Universities and institutes want to improve their technology marketing
Better exploitation of innovations for Germany as a technology location
Professionalisation of technology transfer to industrial practice
Seven German companies form a transfer consortium
Berlin / Greifswald, March, 21st 2011. German research institutes and high-tech companies have formed a consortium in order to improve the marketing and commercial use of technologies developed at German universities and other research facilities.
“Technology transfer is too often reduced to the simple transfer of patents or licenses,” says Dr. Marko Häckel, Managing Director of neoplas GmbH in Greifswald, the marketing company of the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Research and Technology, at the new consortium’s founding. “In view of the increasing pressures of competition and innovation in many industries, manufacturing companies have needs extending far beyond this step.”
Rainer Stuike-Prill, Vice President Marketing & Sales of the FIZ Karlsruhe (Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure), adds: “The new consortium will therefore apply professional technology transfer to ensure that new technologies developed by universities and other research facilities are transformed into market-ready business models which can generate added business value.”
The consortium’s planned knowledge and technology transfer consists of various stages. The first stage concerns the initiation and support of the association’s projects, the acquisition of contract research, and the development of a business plan. The consultation and financing of spin-offs shall follow, along with compiling further education and training offerings, workshops and conferences, research marketing, prototyping, product development, patent research, consultation on legal aspects of patenting, and of course the essential work of marketing the actual technologies.
“The opportunities for active marketing of technologies are underestimated in Germany. There is a high potential of added value for companies for their own development once they get more transparency about existing technological innovations. The consortium shall bring the industry just exactly this transparency”, claims Dr. Benedikt Ahlers of Florenus AG in Berlin.
The consortium unites academic know-how and scientific discipline with practical implementation and marketing by companies in the technology sector.
About the members of the consortium:
The consortium is coordinated by neoplas GmbH in Greifswald, a spin-off of the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Research and Technology. neoplas GmbH actively pursues the scientific requirements of research along with the economic demands of the market in order to combine knowledge from research marketing, prototyping, and product development for commercial success.
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FIZ Karlsruhe – The Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure is a non-profit organisation which provides published scientific and patent information worldwide and offers respective services in support of national and international knowledge transfer and innovation promotion.
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Florenus AG with headquarters in Berlin and locations in Munich, Lübeck, and Peking not only markets technologies on behalf of its customers (such as adphos GmbH, Secutech GmbH, ODB-Tec GmbH etc.), but also offers integrated innovations management (Florenus is consultant to Deutsche Telekom AG), technology trading and scouting, and comprehensive services for developing existing technologies into market-ready business models.
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GWT-TUD GmbH in Dresden is one of the largest commercially organised technology transfer service providers which works closely with German universities. The company evaluates patents for universities and research institutes as well as for scientists, and supports the professional realisation of concrete projects with the industry.
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WACKSTUM GmbH in Munich provides assistance in founding companies or spinoffs based on ideas from the academic and research sector. It offers support and advice in start-up financing as well as the sustainable development of business ideas before, during, and after the founding phase. The WACKSTUM competence team maintains a unique network of experts throughout Germany, consisting of experienced mentors, coaches, and “business angels”, and assists and supports processes such as team building and team performance, technology matching of founders with industrial companies, and financial brokering.
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