Do public research organisations own most patents invented by their staff?

[EN] Technology ownership and knowledge transfer aim at the dissemination of public research results, usually in one direction – from the university or public research organisation (PRO) that produced the results. However, the complementarities between these types of instruments are not clear compared to the bidirectional channels of knowledge exchange. We analyse one PRO in Spain, a country that is peculiar in terms of infrequent changes to the legislation on science and patents and a predominance of PRO-owned over PRO-invented patents, similar to the situation in the USA but different from that in most EU member states. Against this background, knowledge transfer (measured through PROinvented patents) increases faster than technology ownership (measured through PRO-owned patents). This situation may be damaging to knowledge exchange (measured through PRO co-owned patents).Azagra-Caro, JM. (2011). Do public research organisations own most patents invented by their staff?. Science and Public Policy. 38(3):237-250. doi:10.3152/016502611X12849792159272S23725038

Differences between examiner and applicant citations in the European Patent Office: a first approach

Trabajo presentado a la 19th International Conference on Science and Technology Indicators: "Context counts: Pathways to Master Big and Little Data" celebrada en Leiden (Holanda) del 3 al 5 de septiembre de 2014.In the US Patent Office, examiners add extra shares of citations to foreign applicants. We explore a similar country club effect in the European Patent Office (EPO). Using EPO data of over 3,500,000 citations in years 1997-2007, we find national variation in the probability of an applicant originating a citation rather than the examiner. Symmetrically to the US case, EPO examiners add extra citations to non-signatory member states. Moreover, if examiners are likely to come from the same country of the applicants, applicant-citation shares increase, pointing to the existence of national bias in EPO patent examiners. These results hold after controlling for sub-national characteristics of the patenting process.Peer Reviewe

'Getting out of the closet': Scientific authorship of literary fiction and knowledge transfer

Some scientists write literary fiction books in their spare time. If these books contain scientific knowledge, literary fiction becomes a mechanism of knowledge transfer. In this case, we could conceptualize literary fiction as non-formal knowledge transfer. We model knowledge transfer via literary fiction as a function of the type of scientist (academic or non-academic) and his/her scientific field. Academic scientists are those employed in academia and public research organizations whereas non-academic scientists are those with a scientific background employed in other sectors. We also distinguish between direct knowledge transfer (the book includes the scientist's research topics), indirect knowledge transfer (scientific authors talk about their research with cultural agents) and reverse knowledge transfer (cultural agents give scientists ideas for future research). Through mixed-methods research and a sample from Spain, we find that scientific authorship accounts for a considerable percentage of all literary fiction authorship. Academic scientists do not transfer knowledge directly so often as non-academic scientists, but the former engage into indirect and reverse transfer knowledge more often than the latter. Scientists from History stand out in direct knowledge transfer. We draw propositions about the role of the academic logic and scientific field on knowledge transfer via literary fiction. We advance some tentative conclusions regarding the consideration of scientific authorship of literary fiction as a valuable knowledge transfer mechanism.Comment: Paper published in Journal of Technology Transfe

Academic artists' engagement and commercialisation

[EN] Academic artists are researchers who create artistic work. They form part of the cultural life of cities and contribute to welfare not only through research but also through art. They may commercialise their art or use it to engage in scientifc knowledge difusion. We seek to understand the relationship between art, academic commercialisation and engagement, and detect barriers to academic art. The resources needed to develop and difuse art in addition to conducting research may be incompatible with a career focused on science quality or an organisational logic based on teaching and pure basic research. We study the responses to a survey of some 7,000 Spanish academics and compare university research ers to other researchers. More than half of the researchers surveyed create artistic work; however, whereas engagement is the norm rather than the exception, commercialisation is rare. Working in a university and producing good quality science run counter to being an artist. The detrimental efect of science quality on being a commercial or engaged artist turns positive after a certain threshold, which suggests polarisation among academic art ists. Among commercial artists, this polarisation seems to apply specifcally to university researchers. We discuss the implications for the valorisation of art across knowledge trans fer channels and in research evaluations.The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities funded this research through Project CSO2016-79045-C2-2-R of the Spanish National R&D&I Plan. We are grateful to Christopher S. Hayter and Einar Rasmussen for their constructive comments. Our special thanks go to the volunteers who pilot-tested the survey: David Barberá, Àngels Bernabeu, Joaquín Camps, Gérard Carat, María Ángeles Chavarría, Anabel Fernández, Ester Linde, Óscar Llopis, Francisco Rivas and Soberana Sáez. Thanks are due also to the survey respondents and, particularly, those who spontaneously provided supporting statements. Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature.Azagra-Caro, JM.; Benito Amat, C.; Planells-Aleixandre, E. (2022). Academic artists' engagement and commercialisation. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 47(4):1273-1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-022-09940-21273129647

Dynamic perspectives on technology transfer: introduction to the special section

[EN] Theoretical frameworks acknowledge the dynamic and evolving nature of technology transfer. However, there is a scarcity of empirical work in the field incorporating a dynamic and longitudinal perspective. Several literature reviews call for technology transfer research agendas to include longitudinal studies. In response to such calls, this special section comprises selected contributions to the 2018 Technology Transfer Society (T2S) Conference which address this gap from different angles. The three qualitative and three quantitative works chosen contain research questions and methodologies related to dynamic aspects of technology transfer. We argue that historical and processual studies offer additional new directionsThe editors are grateful to 2018 T2S Conference participants for their comments on the papers published in this special section. We thank the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the Polytechnic Innovation City for their support and hospitality. We are indebted to the reviewers of the papers submitted to this special section. The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities funded Joaquin M. Azagra-Caro's and Pablo D'Este's contribution to the special section as part of the CSO2016-79045-C2-2-R and the RTI2018-101232-B-100 Projects of the Spanish National R&D&I Plan, respectively.Barberá Tomás, JD.; Azagra-Caro, JM.; Deste Cukierman, P. (2021). Dynamic perspectives on technology transfer: introduction to the special section. The Journal of Technology Transfer. 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-021-09898-7S1

ERAWATCH country report 2008 an assessment of research system and policies. Spain

The main objective of ERAWATCH country reports 2008 is to characterise and assess the performance of national research systems and related policies in a structured manner that is comparable across countries. The reports are produced for each EU Member State to support the mutual learning process..

Delocalisation patterns in University-Industry interaction: Evidence from the 6th R&D Framework Programme

Increasing university-industry interaction (UII) and university contribution to the local economy are compatibleconventional wisdom would say. However, similar to other university activities, interaction with industry may be limited due to a lack of absorptive capacity in local firms. The data of those participating in the European Union's (EU's) Sixth R&D Framework Programme (FP6) were used to obtain values for the number and, notably, the budgets of UII projects at the regional level for the EU27. Two types of interactions were considered: inside and outside the region. Our analysis indicates that universities from regions whose firms have low absorptive capacity participate more often in FP6 projects with firms outside the region. Our results highlight the value of policies that facilitate firm R&D to enhance collaboration with regional universities.Azagra Caro, JM.; Pontikakis, D.; Varga, A. (2013). Delocalisation patterns in University-Industry interaction: Evidence from the 6th R&D Framework Programme. European Planning Studies. 21(10):1676-1701. doi:10.1080/09654313.2012.722949S16761701211

Academic Inventors, Scientific Impact and the Institutionalisation of Pasteur's Quadrant in Spain

We rely on a novel database of Spanish author-inventors to explore the relationship between the past patenting experience of academic authors and the scientific impact (citations received and journal prestige) of scientific articles published during 2003-2008 in journals listed in SCOPUS. We also study how such a relationship is affected by differences across academic affiliations, distinguishing between public universities and different types of non-university public research organisations. Our econometric estimations show that scientific impact is positively associated with having authors with past patenting experience as inventors at the European Patent Office. Exceptions are the articles of authors affiliated to new independent public research centres, not tied to the civil service model and oriented to do research that is both excellent and use-inspired. These are also on average the most cited articles.Martínez, C.; Azagra Caro, JM.; Maraut, S. (2013). Academic Inventors, Scientific Impact and the Institutionalisation of Pasteur's Quadrant in Spain. Industry and Innovation. 20(5):438-455. doi:10.1080/13662716.2013.824194S43845520

Examiner amendments to applications to the european patent office: Procedures, knowledge bases and country specificities

Trabajo presentado al T2S 2013 Conference.The geography of knowledge flows has shown that the probability of a patent applicant rather than the examiner originating a citation depends on differences between citing and cited countries. How the characteristics of the citing country affect that probability has received less attention. Using European Patent Office (EPO) data of over 3,500,000 citations (1997-2007), we find that the probability of applicant citation is higher as national economic and scientific strengths increase, if applicants and examiners come from the same country and if the country belongs to EPO. This ‘country club’ effect is comparable to that found for US Patent and Trademark Office.The research was carried out with funding from project GV/2012/018 of the Valencian Regional Government.Peer reviewe