As a follow-up to its spring 2007 Communication on knowledge transfer, the Commission adopted, on 10 April 2008, a specific, non-binding Recommendation aimed at helping member states to adapt their national policies on the management of intellectual property (IP) and knowledge transfer (KT) activities.
The aim of the recommendation is to improve KT in particular at trans-national level, as several individual initiatives taken at national level lack coherence and hamper transnational knowledge transfer and wider exploitation of research results.
"European universities and research organisations are very good in producing new scientific knowledge but less good in converting knowledge in money," said Michel Claessens, the acting spokesman of Research Commissioner Janez Potočnik.
"This Recommendation is important as it makes the link between research and competitiveness," agreed Denis Dambois of the Commission's research directorate-general.
Dambois explained that in order to turn research into competitiveness and welfare, research results need to be translated into socio-economic benefits, useful products, new jobs and companies. "There are a number of knowledge transfer mechanisms that enable us to do so, but which are a bit underutilised in Europe," he added, listing R&D collaboration with industry, licensing from universities to industry and the creation of spin-off companies as examples. "In all these activities, the management of intellectual property is something very central and should be managed on a proper and professional way."
The main part of the Recommendation consists of a list of key principles for public authorities to help establish or adapt their IP and KT policies, including on funding aspects.
A "Code of Practice" annexed to the Recommendation gives universities and public research organisations "operational principles which they should rely on when developing or reviewing institutional policies".
The EU executive hopes that the code will be used as reference by European universitites and PROs to define internal IP and KT policies and guide them in collaborative and contractual research within Europe and with third countries.
