Universities in Danube cooperation: Two case projects of the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013

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Sabina Passamonti, MD, PhD

University of Trieste, Dept. of Life Sciences

e-mail: spassamonti@units.it

JRC Annual Event on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy 27-28 October 2015 Maritim Hotel Ulm Basteistraße 40, Ulm, Germany

The Programme Area CBCP Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013

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The Programme Area CBCP Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013 and its position in the European macro-regional strategies

Small area, at the intersection of 3 macro-regions: • Danube • Alpine • Adriatic and Ionian

BUT

Stock of closed projects useful for a super-macro-region

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Transregional Network for Innovation and Technology Transfer to Improve Health Care

Network For Technological Innovation In Aquaculture

Two attempts at matching research with innovation

in Universities

Call 1/2008 – strategic 01.04-2011 to 30.09.2014 (3.5 yrs) Extension: none Funding at start: € 2.611.118 Approved cost: € 2.551.533 (98%)

Call 2/2009 – standard 01.10-2011 to 30.09.2014 (3 yrs) Extension: none Funding at start: € 1.332.000 Approved cost: € 1.227.145 (92%)

2007-2013 Priority task Competitiveness and

knowledge based society Policy

Lisbon Strategy

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Common project basic features

• Cross-border Networks

• Mix of partners (see next)

• Simultaneous implementation

• No time extension

• Lead Partner: Dept. of Life Sciences, University of Trieste

– Team manager: Sabina Passamonti

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TRANS2CARE Partners details

69%

31%

Trans2Care R&I balance

academic

non-academic

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INNOV-H2O Partners details

50% 50%

Innov-H2O R&I balance

academic

non-academic

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Trans2Care as good practice

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0

1

2

day

s (n

)

Invitations to present Trans2Care case 13 months after the end of operations

Research Organisation

European Commission

Danube S3 Workshop: “Gathering opportunities around RIS3 priorities” Vienna

Interreg Annual Meeting 2015, Luxembourg

DG Regio Road Show 2015, Gorizia (Italy)

JRC Annual Event on the Scientific Support to the Danube Strategy, Ulm (Germany)

Innov-H2O is also a good practice, but less evident

• Managing 2 R&I projects at the same time is a huge task – The dissemination activities are very demanding

• Finding a committed team manager is also difficult … (see slide 21) – Universities are understaffed (see also:

https://rio.jrc.ec.europa.eu/en/country-analysis/Italy/country-report)

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COMMON STRATEGY for Technology Transfer & Innovation (TTI)

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• TRAINING of post-doc researchers in technology transfer and business.

• MEETING/AUDITING SMEs.

• Introducing TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVELS scale to classify research results.

Similar training in TTI

Trans2Care courses

1. Team building 2. Patent search, analysis and business 3. Scientific communication: opportunities

and risks 4. Innovation and Technological transfer 5. Best practices for managing IP in early stage

startups 6. Understanding, protecting and monetizing

your intellectual property 7. New product development according to

ISO9000:2008 8. Guided tour to Cluster for Biomedicine

(CBM), ELETTRA Synchrotron and FERMI facilities

9. Fundamental of economics 10. How to get the most from a technological

audit 11. Training Session TECH AUDITS INSIDE T2C 12. Project Management 13. Communication and branding 14. Job Placement and Labour market 15. Ecosystems for innovation 16. Technology Readiness Levels Evaluation

Innov-H2O courses

1. Innovation and Technological transfer. 2. Fundamental of Economics 3. Project Management. 4. European Projects 5. Business Planning 6. Forum sessions (n=6)

Note on this project: 1. It was shorter than Trans2Care. 2. Its approach to SMEs was different than

Trans2care 3. The post-doc researchers had the Forum

activities.

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Similar approach with industries

Trans2Care – biotech SMEs

• 54 Technology audits – Specific training for

researchers (3 days) given by non-academic Project Partner n.5 (TTI expert)

– Each researcher did 3-7 visits (one-to-one)

• 14 Focus meetings (one-to-one or all project staff with a number of SMEs)

Traditional approach r2b, workshops

Innov-H2O – fish farmers

• 23 Fish farming SMEs

• 6 open workshops for the fish farmers

• 13 Thematic groups

Professional participatory approach given by non-academic Project Partner n.4 (TTI expert)

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Technology Readiness Levels analysis of research results

Trans2Care

Capitalisation Conference Innov-H2O

Only internal assessment

No possibility to do capitalisation events, being:

• the single aquaculture project in CBCP Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013

• no aquaculture project in Mediterranean sea basin funded by cross-border cooperation programmes in 2007-2013 (see: Interact thematic study, page 32. Web: http://www.interact-eu.net/maritime_cooperation/maritime_cooperation/601/18618)

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6 Cross-border Italy-Slovenia biomedical projects

44 beneficiaries, € 8.5 MLN

Progetti finanziati nell’ambito del Programma per la Cooperazione Transfrontaliera Italia-Slovenia 2007-2013, dal Fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale e dai fondi nazionali. Projekti sofinancirani v okviru Programa čezmejnega sodelovanja Slovenija-Italija 2007-2013 iz sredstev Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj in nacionalnih sredstev.

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FIGURES of attraction n of registrations

The growing curve of registrations: up to 181 on the day of the Conference

Progetti finanziati nell’ambito del Programma per la Cooperazione Transfrontaliera Italia-Slovenia 2007-2013, dal Fondo europeo di sviluppo regionale e dai fondi nazionali. Projekti sofinancirani v okviru Programa čezmejnega sodelovanja Slovenija-Italija 2007-2013 iz sredstev Evropskega sklada za regionalni razvoj in nacionalnih sredstev.

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The geographical origin of the participants

FIGURES of attraction not just a local event

TRL analysis of 65 posters displaying biomedical research results

• What are the results of this investment? – EARLY STAGE RESEARCH-TRL 1-3

• Will new scientific knowledge produce any technological innovation? – UNPREDICTABLE

• Are these researchers ready to successfully compete in Horizon 2020 calls? – NOT YET

OUTCOME

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0

10

20

30

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9N/A

N.posters

TRL

TRL analysis of 5 new products + 1 service developed in Innov-H2O

New products • New vaccine against forunculosis of

trouts – TRL 8

• New vaccine against RTFS of trouts – TRL 5

• Optimisation of vaccine against RTFS of trouts

– TRL 4

• New anti-infective agent to preserve fish eggs

– TRL 3

• New method to selectively destroy antibiotic residuals in fish plants

– TRL 6

New services

• Water quality analysis in 15 plants TRL 9 – Ammonia, nitrite and nitrate

never exceeded the safety threshold

– Oxygen was below normal level risk of lower productivity, lower income.

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Research2Business - Q&A

Trans2Care

• Did we find SMEs partners to apply our research results? – NO

• Did we find SMEs partners to apply for future projects? – YES

• Did we find SMEs partners to place our researchers? – NO

• Shall we continue our interactions with SMEs? – Definitely YES

• Did SMEs like meeting research? – Definitely YES

Innov-H2O

• Did we find SMEs partners to apply our research results? – YES

• Did we find SMEs partners to apply for future projects? – YES

• Did we find SMEs partners to place our researchers? – NO

• Shall we continue our interactions with SMEs? – Definitely YES

• Did SMEs like meeting research? – Definitely YES

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It depended on the academic/non-academic balance

Lesson learned: Universities as poor performers in Thematic Objective 1 of

Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 – Research&Innovation Research without Innovation?

• Graduate, post-graduate and PhD students receive very little if any TTI fundamentals. – Teaching staff has poor or no grip on fundamentals of TTI.

• No “elastic” interaction schemes with SMEs. – joint development of research, joint mentoring, joint publication, joint

grant applications …

• No knowledge about Technology Readiness Levels, or similar organising tool to guide research towards applications.

• Absence of research management in most/all academic Partners. THIS SITUATION SHOULD BE FIXED AT THE TOP LEVEL OF GOVERNANCE,

ALIGNING ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS WITH T.O. 1 - R&I

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Another lesson learned-the other side of the coin: Universities as a gold mine for Thematic Objective 11 of

Cohesion Policy 2014-2020 – efficiency of Public Administration

• An academic Lead Partner has internal multidisciplinary knowldge and can provide consultancy for project management and territorial cooperation in general, for free.

• There is a spill-over of administrative knowledge to smaller, non-academic partners (e.g. SMEs, associations, etc.). – Non academic Partners have access to adminstrative and professional

guidance (if not assistance).

• In principle, an academic partner has strong institutional links with the public authorities (given the standard size of universities in a region--they are often the main economic body). – this is automatically transfered to non-academic partners

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Critical points to address (seen from the University standpoint)

• SMEs or Tech Transfer companies in the partnership – must be technically and scientifically coherent with the

goals of the project (besides having Tech Transfer business)

• Consultants/external advisors/technical assistance – very useful if properly chosen – MUST NOT REPLACE THE COORDINATOR

• Academic partners – too much involved in basic research and academic targets – too little involved in territorial cooperation (no

interest/time to interact with project stakeholders)

RISK OF PROJECT WRECKAGE

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OCCUPATIONAL STATUS OF RESEARCHERS 1 year after the end of both projects

Trans2Care aftermath

• 100 % employed in R&D – 50% permanent

– 50% non-permanent

Innov-H2O aftermath

• 100 % employed in R&D – 100% non-permanent

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What worked well for both projects A new mix of skills

R&D management/administration

TTI (early stage)

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Thank you for your attention

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Sabina Passamonti, MD, PhD University of Trieste

spassamonti@units.it +393665898629