ERF Workshop: Technology transfer in research infrastructures (Press review)

Workshop - NH Hotel, Trieste, 6th and 7th June

How can we help firms be more competitive on the market? How can we promote results in research and translate them into technological products and processes or useful industrial applications with a real impact? On 6 and 7 June, over 100 experts from throughout Europe – including stakeholders from the world of industry, policy-makers, and representatives from the offices for technology transfer of research laboratories and facilities - will discuss these issues during the “Technology Transfer and Industrial Relations in Research Infrastructures” conference. 

The event, organized by the European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF) and Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste, aims to foster a Europe-wide dialogue between two worlds – research and the private sector – which can only find an effective response to the current global crisis through their alliance and constant collaboration.

“The goal of the meeting – explains Marco Marazzi, responsible of Elettra’s technology transfer office – is first and foremost to share our best practices beyond our national borders, and to act in a coordinated manner including with regards to European legislation, which sometimes falls short when it comes to technology transfers and intellectual property. Trieste undoubtedly has much to say in this field, thanks to its exceptional concentration of research centres as Elettra, endowed with offices specifically dealing with technology transfers and collaboration with industry, and to the presence of a leading institution such as Area Science Park: two reference points at the national and international levels”.
 
Through tangible examples and accounts of successful collaborative efforts in many sectors – from pharmacology to medicine, cosmetics, and electronics – the conference will discuss strategic aspects and illustrate operational and networking tools for the research and private sectors, including technological incubators, joint ventures, and technological platforms.
 
One such example is the “Impact Driven” approach that steers the innovation strategies of CERN in Geneva, an institution renowned for having invented the World Wide Web and which is constantly working to identify new technologies which, although they were originally developed for CERN’s particle accelerator, can also have a high socio-economic impacts.
 
Another example is the joint effort between Elettra and Zambon Chemicals, which led to the development of a new protocol to improve the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals through the characterization of the active principles used in their formulas.
 
The European Association of National Research Facilities (ERF) represents research facilities built and founded by European countries but open to all researchers from the scientific community, regardless of boundaries and based solely on quality and merit. In order to support and promote Europe’s potential and competitiveness on the global stage, ERF aims to further strengthen its relations with international, national, and local governments, funding agencies and sponsors, other research facilities, the academic and training sectors, the industrial sector, and the citizenry as a whole. For this purpose, over the last several years ERF has organized a series of meetings and discussions in various European countries, focusing on the issues of open access, human capital, energy, and the socio-economic impact of research facilities, and the workshop of the next few days is the latest instalment.
 
 
For information on the conference programme, visit: http://www.elettra.trieste.it/Conferences/2013/ERF/
http://www.elettra.trieste.it/Conferences/2013/ERF/
 
Press OfficeElettra – Sincrotrone Trieste S.C.p.A.
Laura Bibi Palatini, +39 040 3758493 / +39 335 473809,

 

Last Updated on Thursday, 27 June 2013 16:05