Training Course

Building a Successful Knowledge Transfer Office

This is a unique course for people who have responsibility for creating or restructuring knowledge transfer teams and offices and establishing effective policies, processes, and strategies to translate publicly funded research into impact in society.

Book Your Place

28 Jan - 30 Jan 2026 Lisbon, Portugal

Members

€1,290.00

Non-members

€1,940.00

Whether you're setting up a new KTO or enhancing an existing one, Building a Successful Knowledge Transfer Office offers essential guidance for institutions seeking to establish or develop effective units in the dynamic field of knowledge transfer. Through practical case studies and interactive sessions, participants will learn about the structures, approaches and policies needed to bridge the gap between academic research and commercialisation opportunities.

This course is for individuals who are developing new KTOs or reshaping existing ones, as well as for experienced KT practitioners who wish to gain a deeper understanding of how to bring together all the elements needed to grow a successful KTO. The course provides an excellent foundation for those aspiring to leadership roles — including Director positions — within a KTO, as such responsibilities will inevitably involve designing the operations required to conduct a KTO’s business.

This course is practical and relevant, so we would like participants to have some operational management experience and current responsibilities within their unit. It is sufficient that they recognise there is room for improvement and that better systems exist. This way, the scenarios we discuss are more likely to resonate, provide a stronger basis for learning, and enable richer exchanges with fellow participants.

**For more information on the programme click on More Info.**

Why Join The course?

This three-day course provides a framework for establishing or running a successful Knowledge Transfer (KT) operation within a university or research organisation. Although each organisation approaches its KT activities differently, many of the core challenges faced by Knowledge Exchange (KE) leaders are similar.

The course has been designed by KT Directors with decades of experience in structuring offices and managing the challenges of delivering long-term outcomes and impact — often with short-term resources and staffing — while working with institutional stakeholders who may have limited KE experience but high expectations.

The course explores how to develop an effective KT strategy, build trust with researchers, attract and retain the right KE staff, and implement robust policies, systems, and processes. The interactive sessions include case studies and practical examples of KTO operations, with ample time to share experiences and discuss common issues. Delegates will also be able to explore new trends and emerging challenges in KT and consider how to approach these.

Course Objectives

The course objectives are to:

Understand the context of KT within the organisation
Explore organisational frameworks for KTOs
Development of strategic goals, KPIs and financial drivers
Professionalise KT processes, policies, contracts and agreements
Encourage and incentivise academic engagement
Development of strong teams
Effectively engaging stakeholders and partners

Key Topics

The key course topics are:

What is a successful KTO? - The environment for KE and the role of the KTO within the organisation
Organisational models for a KTO
Who is the KTO’s customer?
Creating and supporting a motivated team
Professionalising your KT processes, policies and agreements
Setting KPIs, Understanding your Value and reporting upwards
The KTO Strategy - how do you intend to spend your time?
Getting buy-in – Marketing your KTO to researchers
Future trends/ emerging problems
What have I learnt that I can apply in my role?

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Testimonials

Technology transfer is ever changing and a key piece for the competitiveness of your institution, this course is an excellent tool to prepare yourself for that challenge.

Ricardo Castro

Centre for research in agricultural Genomics, Spain

Three days of learning and networking in Dublin at ASTP annual conference. What a great event!!

Sandra Aresta

CIBIO - Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Portugal

I am happy to be able to share my own experiences with other colleagues via various courses, and I enjoy every moment I can spend in this network. Proud to be part of the ASTP community!

Paul van Dun

KU Leuven, Belgium

The course exceeded my expectations. We exchanged experiences and learned different options of approaches to existing problems.

Patricia Lima

Instituto Superior Technico, Portugal

I strongly recommend the course, even if you are not going to set-up an office but you are part of the team that wants to change or improve how technology transfer is done at your institution.