Evaluation of TULI Programmes - Tekes

There are nine SATTs, with two additional under way
(2012), made up by a mix of universities and research organisations,
given the task to act as an interface between research
and industry. Their overall aim is to increase the efficiency of
value creation from French research by accelerating the transfer
to and application by industry; accelerating technology
transfer to companies in order to strengthen the innovation
potential as well as the competitiveness of French industry.
In practice this is done by the SATTs through provision
of a wide range of technology transfer and commercialisation
services, as well as organising vertical integration of technology
transfer activities. Thus, SATTs are involved in e.g. innovation
culture promotion, IP portfolio management, support of
collaborative research, project engineering from early stage
technology to commercialisation and transfer, defining IP and
technology transfer strategies, and more.
The Research Council of Norway’s FORNY2020
Programme 46
The FORNY2020 Programme (“Forskningsbasert Nyskapning”)
runs between 2011–2020 with a total budget of approximately
675 million Euro, with the overarching goal of facilitating
innovation commercialisation of R&D results generated by
publicly-funded research institutes.
This is captured in the Programme’s primary objective
as stated in the work programme: to “increase value creation
by ensuring that R&D results from publicly-funded research
institutions are brought to the market.” The programme has a
broad coverage, supporting commercialisation within all disciplines
and business areas where concepts and R&D results
come from research institutions backed by public funding; including
those instances where collaborative projects involve
actors from trade and industry as well. FORNY2020 provides
competition-based proof-of-concept funding intended for
verification of R&D results with the aim of facilitating the commercial
application of these results.
The notion is that projects in an early stage of development,
where potential utility and profitability is uncertain, and
risks may appear too high for both private and public actors to
get involved, suffer from low demand that needs to be compensated
through some measure. In this case, FORNY2020
acts as that mitigating measure. Furthermore, the intention is
to create growth in new or existing companies through funding
of projects expected to generate either substantial commercial
returns or major societal benefits.
In addition to the pure commercialisation support measures,
the FORNY2020 Programme supports the establishment
of technology transfer offices connected to the publicly-funded
research institutions. The basic funding for these TTOs is
awarded on a multi-year basis and may cover up to 50 per
cent of the operating costs of the TTO. The Programme also
allocates funds for promoting network-building and competence
building at TTOs, improving their integration and collaboration
with actors from trade, industry, research.
Swedish Governmental support for Innovation offices 47
The most recent version of the Swedish government’s “Bill
on research and innovation” (published in October 2012),
describing the Government’s intentions for the period 2013-
2016, specifically highlights the role of the current eight innovation
offices present at Swedish universities. Along with the
holding companies also connected to universities and colleges,
the offices are credited as important tools in increasing
cooperation as well as utilization of research-based knowledge.
The current innovation offices were created through
funds allocated specifically for this purpose in the previous
Bill, published in 2008.
Based on the good results and the vital role in strengthening
the academic institutions’ ability to act, the Government
intends to increase the funding over coming four years with
the explicit intention of establishing innovation offices at four
Swedish universities where there currently are none. “All universities
should be given the same opportunities to support
innovation through an innovation office, and therefore should
be given the funds for such offices”, as it is rationalized in the
Bill. The funds are supposed to be used for building basic
competence in e.g. business development and IPR, but also
for assisting individual students and researchers in utilizing
research-based knowledge.
46 “Work programme for the FORNY2020 programme (2011-2020)” http://www.forskningsradet.no/prognett-FORNY2020/Home_
page/1253963921779
47 “Forskning och innovation, Prop. 2012/13:30” http://www.regeringen.se/sb/d/15650/a/201368
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