Diapositiva 1

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THE ROLE OF THE TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICE AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MILAN disseminating IP culture
and organizing training program for
researchers by Roberto Tiezzi UNIMITT- Tech
Transfer Manager
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• What we are and what we think
• Technology transfer at the University of Milan
• The importance of IP culture and the issues..
• The training program of the project
  U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.

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• What we are and what we think

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te
An outline of UNIMITT UNIMITT is the Centre for
Innovation and Technology Transfer of the State
University of Milan recently estasblished in
order to support the exploitation of academic
results mainly in terms of IPRs and spin off
companies
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UNIMI patent portfolio
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Inventions by sector(1 Clinic/Pharma, 2
Chem/Industry, 3 Biotech, 4 Medical tools, 5
Veterinary, 6 Diagnostic, 7 Other)
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Spin-off and technology transfer initiatives

• 12 companies created in the last 3 years
• A relevant intervention of external investors
  occurred in two cases (Nanotech materials and
  biotech and pharma) during the current year
• Unimitt has been involved in open calls and
  tenders by co-ordinating ILO and TTO and external
  actors (Chamber of Commerce, Local Authorities,
  Companies, Science parks, etc.).

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• The UNIMITT functions
• The UNIMITT model integrates the following three
  functions
• technology transfer office
• industrial liaison office
• science policy centre

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• The Tech Transfer Office function
• UNIMITT supports the process of research results
  exploitation, helping to
• identify and evaluate IP and specific
  technologies
• file patent applications and manage the patent
  portfolio
• generate spin-off companies
• do technology marketing and licensing with
  industry

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• The Industrial Liaison Office function
• UNIMITT aims at multiplying relationships with
  industry, institutional and private investors,
  public institutions, in order to create
  opportunities for collaborative research projects
  and tech transfer businesses
• participation in partnership projects with
  Universities, Incubators, BIC to disseminate the
  innovation culture
• networking events organization and activities
  promotion

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• The Science Policy Centre function
• UNIMITT intends to provide technical support to
  scientific and academic bodies to elaborate new
  policies and regulations, with the aim of
• increasing scientific productivity
• highering the research quality
• supporting economic growth of external
  enviroment

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Towards an Entrepreneurial University

• The University is an economic as well as a
  cultural actor. New functions covered not only
  education, culture teaching and research but,
  furthermore, explicit contribution to local
  development and direct promotion of knowledge
• New links and interactions demand/supply new
  sources, increasing speed and time to market,
  less steps, more complexity and systemic
  approach, new attention to users.

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Towards an Entrepreneurial University

• Four channels
• Open diffusion of results research as a public
  good gt Publications
• Attention to the potential economic exploitation
  gt Patents
• Temporary mobility of human resources gt Human
  capital
• Generation of new entrepreneurial ideas by means
  of spin-off processes gt New science and
  technology based firms

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• Technology transfer at the University of Milan

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• Why to do technology transfer
• Different kinds of goals reflecting different
  priorities
• public benefits
• research stimulation
• profit

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• Public benefits
• A widespread policy in the italian universities
  underlines the importance of achieving public
  benefits, such as
• benefit the society with innovations and
  technologies
• foster economic growth
• support job creation

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More economic value The framework becomes more
complex, if we intend to orient tech transfer
process towards new goals and new opportunities,
fostering public assets Maybe, Italian
Universities and researchers should put more
efforts in seeking reward from tech transfer in
terms of profit and new funds for research
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A voluntary process Tech tranfer in the italian
university is almost always a voluntary process
the researchers autonomy doesnt allow the
institution to make them attend tech transfer
activities Researchers have to be aware of the
opportunities that tech transfer offer to
them Still today, many researchers have to be
stimulated
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Tech transfer is fair Tech tranfer should be
pursued by researchers, because it means
producing value and exploiting opportunities When
stimulated, researchers tend to consider tech
transfer as fair but they often need knowledge
and tools
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• The importance of IP culture and the issues..

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• The importance of IP culture
• Why do we protect academic inventions ?
• Because this
• doesnt prevent us to pursue our public service
  mission
• doesnt have a harmful effect on basic research
• can attract funds for further research
• can be a way to disseminate innovations and
  technologies and foster technology based
  businesses

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• The role of IPRs in technology transfer
• IP protection/exploitation is one of the most
  important and effective way to achieve the
  academic findings transfer
• is more rewarding for Universities and
  researchers (without a patent is more difficult
  to give full value to the know how transfer)
• is helpfull in preventing conflicts of interest
  and public assets dismission

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A good competition Since
tech transfer can contribute to regional economic
development, companies and entrepreneurs in the
market place should have equal opportunities
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A common researcher definition Im not
interested in the money I just
want to do good science the answer Money is
necessary for funding research ..so we are
interested in money !
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• IP culture
• IP culture isnt really widespread in academic
  enviroment yet
• Many researchers
• dont have an appropriate knowledge about what a
  patent is and its potential
• dont know what patentable is
• dont know how to get a patent

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• Above all
• Many researchers
• dont know how to evaluate academic findings and
  inventions
• tend not to share the same objectives with the
  institution
• sometimes in negotiations they become the
  counterpart

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• The training program of the project
  U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.

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• U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.
• We cannot face the issues by our-selves
• we are a very little organization few people
• we dont want to become only a service provider
  we prefer to invest in researchers, to make them
  capable

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• U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.
• so our vision is INTEGRATION in order to
• be more effective
• specialize the process
• have the critical mass on which to operate

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• U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.
• This is the idea of U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.
• Milan University (coordinator)
• Politecnico (Milan)
• Bocconi University (Milan)
• University of Calabria (a region in the south of
  Italy)
• join together to intregrate TTO and ILO functions
  and activities

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U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S. A big challenge (the
first open call for UNIMITT after the first 4
months) no experience like that before A
relevant impact areas and objects
involved Integration of different know how,
competencies, technological areas
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• U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S.
• 2 years of project
• 600.000 of Government funding
• 3 ILO involved (30 people operating)
• 2 Academic Centres for business development
  (Bocconi)
• network model our ambition is to determine the
  conditions to create an integrated ILO or agency

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The U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S. training program The
crucial point of the entire project is tech
transfer culture dissemination and training for
researchers and TT professionals
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• The U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S. training program
• One of main project activity will be
• an IP training program for reserchears in 4
  Universities focused on all the main topics of IP
  protection and exploitation
• IP procedures
• Technology assessment and evaluation
• Marketing strategy
• Licensing valuation and strategy

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The U.N.I.V.E.R.S.I.T.A.S. training program At
the end of september the first training session
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THANK YOU FOR THE ATTENTION
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Contacts

• Alberto Silvani - UNIMITT Director
• Via Festa del Perdono 7 - 20122 Milano ITALY
• tel [phone]
• fax [phone]
• alberto.silvani_at_unimi.it
• Roberto Tiezzi UNIMITT Tech Transfer Manager
• Via Festa del Perdono 7 - 20122 Milano ITALY
• tel [phone]
• fax [phone]
• roberto.tiezzi_at_unimi.it