Knowledge transfer from public research organisations

This study describes knowledge transfer from European universities and institutes to industry, focusing on the role of the Industrial Liaison / Technology / Knowledge Transfer Office function. It explores practices in European institutions and compares these with international ones, especially from the USA. The project is based upon a comprehensive literature review and a programme of detailed case studies of knowledge transfer strategies and practices. It addresses the wide range of knowledge transfer activities undertaken by public research organisations, in addition to IP exploitation and their different effects on innovation in the business sector. It presents a model of the transition of PROs' knowledge transfer strategies from pure technology transfer based only on IP to a broader role in knowledge transfer and ultimately to a two-way process of knowledge exchange between PROs and industry and wider society. The report presents a number of policy options to support this process

ERAWATCH Country Reports 2009: France. Analysis of policy mixes to foster R&D investment and to contribute to the ERA

The main objective of the ERAWATCH Policy Mix Country reports 2009 is to characterise and assess in a structured manner the evolution of the national policy mixes in the perspective of the Lisbon goals, with a particular focus on the national R&D investments targets and on the realisation and better governance of the European Research Area. The reports were produced for all EU Member State and five Associated States to support the mutual learning process and the monitoring of Member and Associated States' efforts by DG-RTD in the context of the Lisbon Strategy and the European Research Area. The country reports 2009 build and extend on the analysis provided by analytical country reports 2008 and on a synthesis of information from the ERAWATCH Research Inventory and other important available information sources.JRC.J.3-Knowledge for Growt

In search for a benchmark of impact, effectiveness and efficiency of innovation instruments

This report for the TAFTIE Task Force on Benchmarking Impact, Effectiveness and Efficiency (TFBIEE) looks at the accomplishments of innovation policy instruments in an international context. The Task Force was set up to gain a combined insight in innovation agencies’ impact, effectiveness and efficiency. In order to fulfil TAFTIE’s ambition to demonstrate the added value of innovation agencies to society, it is important to understand and demonstrate how the policies these agencies implement have an impact. The main purpose of this project is to learn from each other and improve the agencies’ impact. A comparison or benchmark between the agencies in the Task Force would contribute to joint policy learning. As agencies have quite different mandates, tasks, resources and policy portfolios, a comparison on agency level will be distorted by these significant differences. In addition, it is mostly at programme level that impacts are established through evaluation studies. This study was a first experiment to assess to what extent it is possible to compare effectiveness between specific types of innovation instruments across different countries. It was however not intended to be another handbook on evaluation, but a reference guide to use alongside the many existing guidelines and handbooks. The reference model seems to have worked well to make an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation studies in the benchmark, even though these assessments need to take account of many contextual factors