SMEs ‘quick path to market’ for innovation

A leading French expert in technology transfer has highlighted research partnerships with SMEs as an efficient way to bring innovative new products to market. In an interview with EURACTIV, Dr Bruno Sportisse, from the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control (INRIA), said working with SMEs may be challenging but can have a major impact.

“Our target is to ensure that we have maximal impact with what we do. We think SMEs could be a very quick path to the market, and working with lots of SMEs will increase our economic impact,” said Sportisse, director of the technology transfer and innovation department at INRIA. 

Sportisse said INRIA had stepped up its partnerships with smaller firms, but it could be difficult to select the right companies to work with. 

“It is easy to identify big companies – there are, let’s say, about 10 potential strategic partners in our sector. It’s much more difficult with SMEs. In France, we can estimate that there are thousands of innovative companies,” he said. 

Linking research teams with relevant competitive clusters can help build networks of scientists and SMEs where ideas and technology can be exchanged, he added. 

“It’s one thing to identify SMEs, it’s another thing to find the right research team to work with them and to help evolve their research actions or their technologies,” Sportisse said. 

In addition, he said there are major differences for research institutes between working with small and large companies, including varying ways of dealing with intellectual property and the timescale involved. SMEs tend to expect short lead times, he explained. 

Sportisse said INRIA had launched several initiatives to foster closer ties with SMEs, adding that a new tax credit may help encourage smaller firms to develop innovative new products. 

“There is a new tax incentive for small companies in France, which may encourage them to invest in R&D. It’s all part of the evolution of the French research landscape,” he said.

Earlier this year INRIA founded a club of SMEs, drawing on some of the spin-off companies it has created in recent years. The institute has produced 95 start-ups in 25 years, with 70 of these being established in the past decade. 

“We want to extend this circle to other SMEs,” said Sportisse.

The European Union is working to turn its investment in research into marketable products, and has several programmes in support of the creation of intellectual property based on research and development projects. This is also part of the motivation behind the European Institute of Innovation and Technology. 

To read the interview in full, please click here.

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