at our Annual Conference this year we were honoured and delighted to have Signe Ratso, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission Directorate-General "Research and Innovation", presenting her opening remarks. She highlighted the alignment of ASTP’s mission with the most recent EU policies on knowledge valorization, which aim at supporting the transfer of research results into sustainable solutions that will benefit society, the economy and the environment.
A raising awareness campaign on knowledge valorization is currently being carried out at the EU level, involving Member States but also all relevant stakeholders in the research and innovation ecosystem and we are all invited to actively take part in it in order to support the adoption of the new policy. Signe Ratso underlined what most of us experience in our daily practice: there is a need to make researchers and innovators more aware of the opportunities to create value out of the research they generate.
Researchers need support to decide which is the most adequate way to protect and valorize the intellectual assets they produce and to do it in the context of Open Science and Open Innovation. Most of us would agree that this is a challenge not only for researchers but also for professionals, as we are more and more requested to provide support beyond the “classical” technology transfer approach, based on IPR, licensing and spin-out creation, embracing also non-technological solutions and considering the value of all intellectual assets, including the unprotected ones, which can be shared in order to create new products and services on the market.
ASTP, through its Europe Committee, is actively working to advocate for the knowledge transfer profession at the EU level and to support its members in strengthening their roles as relevant intermediaries in the research and innovation ecosystem.
After the Summer break, we will come back with more updates on the latest initiatives and policy developments in the European landscape.
