Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 1 - TETRAGON (TEchnology TRAnsfer for GrOwth with twinNing)
Teaser
TETRAGON project aimed at enhancing SME innovation capacity by providing them better innovation support in Technology Transfer (TT). In order to get that general objective, several specific objectives were defined: 1. Compilation of measures and design of new ones to improve...
Summary
TETRAGON project aimed at enhancing SME innovation capacity by providing them better innovation support in Technology Transfer (TT). In order to get that general objective, several specific objectives were defined:
1. Compilation of measures and design of new ones to improve innovation capacity of SMEs in TT.
2. Selection of delivery mechanisms suitable to SMEs needs and study of the ideal time to be launched.
3. Make available to national and regional innovation agencies the results of the project, as well as the methodology used, for them to adopt it and to engage with other peer learning actions.
In order to better achieve the objectives at hand, TETRAGON partners, as key actors in Technology Transfer in their respective regions, focused on the following models of Technology Transfer:
- To foster an entrepreneurial environment at universities and research centres in order to increase the creation of spinoffs and to improve the exploitation of technology by existing companies.
- To foster demand driven collaborative projects, between public researchers and private SMEs.
- To look for innovative ways of licensing the technology, including open source, open innovation and user innovation.
Work performed
A Design Options Paper was elaborated to present a selection of best practices considered leading in the field of Technology Transfer, and novel for most of the European regions. The process began with the analysis of the current situation of the support to SMEs in technology transfer within different organizations, external agencies and private sector, including three steps:
•An internal diagnostic of the actual conditions of the agencies and the regions where the partners are established, analysing topics such as the creation of spin-offs, businesses based on TT innovation, number of patents, TT Offices, Technology Brokers, calls launched and other relevant factors, concluding in a SWOT analysis.
•Analysis of the external conditions, such as measures adopted by agencies and organizations outside the consortium, study of companies specialized in TT and the services they provide as well as interviews to prominent Technology Brokers.
•The identification of common objectives, with the participating partners working together in the identification of ideas and key singularities.
As part of the analysis on external conditions, a study of Best Practices was carried out to identify major trends and interesting initiatives which could be used as basis for the development of new measures. After that, prominent technology brokers from several countries gave their feedback and opinion on the TT trends and the Good Practices adopted by TETRAGON partners.
After the analysis of all the aforementioned information, a second phase began, with the compilation, design and implementation of better practices, but first a specialized TT consultancy firm identified 7 model practices for the partners to work on as basis. And finally, based on the new innovation support to SMEs in TT measures compiled and analysed up to that moment, project partners proposed several good practices for the adoption in their own regions.
The Design Options Paper elaborated culminated all the research carried out by TETRAGON during its implementation, with the goal of helping place TT in the core of innovation, improving the TT measures, help the SMEs to grow, and, consequently, foster growth of the European economy.
Final results
Through the electronic dissemination of the DOP, the project results have been spread to a wide community of innovation agencies and SMEs, specially through ERRIN website and weekly newsletter, submitted to over 1.000 email addresses of European relevant innovation stakeholders, involving SMEs, clusters, RTOS, the scientific community, policy makers, public servants and other practitioners. Project partners have also disseminated it directly to their own contacts and through organisations they´re members of or are related to. Info activities were also organised in every region to present the new measures to SMEs, and to obtain their feedback.