Creating a technology transfer centre in Slovakia and supporting long-term R&D cooperation between academia and industry to contribute to the development of a knowledge-based society.
National infrastructure for technology transfer support in Slovakia
- 04 January 2016
The ‘national infrastructure for technology transfer support’ is a two-pronged project involving the building of a centre for technology transfer to increase R&D activities, and the promotion of interaction between the scientific and research community with businesses and industry across Slovakia.
The project has seen the creation of eight new jobs to work on the Intellectual Property (IP) process. In 2014, the IP experts worked with 9 scientific institutions on the protection and commercialisation of 218 projects. Support included: help with selecting which R&D results were appropriate for legal industrial protection, marketing, finding experts for further support, help with IP administration, representation at patent offices, and contract drafting.
The Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information (CSTI)
The CSTI provides support to universities, institutes at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, other public research institutions, small and medium-sized businesses and industry. It aims to support the transfer of knowledge into practice, seeing a high application of R&D results.
Current supported technologies are in the field of telecommunications, environment electronics, automobile and aircraft and space industries. Support services include: help in identifying the outcomes of research that could be eligible for protection under IP rights, identifying which results are ideal for commercialisation, evaluating the benefits of the technology, implementing IP rights, searching for business partners, drafting of licence agreements and creating spin-off companies.
CSTI also offers state-of-the-art searches for designs and trademarks to confirm the novelty of the technology, information on competitor activities and on the legal status of protective documents.
Spreading the knowledge across Slovakia
The second arm of this project aims to establish a nationwide system to support the application of R&D results into social and economic practice in order to develop a knowledge based society. The system of national support is based on communication activities that raise awareness within the scientific community on IP rights and the importance of the popularisation and commercialisation of science.
To raise awareness, the project involves the publication of literature on technology transfer, IP rights, innovation and knowledge clusters and an insider’s guide to a patent office. In addition, it offers a website information portal including information on the CSTI’s research activities. Three conferences organised on technology transfer, innovation, and R&D also took place.
Total investment and EU funding
Total investment for the project “NITT + SK National infrastructure for technology transfer support in Slovakia” is EUR 8 234 571, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund is contributing EUR 6 999 385 (EUR 4 081 675 under the convergence objective and EUR 2 9 7 710 under the regional competitiveness objective) from the Operational Programme “Research and Development” for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.