Conference on knowledge valorization and technology transfer

Management Studies Group of Wageningen UR in collaboration with DAFNE and ZHI Foundation organize two conferences on knowledge valorization and technology transfer

Organized by William Lesser (Cornell University USA & visiting professor Wageningen UR), Hans Dons & Wim Hulsink (both Management Studies, Wageningen University) and Ruud van den Bulk (Plant Sciences Group, Wageningen UR)

Entrepreneurship and commercialising knowledge have become important for mostly all universities in Western Europe; it is now a prominent element in their plans and activities in the domains of education, research, outreach/extension and internal people management. While still bringing their research to the public domain (e.g. by publishing), now researchers and university managers seriously look into the promises and pitfalls of bringing their inventions and skills to the market place (e.g. by consulting, patenting and licensing). When looking into their relatively new role of collaborating with industry and societal stakeholders and valorizing knowledge, some universities have emphasized economic development with regional businesses and governments while others seek revenue generation through licensing and spin-off formation or simply stick to the knitting of striving for excellence in teaching and or research. These different ambitions lead to quite distinct approaches and outcomes.

A major challenge in every science & technology driven society is the continuous development of new products based on new scientific achievements. It requires bridging the gap between organizations that do fundamental and applied research (universities, academic hospitals, research institutes and industrial research departments) and those that develop the products and the business (existing and newly created companies). These conferences address the interplay between the production of science and technology and the commercialization of academic knowledge and designs by universities, R&D labs, start-up firms and established companies. Key notes will address issues such as technology transfer, patenting/IPR management, licensing, incubation, spin-off creation, public-private research partnerships, and techno-economic clustering.

The first conference in March will focus on technology transfer at Wageningen UR and a number of other universities and research institutes elsewhere in the world. The second conference in May will zoom in into these issues within the Plant Sciences and will show the various ways of valorization in a number of cases taken from the international scenery.

Both conferences will be organized in Wageningen. Detailed programs will be available soon. For now: Please mark your agenda.