Paving the way for knowledge transfer
TT involves transferring skills, knowledge, technologies and methods among governments, research institutes and academia to further scientific and technological development. It is crucial for developing new products, services, materials and processes. The EU-funded project 'Certified trans-national TT-manager - Building up a framework to qualify TT- managers on a trans-national level and with mutual recognition' (CERT-TTT-M) upgraded TT through various initiatives. The project identified the skills TT managers should be trained in and what they would like to learn. It also assessed the market size for potential certification through interviews and surveys. CERT-TTT-M then published an online report on the results of the questionnaires, based on some 3,000 responses from TT managers across Europe. In parallel, the project identified dozens of master programmes, courses and workshops to assess the supply side of the TT market, narrowing the gap between requirements and existing programmes. However, none of the courses can provide their students with an appropriate certification that is recognized across Europe. All these findings were incorporated in the project's main report, 'Study on European TT education programmes and benchmarking'. The second part of the project involved the creation of a CERT-TTT-M framework, a model curriculum with seven skill-sets for TT management. These included topics such as networking, intellectual property rights (IPR), licensing, commercial activities, business development, and negotiating and project management. Moreover, a three-level structure was proposed in order to show up a consistent career path for TT professionals. The project's deliverables overall were considered very useful for promoting TT in Europe and helping to establish the European Knowledge Transfer Society (EUKTS). The positive consequences that could emerge from enhancing TT among EU nations stand to benefit research, technology and industry greatly.
