Translating research into commercial applications for business – so-called technology transfer - is a process that can be dramatically improved through better collaboration, argues Cosnard.
"The problem is not that universities are doing too much basic research. It is more about companies not taking care of basic research or future and emerging technologies in their strategic plans. Companies are too shy with this respect and don't care about basic research. I think companies need to sustain basic research in Europe," said Cosnard.
Furthermore, he added that companies are reluctant to hire someone with a PhD in computer science, for example, as they find the person "too 'basic research' oriented" and not interesting enough for companies. "This is a very strange situation as I think that companies, in particular big companies, need to have staff who know what research, in particular basic research, is. We need to have more people going from one side to another," said Cosnard.
He thinks there are three ways in which technology transfer should be strengthened. First, cooperation and collaborative programmes between big companies and research organisations can be established through better understanding between the parties and design and construction of competitiveness clusters. Second, it is also possible to improve the transfer of competences from research labs to companies, through companies hiring more researchers.
Last but not least, "technology transfer through the creation of start ups is a very good way as some of the start ups will evolve and become SMEs or big companies or are just bought up by other companies," said Cosnard. However, he added that more support for start up creation is needed to allow them to grow. "For this, we need more money and venture capital," he argued, deploring the fact that there is three to five times more venture capital in the United States than Europe. He believes this may be because the European market is still too fragmented. In the meanwhile, "the start ups cannot grow at the same speed in Europe as they do in the US," he said.
According to Cosnard, venture capitalists in the United States know where to go - to Silicon Valley, for example - whereas in Europe, the competitiveness clusters in different fields are very diverse and not credible enough to convince and attract venture capitalists. "If you look for example at microelectronics, there are only three big centres in Europe, whereas the situation in the telecommunications sector or the software technology one is far more diverse. We need to have more concentration and some flagship clusters should emerge from these."
"It is not always enough to have good researchers and engineers as a good researcher or engineer is not always a good manager," added Cosnard, arguing that the key thing is to team these people with good managers and entrepreneurs.
Asked whether a Community patent could boost technology transfer in Europe, Cosnard said he is very much in favour of a European policy on patenting. However, he cautioned: "Patents should be delivered for real progress in technology, not for broad ideas. Patenting broad ideas could be a barrier against innovation."
INRIA will be hosting a conference on Innovating for competitiveness in ICT: towards an EU framework for technology transfer in Brussels on 28 May 2008 to demonstrate its forty years of experience of the issue and learn from other organisations and the EU institutions, as well as increase networking with its European sister organisations.
