Health researchers now have the help they need to take results to market
New business ventures and more active involvement in interdisciplinary collaborations can be leveraged for economic exploitation of results produced through EU-funded health research. The project HEALTH-2-MARKET (From health research to market – Advanced services and training actions for the IPR management and business exploitation of the EU-funded research results in Health/life sciences) set its sights on boosting such actions by cultivating an enhanced innovation and entrepreneurial culture for researchers. Targeting health/life science investigators and entrepreneurs as well as technology transfer officers, the project aimed to bridge the gap between cutting-edge research and its practical implementation for business success. This has been largely achieved by providing a range of well-focused training activities and advice services. The primary focus was on issues related to intellectual property rights (IPR), asset management, formulating business and exploitation plans, on-demand knowledge transfer, and preparing for the launch of health/life science start-ups. Initial activities involved groundwork research related to the needs of health/life sciences researchers and determining what training was missing. Following, the team designed and implemented a comprehensive training programme and developed a freely accessible e-training web platform. The project offered 16 regional training seminars, 1 webinar and 7 highly intensive international business academies to over 600 participants. Beyond its Massive Open Online Course 'Roadmap to entrepreneurial mindset and toolkit', the team produced two Innovation Guides. Other free provisions include 20 advanced and individually tailored commercialisation services, and a mobile application for easy access to all the project's resources. Partners conducted a training needs analysis, which included an online survey of 637 respondents. This led to a related report offering helpful information to researchers looking to bring their research results to market. Other work involved 19 case studies that were used to enrich the project's training offerings. Project results are available in a policy brief available on the website. HEALTH-2-MARKET effectively combined in-person training, e-training and individual needs-based advice to support promising health/life science researchers transition from research to market results.
Keywords
Training, coaching, economic exploitation, health research, life sciences, innovation
