start-ups and spin-outs across international markets by innovating on top of the new standards they helped create, and successfully attracted venture capital funding based on the strategic integration of their standardisation and R&I activities. Hear about how a European RTO developed a highly successful licensing business by integrating their research results and patents into key new standardised technologies.

Finally, the workshop with facilitate an open discussion on how ASTP and its KTO members, experts/practitioners, can help Europe deliver many more examples like the ones discussed, via the implementation of some practical measures as recommended in the EU knowledge valorisation policy and related Code of Practice on Standardisation for researchers and innovators, and by raising awareness across the European KTO community of the many benefits of standardisation as a powerful knowledge valorisation channel.

Speakers: Paul Killeen |  Alessandra Baccigotti

When the SIG SSHA started in 2015 SSHA transfer and commercialisation was in its natal stage. Since then things developed: from SSHA to SHAPE, from transfer to impact, from isolated actions at single universities to coordinated network approaches. Today, IT and AI are increasing the momentum.

Time to change things in the SSHA SIG. We will discuss recent IT-based developments to support SHAPE impact as we create a vision for new ways of transferring SSHA knowledge.

In addition, we will hand everything over to the next generation of engaged people. The Times They Are Changing!

Speakers: Julian Jantke, Christoph Köller, Leah Speser, Frida Koslowski

This year’s DI SIG workshop will drill down on the concept of software and data driven innovation “lifecycle”, with collaborative activities aiming to identify and develop the skills, knowledge, documentation, processes and other materials that are considered necessary and/or useful for managing digital innovations along the timeline from software development project proposal to spin-out or licensing and eventually further research collaboration.

Join DI SIG members for in-depth information and knowledge generated to make our lives easier.

Facilitators: Malcolm Bain, Sigmar Lampe, Christoph Fik

The translation of promising research involves a collection of innovations players (enablers) to reach impact.

This panel discussion delves into the indispensable role of enablers in fostering and advancing academic innovation through technology transfer, from a global and cross sector, perspective.

Drawing on expertise from a range of university knowledge transfer offices, companies (intellectual property database management, commercialisation/marketing), faculty inventors, innovators, and technology park professionals, the conversation will explore the intricate ecosystem necessary for nurturing academic innovation. Through insightful exchanges, panellists will share strategies, challenges, and best practices aimed at facilitating seamless knowledge transfer, promoting collaboration between academia and industry, and ultimately driving socio-economic impact on a global scale.

Join this engaging exploration of the dynamic landscape of academic innovation and the pivotal contributions of enablers in shaping its trajectory.

Moderator: Yatin Karpe

Panelists: Anji Miller, Chase Bonhag, Rajiv Vaid Basaiawmoit, Almesha Campbell, Iman Noshadi, Nick Tallamy, Gábor Frank 

AI and data-driven innovation is the currently all the rage and a challenge for knowledge transfer. 

• What does an AI or data business model look like? 
• How do companies make money and what do they need from research organisations? 

Following up on previous meetings, where we looked at legal and other challenges, this panel shall look at business models that are currently been considered for AI and data-based technology start-ups and established companies. 

ASTP members and industry experts are invited to present their experience and ideas on AI and data-driven business models.

Moderator: Malcolm Bain

Speakers: Christoph Fik, Alok Pendse

Plant breeding dates back thousands of years and is fundamental to food supply. In fact, with both climate change and our search for plant-based foods, plant breeding and related topics attract increasing attention. 

This session will provide insights on the current state of the plant breeding industry, and the challenges of transferring public research innovations in this sector. You will get an introduction to the unique characteristics of the industry and its Plant Breeders’ Rights system, and together we will dive into the importance of patents on plant related inventions. 

The session offers first-hand experience from a university TTO that has successfully commercialised several new fruit varieties and you will learn the nuts and bolts of licensing models used at different steps of the value chain: from nurseries to fruit growers, as well as broadacre arable farming. You will also be introduced to how Plant Breeders’ Rights can be combined with trademarks when commercialising new plant varieties.

Speakers: Jan Chojecki | Andrea Ravaioli

This interactive workshop will explore how spin-out investment and licensing terms are set and reveal the diverse strategies employed by various institutions, providing a valuable opportunity to return to basics.

By exploring questions around equity, royalties, and other key levers shaping a successful investment deal, the workshop will offer a dynamic platform for universities to share insights and foster a collaborative environment for advancing the sector.

The workshop will be led by the Chair of USIT for Software, a set of recommendations on spinouts deal terms created by the sector for the sector.

Speaker: Simon Hepworth

Leveraging AI to generate industry collaborations for research funding and licensing. 

During this presentation you will learn how to use AI to identify the market applications, companies and contacts that are most aligned to partner with your research.

Speaker: Chase Bonhag

Website: firstignite.com

Foresight Science & Technology sells services and training to Technology and Knowledge Transfer offices and startups. A leader and innovator in the field of TT/KT for 45 years, Foresight helps clients fund, develop, and commercialise technology around the world and across every industry sector, raising billions of dollars (US) and delivering unparalleled value. With a new branch office in Rome, Italy, we are better positioned to serve Europe and provide access to more than 60 Senior Consultants with experience and expertise in market research, licensing, startup creation, business development, new product development, and other critical skills for KT and startup success.

Our dedication to craftmanship in the art and science of technology transfer, combined with three generations of family ownership, gives Foresight a real purpose. We bring wisdom and excellence to everything we do, resulting in successful relationships and valuable partnerships for our clients throughout global KT and innovation ecosystems.

Speakers: Arendt Speser, Leah Speser

At RocketSmart.io, we have pioneered an innovative service that empowers universities and research institutions to proactively defend and monetise their IP. Our approach, centered on competitive infringement analysis and IP forensics, is tailored to uncover and tackle unauthorised IP usage across various industries. By providing a detailed analysis of potential IP infringements, we offer insights crucial for devising effective monetisation strategies.

Our three-step process features:

• Thorough IP evaluation to identify potential exploiters
• Comprehensive report on infringement extent
• Customized action plan focusing on licensing, legal action, or other monetization tactics.

This service not only enhances the value of IP assets but also establishes a framework for fostering industry respect and creating new revenue streams through legitimate licensing agreements. At the ASTP conference, we will discuss how our specialised service transforms IP challenges into lucrative monetisation opportunities.

Speaker: D'vorah Graeser

As a pioneering intellectual property service, European IP Helpdesk empowers technology transfer professionals, research teams and European SMEs engaged in cross-border ventures or EU-funded research in effectively managing, disseminating, and valorising their IP. Moreover, it offers a comprehensive suite of resources, including dedicated Helpline for direct support, engaging on-site and online training and informative materials such as case studies and fact sheets with the most relevant IP topics. Its focus is on enhancing IP capacity at every level – from fostering awareness to strategic utilisation and successful exploitation.

The European IP Helpdesk equips TT professionals with tools to mitigate risks by empowering teams to assess, protect, and leverage IP assets effectively. Beyond efficiency, it facilitates the expansion of professionals´ global network and fosters international partnerships. With its platform of invaluable tools and resources it enables individuals to stay ahead of the evolving IP landscape.

Speaker: Ivana Vuka

Equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) are not only important to increase individuals' wellbeing and sense of belonging in the workplace, but they are also key factors in fostering innovation. As knowledge transfer offices, we are at a key inflection point in shaping the pipeline of innovation coming out of Europe's academic institutions.

ASTP’s EDI SIG is proud to present an EU-adapted version of the AUTM toolkit for EDI in knowledge transfer that will give guidance on how to incorporate EDI into your organisation's culture.

Speaker: Danielle Counotte

The Knowledge Share (KS) Innovation Platform is the largest digital matchmaking platform in Italy for research intellectual property and spinoffs. The project, currently financed thanks to the Next Generation EU funds, is managed by Associazione Netval, in partnership with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM), part of the Ministry of Enterprises and Made in Italy, and Politecnico di Torino.

KS mission is to make easier the match of innovation demand and offer between the world of business and academia. Our vision is to make the global knowledge generated in any academic environment available for companies and investors as a “one-stop-shop", easily, freely and reliably.

KS 2.0, with a new platform architecture officially launched in January 2024, now provides enhanced functionalities and “quality of life” improvements, including a complete AI based research engine.

As a further step in the future of the project, we are seeking international expansion as the ecosystem is now ready to foster collaboration among institutions, enterprises, and investors globally, thanks to its multi-tenant functionalities which enable the creation of “local ecosystems based” branches (e.g. foreign countries) as part of a “natively global” federated system of knowledge sharing.

Speaker: Shiva Loccisano

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies and initiatives foster technological advancement and result in scientific excellence. Implementation of EDI actions in our innovation ecosystems, ensures talent retainment and increases employment satisfaction. The aim of this presentation is to encourage European TTOs and Knowledge Transfer professionals to implement EDI practices in their ecosystems as part of their best practice schemes and recommendations. In this session we will present examples on how EDI actions can be implemented in technology and knowledge transfer. This presentation will be complementary to Danielle Counotte's talk on Creating an Innovation ecosystem that works for everyone: the ASTP Equity, Diversity and Inclusion toolkit. 

Speaker: Anji Miller

Join this session to learn more about the recently launched BioMedical Special Interest Group (SIG), previously known as the Clinical Research SIG. With the objective to increase and accelerate the translation of research results into solutions in human healthcare, the BioMedical SIG is open to all KT professionals involved in supporting researchers working in human life sciences. The SIG aims to identify main roadblocks and paths to tackle them by producing guidelines and recommendations, sharing best practices and connecting stakeholders to foster new collaborations.

Speaker: Anji Miller

The Knowledge Transfer (KT) profession encompasses a range of experts who play a key role in maximising the potential of research to achieve societal impact, such as through the commercialisation of inventions. Despite being relatively unknown, today’s KT office oversees a wide range of functions that include innovation identification, development, and management. As a result, the modern KT professional requires a range of technical and transferable skills. During this session, early-career KT professionals will discuss their perceptions of the profession, the skills of a modern KT professional, and the benefits of continuous learning and professional certifications such as RTTP and CLP. They will also highlight the impact of support networks and the LifeArc-AUTM Technology Transfer Fellowship on their professional development.

Speakers: Isabel N Christie, Inês Sobral Escoval, Ciara McDonnell, Claudia Aguguo

Europe is currently trailing other regions in effectively translating research and innovation activities into concrete economic benefits. The University of Galway in Ireland has developed a three-tiered impact and entrepreneurial training series (Impact Series) to stimulate the translation of research projects to outcomes with real-world economic and societal impacts.

Funded by Horizon Europe, the University of Galway is working in partnership with the University of Turin and Riga Technical University to roll out the Impact Series in a moderate innovator (Italy) and emerging innovator (Latvia), through the INNOV-8-2-CREATE project. ASTP are providing dissemination and communication leadership for the project.

Training is delivered in three distinct modules based on the “Researcher Innovation Readiness Level” of the participants (RIRL), which is a measure of the individual researcher understanding of the innovation process. Training is divided into the Impact Series (beginner), Impact Accelerator (moderate) and Impact Start (advanced).

INNOV-8-2-CREATE project is widening the participation of multiple actors in the innovation process across Europe. The success of the programme can be attributed to the active participation of diverse innovation stakeholders from across the quadruple helix.

Speakers: Grace O'Toole | Líva Stúrmane

In the state of North Rhine Westphalia, 29 universities and PROvendis GmbH have united to form the NRW “Hochschul-IP alliance” with the goal of promoting the professional transfer of knowledge and technology to industry and society.

PROvendis provides the one-stop-shop connecting companies with know-how and technologies from NRW’s universities. On the basis of professional competence, and detailed knowledge of the innovation landscape, direct, face to face contact between companies and scientists from North Rhine-Westphalia’s universities can be established and tailor-made solutions are provided for the economic environment.

Due to funding from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy in North Rhine-Westphalia the service is free of charge for interested companies. Universities participate on a flat-rate membership fee and benefit from all services, including IP-commercialisation, without additional costs.

This approach reduces bureaucracy while simultaneously providing broad access to inventions and encouraging the emergence and development of start-ups.

Speaker: Heinrich Dornbusch

In this session, Paul Killeen, from DG Connect shall outline the role of TTOs in supporting use of standards as tools for knowledge valorisation

EIT Food have launched a competitive, open Impact Funding Framework to promote ambitious, long-term collaboration that will lead to agri-food systems change to benefit us all:

• Healthier Lives Through Food

• A Net Zero Food System

• Reduced Risk for a Fair and Resilient Food System

We want our co-investment to have a real impact. We're looking for proposals from consortia based around lead organisations who can work effectively, move quickly, and are supported by high-quality research, commercialisation, communications and impact assessment expertise.

We want to collaborate with TTOs/ KT teams to build commercialisation capacity, fund high potential startups, create follow-on funding opportunities for high-potential R&D and create networks and clusters of expertise and facilities to support all this.

We will explain more about our ambitious impact-driven funding and community building approach and discuss how the ASTP membership can work with us to make our food system better for us all.

Speaker: Andrew Carlin

As EU Framework Programmes place greater emphasis on the economic and societal impact deriving from the valorisation of research results, we notice a gap in competence and a bottleneck in the easy flow of information.

To relieve a potential build-up of pressure in the knowledge chain from Researcher to Research Support Offices (RSOs) , to Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), partners Codau, in collaboration with Netval, Alma Mater Studiorum – University of Bologna, Politechnics of Milan, Polytechnics of Turin, IUSS-Scuola Universitaria Superiore Pavia, have designed an innovative training course to fill the skills gap of the staff supporting EU projects and to create synergies between RSOs and TTOs.

The ultimate intention is to promote valorisation of knowledge generated within EU projects and to increase their impact and create a new profile: Impact Manager.

Express licensing has many faces and in this session our two speakers will present two different concepts.

E-lucid is an online platform used by leading universities and research centres across the US and UK that makes non-exclusive licensing “as easy as shopping online”.

The University of Copenhagen's Express License for Quantum Founders was launched in the late 2023. By reducing negotiation time and costs, this initiative aims to encourage researchers to take the plunge into spin-out creation.

Do these initiatives make life easier for TTOs; for academic entrepreneurs and for external partners or are they mere marketing stunts?

• What are the pros and cons of (and for whom) these initiatives?
• Can we already talk about “do’s and don’ts”?
• Are deals done more quickly?

Moderator: Jurgen Joossens

Speakers: Ed Maughfling | Niels Lysholm Engelhard

Join this roundtable discussion on different KTO organisational models. The tabletop shall host participants, with experience of different office models, debating the pros and cons of each style. 

Speakers: Iker Bilbao | Pablo Hervás | Ángeles López Lozano | Lurdes Jordi
Moderator : Juan Martinez

The impact and commercialisation potential of Social Sciences, Humanities, and the Arts is enormous but it needs to be discovered and managed.

The SHAPE Potential Audit (SPA) is a structured methodology that enables university staff to identify SSHA impact opportunities and to adjust support and resources to a promising SSHA commercialisation project portfolio. With SPA, the transfer pipeline is filled and a pathway to sustain and scale SSHA projects is paved.

This interactive session will introduce the techniques and underlying framework (DLAS) to support professional service teams (transfer, impact and commercialisation) with a better understanding how to fill their SSHA pipelines.

Moderator: Christoph Köller

Speakers: Jessica Meijer | Chris Fellingham | Julian Jantke

Protection and commercialisation of patenting inventions have followed a well-trodden path with which we are familiar: we have policies and processes in place for patentable inventions.

Increasingly, researchers disclose great ideas or have significant expertise and skills to share. It may be an app, a game, a database, a concept, an educational tool, service or technical expertise. What can we do to support this to deliver more impact from the wealth of research, skills, knowledge and expertise within the research organisations? In this session we will hear from two KTOs who have significant experience in supporting these activities including consultancy, research tools licensing, trademarks and database licensing.

Moderator: Malcolm Bain

Speaker: Ciaran O’Herlihy, Anders Aune

Many technologies are underutilised in solving global challenges. Impact licensing is a strategic instrument used to bring technologies to market in a scalable and (economically) sustainable way.

While efforts have emerged to establish impact-oriented licensing guidelines for KTOs, and to promote green technologies along with various initiatives that either pledge or relinquish IP rights for societal benefits, a noticeable surge in licensing practices that effectively optimise the economic and societal potential of IP rights remains elusive. 

This session is based on the premise that technology needs protection via intellectual property or other contractual mechanisms to achieve societal development.

The speakers in this session will provide insights into social-impact licensing strategies and best practices to use IP for improved societal value creation.

Moderator: Ivana Vuka

Speakers: Andrew Goldman | Johan Moyersoen 

We know that having strong institutional support for knowledge and technology transfer (KTT) and recognition of its importance in the overall strategy of the university has a significant effect on how effective we can be as KTT professionals. But how well is this working and what are the levers for success? 

This workshop will explore the ways in which recognition of academics’ KTT activities is being embedded in university culture and how this has happened. And we’ll ask the question what do we need to do next? Come and be part of the conversation.

Facilitator: Alison Campbell

In this session, two long-timers reflect and share their experiences of running an exciting and rewarding businesses. You will learn more about the do’s and don’ts, ups and downs, fun and nightmares encountered when running a KTO.

The panellists will unpack the cases and technologies that changed their KTOs and share their approach to tackling daily operational challenges, such as; finding good people, dealing with management expectations and changes, and working with “interesting” researchers.

Moderator: Christophe Haunold

Speakers: Silke Meyns |  Jörn Erselius

The mission of knowledge and technology transfer professionals is to be the bridge between scientific research and the economy. Yet, many of us struggle to communicate science to non-scientific audiences in a way that generates interest and that leads to value creation.

In this talk, we explore how technology and knowledge transfer offices can help their researchers to identify and better understand the needs of different stakeholders. We will also talk about how business partners from across all industries can better understand scientists, and how science can help them grow. We will cover how to engage the right audiences when we need funding or customer feedback.

The key is storytelling, which has been a transversal tool to help scientists, businesses, funders, and regulators, understand each other and engage in an impactful journey.

Throughout this talk Philip Grother and Jacek Plucinski will share their multi-year experience in using storytelling as an effective tool in translating scientific values into economic values. The examples will focus on knowledge transfer professionals, researchers, and other stakeholders, with actionable insights for all attendees.

Moderator: Anders Aune

Speakers: Philip Grother | Jacek Plucinski

How can KTOs ensure the career development of their staff? How can we best attract and retain talent?

In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to share the highs and lows of the profession: 

• What are common challenges?
• What are the best practices for career development and reward structures?
•  What are the incentives to stay in the profession; what motivates you to leave? 

Moderator: Anja Zimmermann

Speaker: Steven Tan