3. Current state and future direction of knowledge & technology transfer in
3.2 Support of knowledge & technology transfer by the institution’s
A Survey of university leaders opinions on the future development of industry collaboration personally addressed university leaders at top Slovak universities with engineering and natural science courses in March 2013. Potential participants were contacted personally and then emailed with a structured questionnaire. Some were contacted three times in order to obtain answers and the maximum amount of information. The aim was to find out the further direction of development in the area of IP protection and commercialisation. Regrettably, only three university executives agreed to participate in the survey. The Institute of Technology at the Slovak Academy of Sciences, which provides services on IP protection and commercialisation to all the Slovak Academy of Sciences institutes, did not have a director at the time of the survey, therefore it did not participate. Comenius University did not provide information due to the exchange of Vice-rectors for Development whose remit was KTT. The survey participants were the Slovak University of Technology (Vice-rector for Industry Collaboration), the Technical University of Košice (Deputy of the Vice-rector for Development & Construction) and the University of Žilina (Vice-rector for Science & Research). The survey was completed in July 2013 due to respondents’ work commitments.
TTO management and development in the period of next 2 years
At the Slovak University of Technology the strategic management of KTT fell under the remit of the Vice-rector for Industry Collaboration. The day-to-day management of the TTO was the responsibility of the Know-how Centre Director who could directly influence TTO’s results (TTO was a department within the Know-how Centre). At the Technical University of Košice the Rector had the statutory responsibility for TTO’s outcomes and the daily operations were managed by the TTO. At the University of Žilina there were several offices at different faculties dealing with KTT.73
The management of the Slovak University of Technology planned to adopt an already prepared IP Protection and Commercialisation Policy which incorporated the TTO services for researchers and students74. The Know-how Centre’s task was to actively search for the right candidates from industry who would be interested in applied research projects and/or inventions they could utilise for their business.75
The Technical University of Košice planned through its TTO to promote all forms of R&D collaboration with industry and provide advice on IP protection. Other services were to be developed during an EU funded project to build a science park at the Technical University of Košice (2013-2015). All of the universities participating in the survey had assisted their researchers with IP protection, using the services and funding offered by the National Infrastructure Project for technology transfer.
In terms of KTT, the Slovak University of Technology intended to focus primarily on the chemical industry (petrochemicals, plastics) and food technologies, but it also wanted to develop cooperation in the fields of machine and electrical engineering. The University of Žilina planned to focus on transport, machinery engineering, electrical engineering, construction, information and communication technologies and crisis management. The management of the Technical University of Košice wanted to support industry collaboration in all fields related to the focus of its faculties.
All university leaders indicated they wanted to focus on providing consultancy, contract research, licensing and support the creation of spin-off companies. The Technical University of Košice wanted to create shared workplaces with industry and provide specific education and training for industry partners. The Vice-rector at the Slovak University of Technology stated collaboration through research project contracts had been well developed, but said valuable IP was either not created or the academic project managers surrendered their claim to it when signing contracts with business partners. The aim at the Slovak University of Technology was to increase its IP portfolio and increase its income from licensing.
73 A central university TTO was set up at the University of Žilina in the second half of 2013as part of an EU
funded project to build a university science park.
74 The IP Policy was finally adopted in September 2013.
75 The Know-how Centre as such did not have any employees in 2014. The TTO had 1.5 FTEs in 2014 who
developed the office operations and marketing, and assisted researchers with IP protection.
The Slovak University of Technology planned to finance the TTO and its activities mainly from EU Structural Funds projects (50 %) and national projects (40 %). The remaining 10 % was to be provided by the university. The Technical University of Košice and University of Žilina also intended to finance their TTOs predominantly from EU Structural Funds (60 %). The Technical University of Košice planned to obtain further funds from businesses and private sponsors (20 %), from international research projects (5-10 %) and the remaining funds from the university budget (to fund IP protection). The University of Žilina aimed to obtain additional funds from national projects (20 %) and use its own budget (20 %).
The University of Žilina estimated that the turnover from TTO’s activities would reach € 1.6 million in 2013. Other universities did not expect significant turnover from TTO’s work given the early stage of operation and considering that TTO employees would have to meet administrative obligations related to the management of projects financed by EU Structural Funds.
Raising interest in applied research and commercialisation among researchers and students
Several faculties at the Slovak University of Technology had an incentive programme undersigned by a dean which offered financial rewards to researchers for patent and utility models awarded to the university/faculty. The faculty of Machinery Engineering paid € 300 to an employee for a patent it wanted to retain (on average 3-4 such awards were paid annually).
In the first half of 2013 the Know-how Centre at the Slovak University of Technology organised a series of training seminars for staff and students on IP protection in cooperation with the Slovak Industrial Property Office and the Slovak Centre of Scientific and Technical Information. Seminars were held at individual faculties, but the interest was very low.
At the Technical University of Košice each faculty had set its own incentive system which the university management did not want to disclose for this survey. IP training for staff and students has been organised regularly since 2008.
The University of Žilina offered researchers as a reward participation at conferences and funding for projects. The university management did not want to disclose the reward scheme and IP training had not been offered.
At the time of the survey IP Protection & the Commercialisation Policy was already adopted at the Technical University of Košice, the approval process was underway at the Slovak University of Technology and at the University of Žilina it was not in place or planned to be adopted before the end of 2013. A reward scheme for license sale for researchers related to invention disclosure was incorporated in the IP Policy at the University of Košice and in the IP Policy to be adopted at the Slovak University of
Technology. It was aligned with the Slovak Patent Act and the final reward was to be calculated as a proportion of net profit based on the overall sale value.
As a result of certain measures, e.g. IP disclosure forms, provision of IP advice and training, the TTO at the Slovak University of Technology registered an increased number of queries from researchers (the number was nor recorded) and was preparing two patent applications at the time of the survey. The TTO at the Technical University of Košice did not record the number of queries from researchers either, but in 2012 they registered 9 utility model applications and 5 patent applications. The University of Žilina mentioned an increased number of utility model and patent applications, but did not give specific figures.
Major barriers of academia-industry collaboration
Management at the Slovak University of Technology considered researchers' reluctance to co-operate with the TTO and low awareness of the importance of IP protection. Management at the Technical University of Košice saw the problem in disinclination of researchers to co-operation among themselves and with the TTO, diversity of interests and considerable autonomy faculties, and also in the lack of integration of activities within the university. Additionally, they criticised the Higher Education Act as it did not support integrated and effective industry collaboration. The management at the University of Žilina also criticised the Higher Education Act as a barrier, but not the Slovak University of Technology. The management at the Slovak University of Technology did not consider this barrier as insurmountable. The management at the University of Žilina and the Slovak University of Technology did not regard any of the listed barriers as insurmountable, but the management at the Technical University of Košice regarded the Higher Education Act and the autonomy of faculties as insurmountable obstacles.
Recommendations of university leaders
Recommendations to improve KTT could be summed up in the following areas: For universities:
increase the awareness of legislation related to IP protection in researchers and students;
promote the benefits (within the university) of using TTO’s services and motivate researchers to disclose their inventions to TTO;
introduce clear systems and procedures for IP protection and commercialisation (through IP Policy) in order to increase interest in collaboration on innovative projects with industry partners (do not apply for patents just to pursue personal goals).
For government and respective ministries:
effectively stimulate R&D activities in businesses, e.g. tax breaks for companies investing in R&D, innovation vouchers etc.;
introduce flexible legislation to encourage the creation of joint R&D organisations between private companies and public institutions;
strengthen applied research at HEIs and research institutes (provide finance and stimulate collaborative projects), including innovation projects focused on sustainable economic growth;
amend evaluation schemes for researchers, so that in their career progress they could also be rewarded for their successful applied research results, e.g. patents, utility models, international contracts, etc.;
provide finance for IP protection at HEIs and research institutes.
Planned developments in the area of academia-industry collaboration
All university leaders wanted to support easily implemented forms of KTT and included the following (ordered according to their priority for concerned universities):
contract research, testing and taking measurements; consultancy;
students at all levels to collaborate with businesses on graduation thesis ; licensing;
support spin-offs and start-ups.
As part of development plans the Slovak University of Technology addressed leading companies with an offer to collaborate on their R&D tasks and to create joint teams to solve their technical problems or improve technological processes. The Technical University of Košice and University of Žilina planned to concentrate on the development of their new science parks and business incubators as a base for innovation partnerships.
All universities also participated in a national project entitled “HEIs as growth engines of the knowledge society“, which enabled students to apply for internships in companies and enabled universities to take advantage of offers to collaborate.