ASTP Annual Conference 2023

Creating spin outs and licenses is the ultimate discipline of knowledge transfer. This definitely includes social entrepreneurship and social innovation in which SSHA discplines may play a major role. But how to fill the pipeline with SSHA spin-outs? What to do in order to generate SSHA-based licensing income?

In our SIG SSHA-meeting we will learn – based on experiences (!) - about tools and approaches that do help universities‘ knowledge transfer officers and SSHA researchers to fill the transfer pipeline. Based on these learnings we will discuss interactively in an impact café-session how to use these learning in our working environment.

Speaker: Christophe Köller

The face of innovation is changing. Evidence shows that when significant portions of the population are not represented in the innovation and entrepreneurial space, economic and social progress suffers.

Although in most global locations there is a long way to go to achieving gender parity, more women are being seen as leaders of inventions, start-ups and enterprises. An example of one such location is our hosting country. With a population of 1.3 million people, Estonia has one of the most interesting start-up ecosystems in the world and in recent times it has created numerous top start-ups. Estonian start-ups are beginning to raise more funding than ever, with a 35% increase in money raised from VCs in 2022, compared to 2021; and have witnessed an increase of female-led companies from 8% in 2019 to 20% in 2022.

This session will delve beneath the data and explore the growing global trend of female leaders and innovators. We will hear from an esteemed panel of women innovators, entrepreneurs, and technology transfer professionals, we will lead the discussion of the challenges, sector needs, and celebrate the achievements that have been made in bringing inclusion to a diverse representation of our society.

Speakers : Megan Aanstoos, Helen Eenmaa, Nadežda Kongi, Riin Rebane and Heli Valtna.

Moderator: Anji Miller

ASTP Annual Conference DI SIG workshop this year proposes to focus on the concept of “lifecycle” for software knowledge creation and transfer in R&D, and the interaction between researchers and KTO for software based research:

• what is the timing,
• what are key milestones,
• what are researchers’ needs,
• what does software-specific exploitation need,
• are some specific skills needed, or special interactions?

Based on participants’ own experience in handling software related cases (including ML and AI, of course), we aim to bring together common themes in managing software based R&D&i to share and crystallise learnings and experiences.

Joint output could, for example, be in form of workflow chart, with important milestones and content, key activities, and identifying gaps in our processes, interactions, documentation and other materials useful for this specific area of work.

Speakers: Malcolm Bain, Sigma Lampe, Christoph Fik, Annemieke de Raad

Successful knowledge transfer requires engaged people, especially in SSHA. The involvement of academics is as necessary as the active participation of administration and external stakeholders. 

How do we achieve and manage this active involvement?

Based on some inspiring experiences, we will discuss appropriate approaches, tools and challenges following first-hand experiences of  Tina Basi, Cambridge Enterprise and Barbara Tan, University of Antwerp.

Speakers: Tina Basi | Barbara Tan

How does the KTO/TTO ensure transparency when evaluating inventions? How do we ensure that a group of individuals evaluate inventions in the same way, using the same criteria and give them the same value? Do we rely on gut feeling, a specific model or something different?

In this session we will hear about two different approaches. KTH in Stockholm will present the KTH innovation readiness level model and the TTO at the School of Medicine, University of Minho will talk about their way of working with inventions.

Speakers: Donnie Sc Lygonis | Marta Catarino

Addressing the environmental crisis forces researchers to question the knowledge they create and to collaborate outside the university with societal actors. Paul Jansen will elaborate on why and how to prioritise research projects using impacts, and how to invent new ways of cooperating in a world of finite resources, as was recently asserted by the ethical committee of French CNRS.

Luis Meija has a rich experience in Stanford dealing with climate-related programmes. In this session, he will explore how to use KT to facilitate public and private efforts toward accomplishing net zero emission economies.  He will also propose technology transfer strategies that target developmental economics and address obligations for ensuring climate justice.

Speakers: Pablo Jansen | Luis Mejia

The ELIIT project (European Light Industries Innovation and Technology) is funded by the COSME Programme of the European Union for the competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs).

ELIIT has selected 25 partnerships between technology providers and SMEs in the textile, clothing, leather and footwear sectors (TCLF) to integrate novel and disruptive technologies from tech provided to the SMEs. In addition, the project has developed a Guidebook on Technology Transfer in TCLF Industries. This report gathers information about relevant challenges, market opportunities, technical and administrative issues related to the technology transfer process in the mentioned sectors. Furthermore, a roadmap and the steps required to ensure the technology transfer process in the TCLF SMEs have been developed, as well as a definition of the methodology used to implement the ELIIT project.

In the KSE session, the main findings and highlights of the guidebook will be presented for the first time, as well as the roadmap of the technology transfer process in the TCLF industries from ELIIT’s perspective.

Speaker:  Cristina Molina Vercher, AITEX Research and Innovation Center

Learn more 

What is KS?

The Knowledge Share (KS) IP platform is the largest digital repository of intellectual property in Italy and listed by the European Commission as a good practice in knowledge valorization at the international level.

It is a project managed by Associazione Netval, in partnership with the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM), an office of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy, and the Politecnico di Torino. It well represents the Italian patented research results landscape, containing more than 2,700 technology briefs belonging to 90% of Italian public research organisations (universities, public research institutes and IRCCS). In the near future, users will also be able to browse more than 2,000 spin-off companies, looking for funding and partnership opportunities. With an average of 8,000 visitors per month continuously growing, the majority of whom are industry experts and tech scouters looking for collaborations, it enabled hundreds of contacts between the Tech Transfer offices and prospect partners.

What's next? Knowledge Share 2.0: enhancing the current ecosystem

The KS team is currently working on the Knowledge Share 2.0 platform supported from the Italian National Recovery Plan and the EU's Next Generation programme.

More than just a new look, the Knowledge Share 2.0 platform will be a fully equipped "environment" for the innovation ecosystem to find technologies and opportunities to synergize with.

The Knowledge Share Platform 2.0 revolves around three main areas of focus:

• AI-based enhanced features and tools to speed up the scouting activities, making connections and starting collaborations.
• New spin-off section, populated since the beginning with hundreds (and growing) opportunities.
• Internationalisation of the project, which will become one of the largest and collaborative technology transfer platforms for catalysing innovation journeys to date.

Speaker: Shiva Loccisano, Netval

Speaker: Andras Havasi | Bruno Woeran

Speaker : Delia Brasfalean

The power of EDI in tech transfer

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) policies and initiatives foster technological advancement and result in scientific excellence, talent retainment and high employment satisfaction. In this session I will present examples about how EDI initiatives can be implemented in the technology transfer ecosystem; and how these initiatives resulted in better outcomes when compared with heterogeneous counterparts.

In the second part of this talk, I will introduce the recently created SIG on EDI, and the activities planned for the following 12-months. This SIG aims to foster and inspire TTOs in Europe to promote and implement novel EDI activities. We want this SIG to be a focal point where the community can find EDI-related resources, to be a platform to foster engagement and to provide a networking platform for members interested in EDI.

Speaker: Nessim Kichik, University of Edinburgh

Speaker: Andrew Carlin

The Innovation Department at Universidad de los Andes (Chile) is made up of a group of highly trained professionals, where the great challenge is to strengthen UANDES technologies and add value to the research that is currently being promoted at the university. We currently have 3 areas. The Public Funding unit, created in 2010, provides professional support to academics and researchers by providing financing options through national and international competitive funds, thus creating value for UANDES. The Development and Commercialization unit (TTO), created in 2012, seeks to support researchers in the transfer of technologies and the research of new services and products, making them available to the public and private, national, and international sectors. The support is defined by marketing strategies for their creations and search for potential partners and/or interested entities, for which they are in permanent contact with the industry. This unit also provides guidance in areas related to intellectual property and licensing, the generation of spin-offs and joint ventures.

The Social Innovation (IS) unit, created in 2020, delivers concrete solutions to the social and environmental problems that society faces, especially those that require new perspectives and solutions. We seek to generate impact, innovative solutions, and do so by working collaboratively with the entire UANDES community (students, academics, researchers, administrators, and health and business centers).

Its purpose is to guide social innovation projects through the knowledge that the multidisciplinary team possesses so that they become a disruptive tool that responds to challenges and, in turn, become self-sustaining, replicable and scalable. Social Innovation seeks to develop scientific and technological projects that in the social field respond to one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) proposed by the United Nations.

Speaker: Anil Sadarangani, Universidad de los Andes (UANDES)

In October 2022, the Knowledge Transfer community In Ireland created a new association called IKTA – Irish Knowledge Transfer Association. The objectives of IKTA are to support and advance the practice of knowledge transfer, i.e., the sharing of knowledge, skills and technologies between public research organisations and commercial enterprises, for collective benefit and public good in Ireland. IKTA supports its members in the development of technology and knowledge transfer, innovation, entrepreneurship, consultancy, continuing professional development and related activities to support development of the knowledge economy in Ireland.

A key function is the professional development of its members through networking, sharing best practice knowledge and expertise to enhance collaboration and increase the operational effectiveness of KT professionals in Ireland.

Speaker: Emma O’Neill, Technology Transfer Case Manager for Life Sciences |Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

As technology transfer professionals, it is exciting to see how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is rapidly changing the landscape of our field. AI has the potential to completely transform the way we identify, evaluate, and commercialise technology, bringing new and innovative ideas to market. From chatbots that assist with routine tasks to sophisticated algorithms that analyse vast amounts of data, the impact of AI is already being felt across the industry.

In this session, we will delve deeper into the past, present, and future of AI-driven technology transfer. We will explore how AI is currently being used to streamline work processes, identify new business opportunities, and support the decision-making process. Furthermore, we will discuss the exciting prospects of what the future may hold, as AI technology continues to advance and evolve.

Join me as we examine the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in this rapidly changing landscape. This session will be a great opportunity to reflect on how AI is shaping the future of technology transfer, and in case you are wondering, yes, this very short description was also composed by an AI.

Speaker: Néstor Rodriguez, Co-Founder and Managing Director at Atineo AG, Germany

www.atrineo.com

According to a Boston Consulting Group analysis, the trend of investing in deep-tech companies is accelerating and globally becoming a leading asset class. In 2021-2022, 19% (or $254 billion) of the total venture capital investment was made in deep- tech companies. 

While European universities have traditionally been at the forefront of scientific research, the lag in commercialising research compared to the US and Asia has hindered economic growth potential. However, several factors are contributing to a shift in the development of research-intensive entrepreneurship in Europe, including supportive government policies, increased experience, competence in the investor community, and the simplification of internal policies of leading European universities.

UniTartu Ventures, an Estonian pioneer in this field, has developed a model that encourages collaboration between ecosystem participants, aligning the goals of researchers, co-founders, universities, and investors. By setting clear collaboration principles, interim goals, and key performance indicators, UniTartu Ventures aims to provide a transparent framework for achieving common objectives, harmonising principles across universities, and promoting open collaboration among ecosystem participants. The local ecosystem is developing rapidly, and stakeholders are willing to collaborate openly, create transparency, and harmonise principles across universities.

Speaker: Mart Maasik, Head of Entrepreneurship - University of Tartu, Estonia

CARMA FUND is an early-stage investment fund for advancing Life Science and Healthcare technologies. The fund started off with a First Closing in June 2022 and has €50M under management.

It is based in Munich and Frankfurt and welcomes applications for funding from all European sources. It is uniquely suited not only for financing young companies, but also for projects embedded in a research environment.

Due to an extra-long term, flexible investment modes and close relationships with leading technology transfer offices and industry partners, CARMA FUND meets the challenges to develop new products and services for the patients’ well-being and medical advancements.

Biotech/healthcare is a specialist business and as such innovators have often struggled to rope in reliant streams of outside capital necessary for quick and efficient development towards a market entry. We believe in supporting these projects to bring out their full potential.

Speaker: Martin Raditsch, Managing Director, CARMA FUND Management, GmbH, Germany

FIT-4-NMP is an EU funded support service to increase the participation of talented newcomers from underrepresented regions in the Horizon Europe programme in the fields of nanotechnologies, advanced materials and new manufacturing processes (NMP). The service has been taking strategic and targeted approaches to facilitate collaboration across borders and between industry and research organizations. The presentation will provide an overview of the support offered and the results achieved so far.

Speaker: Giles Brandon, FIT-4-NMP Coordinator 

Foresight Science & Technology is 43 years old, making it one of,  if not the oldest companies in the knowledge transfer and commercialization field. Our staff of over 60 professionals has helped our customers obtain billions in revenues. We are preparing to open an EU Office to better serve customers in Europe and the Middle East. 

In this session we will provide an overview of our current services and highlight two new initiatives we are rolling out. The first is New Product Development Training for Spin-Out and Start-Up Entrepreneurs. This course addresses a gap in training available for researchers and other entrepreneurs interested in founding spin-outs and start-ups and is based on a similar program developed and offered under contract from the World Intellectual Property Organization. The second is our “spin-up” initiative in which we in-license technologies we assess as having significant commercialization potential but are too immature for licensing and which do not have faculty at the institution interested in forming a spin-out. Our spin-up unit in-licenses the technology, builds a nascent company around it, matures it, and moves it market. We will highlight areas of interest and present our criteria for evaluating technologies. Finally, we will briefly outline forthcoming employment and consulting opportunities with Foresight for European knowledge transfer professionals.

We believe that scientific collaborations should solve real-world problems and bring a positive impact to society. We facilitate and accelerate the bench-to-bedside journeys by connecting the right partners from industry and academia at the right time. Our intelligent matchmaking platform (Connect), and bespoke scouting tool (Discover) provide an opportunity for a global network of decision-makers to collaborate around novel innovations and expertise to establish meaningful partnerships.

Connect is an online matchmaking platform subscribed to by 250+ universities and research institutes to connect with industry teams in 6,000+ companies to commercialise academic innovations and expertise that are available and seeking collaboration. Discover is a bespoke scouting platform used by innovation-driven companies to profile the global landscape of academia across an active network of 2,600 institutes, either through ‘Industry Calls for Opportunities’ or ‘Request for Proposal’ campaigns that find and confirm potential solutions to specific R&D challenges or requirements.

Since launching Connect in 2014 we’ve initiated over 13,000 new conversations between teams in academia and industry, with 75% of these being international. More recently, through Discover, we’ve made available over £30-million in industry funding for new academic research. IN-PART has offices in Sheffield and London, with a team of 50 employees, and was recently acquired by Inova who provide an end-to-end partnering management solution.

Speaker: Martha Clay, Senior and Business Development Manager at IN-PART, UK

Universities are a driving force for global discoveries and innovation.

Every year they attract millions of researchers, practitioners and students who use their perspectives and passions within their chosen subject to create new knowledge.But by collaborating with community and industry, this new knowledge can evolve into transformative initiatives, services and products to benefit our global society and economy.

So what’s preventing all of these incredible innovations from escaping from campus walls?

Siloed work practices, scattered data and a lack of direction.

To tackle these challenges, our UK-based team built a knowledge impact tool to centralise and support the lifecycle of collaborative projects to raise their chances of positively impacting our global society.

We invite you to join our Knowledge Stock Exchange session (and our exhibition booth) to find out how our tool does this and why we want to help academic and research institutions to:

● Demystify entrepreneurship and industry collaboration

● Support purpose-driven people and projects

● Create compelling case studies for future funding bids

● Capture social and economic outputs

● Widen awareness of social impact within Knowledge Exchange

With your support, we can continue to unite the people with a passion to make social and economic change by democratising knowledge.

We look forward to seeing you there and sharing the KEVRI vision!

Speakers: Emily Devonald and Natalie Campion, founders of KEVRI

Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) are increasingly seeing the benefits of managing their workflows through the use of innovation software such as Sophia. However, many struggle with resources and capacity to keep the data in these systems up to date and to access the broad set of expertise required to review new inventions and support their commercialisation. Wellspring, in combination with IP Pragmatics, is in a position to provide TTOs with end to end support, combining systems and services. This support encompasses data management services, IP reviews (IDF reviews, patent searches & landscaping) through to market research and licensing/spin-out support (deal valuations, technology marketing, term sheet negotiations).

Speaker: Andrew Tigney

TBC

LevelSet Capital LLC provides capital and resources to universities, research institutions, and their licensees to maximize the value of their patented technologies through debt, equity and licensing strategies.

LevelSet is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortress Investment Group, a multi-billion-dollar global investment manager. Over the last decade, Fortress has invested approximately $3 billion in IP-related investments, of which a significant portion involves technologies developed by academia.

Through these investments, Fortress has developed strong relationships with technology transfer offices to identify opportunities to deploy capital and resources in a strategic manner to unlock the value of university-created intellectual property.

Speaker: Steve Pedersen

Data management has become a very hot issue in the world of research and therefore also in the world of knowledge and technology transfer. New guidelines and compliance put an extra burden on individual researchers and the research support system, we need a professional university infrastructure and efficient research collaboration management.

Our two speakers are seasoned data management experts and will talk about various issues and why we should care in the KT/TT profession. They will talk about implementation of university-wide policies and good compliance within the research institution. If you want a walk-through of the most pertinent issues that we need to be aware of in our work, you need to attend this session.

Speaker: Susanne den Boer Beckers | Pedro V. Hernández Serrano

One would think that our work will be less complicated, the longer you have been in this profession. Not so!

Export control, dual use, violation of human rights, cyber security and research collaborations with certain countries are issues that our legal colleagues, in particular, have to deal with regularly: not to mention our researchers of course.

The activities of research institutions are usually open and global and dealing with the hottest technologies. But at times things become a bit too hot to handle.

In this session, two experts will talk about compliance in a complicated world

Speaker: Katleen Janssen | Ulla Kær Olesen

Innovation often occurs when lateral-thinking academics work together with project-focused scientists and engineers from industry.

Both sides of the industry-academic union offer different skills which need to be harnessed to deliver high-quality science and innovation. This is typically through a collaboration agreement.

Knowledge Exchange Offices can do more to simplify and accelerate the engagement and contracting of collaboration agreements between industry and academia to foster more rapid innovation.

This session will give tips from the industry and academia perspectives on how to quickly reach that agreement (or agree to walk away) in order to expedite collaboration and contracting.

Speakers: Malcolm Skingle | Tom Flanagan

Sponsored by LifeArc

Our traditional morning run will be a sweetly paced 5km round the Hilton Park in front of the Hilton hotel. 

Breathe, stretch and sent your intention for the day ahead with this led yoga class.

Join this modern version of the ancient Chinese martial art led by an experienced instructor in the Hilton Park.

Machine learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are all the rage, both in R&D and on our desktops (GPT Chat, Dall-E, etc.). More and more innovation is being made around and “by” AI, in all areas (medical devices, information security, pharmacology and drug discovery, energy management; SHAPE…) and the questions about AI-based knowledge transfer abound.

This panel will look at some of the key issues surrounding AI/ML based KT projects, including IP protection and ownership, data management, business models, privacy and regulatory compliance. We will illustrate the issues with some cases from the panellist's experience and no doubt engage heavily in debate.

Speakers: Marta Duque Lizarralde | Sigmar Lampe | Annemieke de Raad

In this session we will talk about translational funding and how the Novo Nordisk Foundation in Denmark works with the Danish universities.

We get the perspectives and the insight into opportunities and challenges presented both by the Foundation and the TTO at the University of Aarhus.

These relationships are not always straightforward and sometimes beginnings can be difficult. But once mutual trust and understanding have been established, we can obtain great things together benefiting both the university, the TTO and the Foundation.

Speakers: Charlotte Kammer Garde | Anette Poulsen Miltoft

Does your TTO have a strategy? Do you have your own or do you have a few lines in a larger university strategy? Why would you want a TTO strategy? Did you decide it or did others decide it for you or request that you produce one? How do you go about making a strategy? When did you last look at your TTO with critical eyes? Where can you improve? Which activities would you want to focus on, who do you get inputs from, how do you align expectations from your management as well as from your internal and external customers?

Lots of questions and we probably will not be able to cover all in this session but with your help we will try to get a feel for what a strategic plan could look like and what it could contain.

Please note that this is a workshop and we expect active audience participation. It’ll be fun.

Speaker: Sean Fielding | Marta Catarino

Healthcare datasets and human biological materials are of increasing importance and can change the clinical innovation landscape. However, data access and valorisation cannot discount patients' rights; dealing with clinical data/ biological samples often represents a challenge for the collaboration between universities, research hospitals and industrial partners.

Speakers: Laura Spinardi | Koen Verhoef

From exploring the impact of acceleration on start-ups to discussing how to build a strong spin-out team, this session covers it all. You will learn how accelerators, by bringing together start-ups, investors, and industry experts, can help foster collaboration and accelerate the pace of innovation. You will get to know the ins and outs of acceleration programmes and why it is crucial to consider them when working with spin-outs.

Representatives of organisations behind acceleration programmes for deep tech and academic start-ups will discuss how accelerators fit into the larger innovation ecosystem and why they are valuable for universities.

Speakers:  Magda Krakowiak | Alexandru Mihailiciuc | Ilona Gulchak

To better tackle social and environmental challenges, research projects and knowledge valorisation processes are expected to plan, manage, and report impact. It requires new skills and tools. This session will share experiences, models, and tools. It will also explore how to best answer these emerging needs among TTO teams.

The session will discuss the complexities surrounding the concept of research impact and reflect on the enablers and barriers to achieving an effect on, change or benefit to society beyond academia. We will illustrate with Ghent University which has appointed impact brokers to support interdisciplinary consortia, and with the large experience of Oxford University Innovation social venture spinouts as they have an impact purpose wrapped into the constitution of the company

Speakers: Alexis Dewaele | Philippa Christoforou | Fabrice Lefebvre