New initiative to boost academia-industry technology transfer in computing
6 January 2014
Austria
Aachen – January 6, 2014. Many outstanding research results from publicly funded research programs and PhD research do not find their way into commercial products and services. Most researchers in academia focus on dissemination of their research through scholarly publications, and are not targeting commercialization of their results. “Too often, researchers only consider a spin-off company as a way to commercialize their research, which is the most daunting way of commercializing a technology for a young graduate. In practice, it is much easier and less risky to transfer a research result into an existing company” notes Rainer Leupers, professor at RWTH Aachen University, and coordinator of the TETRACOM project.
TETRACOM wants to promote this model of technology transfer in the domain of computing systems throughout Europe. It will do so by creating incentives to encourage researchers to try an actual technology transfer. It introduces a novel and lightweight funding instrument: TTP – a technology transfer project. A TTP can subsidize up to 50% of the cost of small to medium sized technology transfer. In addition, TETRACOM creates two supporting actions: training for researchers on how to set up and execute a successful technology transfer, and private consulting services for researchers involved in a technology transfer.
Rainer Leupers further explains “TETRACOM wants to pave the way for more large scale technology transfer initiatives in Europe. Our target is to fund and support around 50 TTPs over the next three years. We want all these TTPs to be successful and above all to be a positive and rewarding experience for the researchers involved. Our expectation is that after a first positive experience, researchers will naturally start looking for additional opportunities for additional technology transfers – with or without support by TETRACOM”.
About TETRACOM
TETRACOM (Technology Transfer in Computing Systems) is an FP7 coordination action focused on technology transfer between academia and industry. It started on September 1, 2013, and it runs for three years. The total budget of the project is 2 M€. The project is coordinated by Prof. Leupers from RWTH Aachen University, and it is run by a consortium of 8 academic institutions. TETRACOM was officially launched during the HiPEAC industry partner day on October 8, 2013 in Tallinn. More information on http://www.tetracom.eu(opens in new window).
TETRACOM wants to promote this model of technology transfer in the domain of computing systems throughout Europe. It will do so by creating incentives to encourage researchers to try an actual technology transfer. It introduces a novel and lightweight funding instrument: TTP – a technology transfer project. A TTP can subsidize up to 50% of the cost of small to medium sized technology transfer. In addition, TETRACOM creates two supporting actions: training for researchers on how to set up and execute a successful technology transfer, and private consulting services for researchers involved in a technology transfer.
Rainer Leupers further explains “TETRACOM wants to pave the way for more large scale technology transfer initiatives in Europe. Our target is to fund and support around 50 TTPs over the next three years. We want all these TTPs to be successful and above all to be a positive and rewarding experience for the researchers involved. Our expectation is that after a first positive experience, researchers will naturally start looking for additional opportunities for additional technology transfers – with or without support by TETRACOM”.
About TETRACOM
TETRACOM (Technology Transfer in Computing Systems) is an FP7 coordination action focused on technology transfer between academia and industry. It started on September 1, 2013, and it runs for three years. The total budget of the project is 2 M€. The project is coordinated by Prof. Leupers from RWTH Aachen University, and it is run by a consortium of 8 academic institutions. TETRACOM was officially launched during the HiPEAC industry partner day on October 8, 2013 in Tallinn. More information on http://www.tetracom.eu(opens in new window).