Consulting & Science: Centrope IT Technology Transfer Project. Guenther Krumpak ITBeurope 3rd ECCF, Vienna, November 14th, 2008

Transcription

1 Consulting & Science: Centrope IT Technology Transfer Project Guenther Krumpak ITBeurope 3rd ECCF, Vienna, November 14th, 2008

2 What is Technology Transfer? Technology transfer is the process of developing practical applications for the results of scientific research. The process to commercially exploit research varies widely. It can involve licensing agreements or setting up joint ventures and partnerships to share both the risks and rewards of bringing new technologies to market. Often these approaches are associated with raising of venture capital (VC) as a means of funding the development process. This practice is more common in the US than in the EU, which has a more conservative approach to VC funding. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in technology transfer intermediaries specialized in their field. They work on behalf of research institutions, governments and even large multinationals. As a result of the potential complexity of the technology transfer process, technology transfer organizations are often multidisciplinary, including economists, engineers, lawyers, marketers and scientists. Source (Abridged):

3 CITT Centrope IT Technology Transfer Project

4 CITT: Background Goal: Develop strategy for cross-border ICT network for ICT in Centrope Focus: Improving technology transfer between business and research communities. Project duration: Project coordinator: Vienna Business Agency VITE Project partners: Austria: VITE; CEconsult, Alaris Czech Republic: First innovation park Hungary: Pannon Business Network Slovakia : BITERAP Co-financed within FP7: Capacities Coordination and support action / Regions of knowledge

5 CITT: Major Tasks 1) Assess ICT industry & research in the region ( Mapping ) 2) Process results & identify relevant target communities 3) Identify best practice 4) Devise sample technology transfer processes 5) Find interested candidates to participate in (4) 6) Process results 7) Write strategy 8) Accompanying measures: Communicate, discuss (9) Shift project into market driven business

6 Detail I: How does TT work? Trust building measures Identification and finding of appropriate partners Mutual approach and finding of a common language Partnership building Partnership LOI and definition of a joint working environment Legal prerequisites Intellectual and property rights Patenting Contracting Funding Financing and profit sharing Post development phase Marketing and sales Export and internationalization

7 Detail II: Trust Building Major challenge for consultants: Trust building measures: Identification and finding of appropriate partners Mutual approach and finding of a common language Obstacles: Lack of information Lack of practice in networking, partnership Lack of practice in collaborating with research Mistrust: Competition, industrial espionnage Different points of departure: Cognition driven vs. profit driven

8 Detail III: Law Legal prerequisites Intellectual and property rights Patenting Contracting IPR & Contracting: Major issues! Bill Gates: Richest man: MS DOS etc. MP3 development by Fraunhofer researcher Karlheinz Brandenburg. Licence law suit between Microsoft and Alcatel Lucent ($ 1.5 billion); Fraunhofer gets only $ 16 million.

9 Details IV: Money Funding: Financing and profit sharing Mortgage your home or sell your development Public funding Loans VC Business Angels etc. Profits: See Bill Gates on previous slide Best Practice: University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada):

10 Details V: Sales Post development phase Marketing and sales Export and internationalisation New developments must be marketed and sold! Small domestic markets in Europe require internationalisation SMEs lack capacities, knowledge & experience

11 Examples 1: Grisoft Examples: Grisoft s.r.o. Developer of AVG anti virus software. Founded in 1991 in Brno, CR, by Jan Gritzbach, Thomas Hofer Opened US office in substantial investment by Enterprise Investors, biggest PE company in CEE, and Intel Capital, Intel s venture investment program = Intel s largest equity investment in Central and Eastern Europe. More: c_5/ai_n

12 Examples II: Examples: UC4 AG Founded 1985 in Wolfsgraben, South East of Vienna, by Franz Beranek Leading Software producer for corporate job scheduling solutions for the IT industry 2004 sold shares to 2 VCs 2006 Takeover by The Carlyle Group. Today >1,600 customers worldwide use UC4 solutions to automate their processes Offices in Europe, the US and Australia, sales partners in more than 30 countries

13 CITT today: Mapping process in completion; permanent updates Identification of Experts/Consultants started Best practice search started Selection of sample process candidates as of 2009 Tools: CITT homepage: Communication CITT newsletter: As of mid Nov CITT blog noweurope: Discussion CITT technology transfer channel tool: Online tool for TT processes: Under development CITT Experts Pool: Online database for TT oriented consultants CITT survey: Online mapping tool for market data CITT intranet for internal information exchange

14 Info CITT homepage: CITT blog: Project management: VITE Press & PR: Guenther Krumpak, CEconsult GmbH

15 CEconsult GmbH What do we do? Consulting for ICT SMEs, research organisations and public institutions Focus on CEE Support in export, internationalisation, partner search, matchmaking, technology transfer Market reports, studies, identification of technology drivers Event concepts, presentations, lectures, moderations

16 I hope you had a good time in Vienna!