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Module 3: Commercialisation Assessments in EU Projects

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The training curriculum is currently undergoing final revisions and quality checks. All materials will be released shortly. Until the official release, please refrain from using, distributing, or implementing any part of these resources.

Learning Objectives

  • Learning Objective 1 (LO1): Recognise the formal requirements for when to perform a commercialisation assessment within the context of an EU-funded project.

Total Module Duration

1.5 hours (excluding pre-session activity)

Learning Objective 1

LO1: Recognise the formal requirements for when to perform commercialisation assessment within the context of an EU-funded project.

Learning Activities

  • Pre-session activity: This entails learners following the self-paced online materials (Resources 1–5) along with recommended additional and optional reading, as well as preparing preliminary considerations for commercialisation of research they consider relevant in their field.
  • In-class recap session (45 mins): To go over the main terminology items and concepts related to legal, ethical and contractual considerations and challenges that arise in commercialisation assessments in EU projects. This recaps the pre-session reading of Resources 1–5 (more detail of what the instructor can go over is provided in Instructor Notes).
  • In-class discussion (45 mins): Learners should discuss the pre-prepared considerations for commercialisation of research.
    • Case study: A junior researcher is working on an AI project dedicated to extracting aggregated use cases out of datasets on ethical assessments of research proposals (a collection of assessment requests combined with responses from the ethical committee). For the discussion, consider the following points:
      • Risks of disclosure of personal data (anonymisation)
      • Risks of identification of individual research proposals (aggregation)
      • Risks of disclosure of trade secrets
      • Risks of bias in the dataset

Materials to Prepare

  • Notes and points for the recap activity (draw from Instructor Notes).
  • Case study for discussion in class.

Instructor Notes

This module has been included to provide a more tangible and practical learning outcome for aspiring data stewards. As most European research institutes and universities deal with EU-funded projects, we chose this as the example to work with. Instructors may instead prefer to use a different case study more relevant to their national or institutional context.

Pre-session preparatory activity:

  • The activity should take place before class to ensure all participants have a basic understanding of the framework for applying for EU funding. 
  • If basic information is available about the professional backgrounds of the learners in class, consider narrowing down the topic to focus on relevance to the fields / disciplines represented in the group. In particular, consider which issues related to commercialisation (for instance, selection of the appropriate funding programme, choosing the consortium partners, the shaping of rights and obligations in terms of IP management strategy are the most relevant to the audience, to prepare for potential questions during the in-class discussion).

In-class recap session:

  • For the recap, consider presenting a quick overview of the main concepts relevant to the Learning Objective, combined with some questions to the room. Sample questions can include:
    • What to include in a commercialisation plan?
    • What are Technology Transfer Offices and what is their role?
    • What is a European Partnership and who can participate in one?
    • What are the known difficulties and issues in Technology Transfer scenarios?

In-class discussion:

  • A selection of learners from the group should then present for open discussion their pre-prepared considerations for commercialisation of research, including attempting to identify legal issues and laws relevant to the learners' home institutions pertaining to reuse of data and other research outputs covered by intellectual property rights and data laws.
  • Instructor should consider following the Train the Trainer course in Resource 10 to get an overview of the issues and how to guide learners in the discussion exercise.

Resources

Mandatory resources:

  1. Bar-Zeev, Yoram. Preparing a Horizon 2020 Commercialisation Plan -- What to Ask? Zenodo, 19 Feb. 2019. DOI.org (Datacite), https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.2572508.
  2. European Partnerships - Frequently Asked Questions. European Commission, 29 Mar. 2021, https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/7957df7c-0783-4e7f-8874-1cd6d1b3c1ba_en?filename=ec_rtd_european-partnerships-faq.pdf.
  3. IP Management in EU funded projects with a special focus on Marie Sklodowska Curie Actions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot8J0hU-bbo.
  4. Technology Transfer Organisations, WIPO, https://www.wipo.int/en/web/technology-transfer/organizations.
  5. The Role of Technology Transfer Offices in Innovation and the Challenges They Face, ODELLE Technology, https://odelletechnology.com/the-role-of-technology-transfer-offices-in-innovation-and-the-challenges-they-face/.

Supplementary materials:

  1. Cartalos, Odysseas, et al. The Evaluation Process of Research Commercialization Proposals and Its Links to University Technology Transfer (TT) Strategy: A Case Study. From Agriscience to Agribusiness, edited by Nicholas Kalaitzandonakes et al., Springer International Publishing, 2018, pp. 277--315. DOI.org (Crossref), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-67958-7_14.
  2. Bar-Zeev, Yoram. Top Reasons You Need a Marketing and Business Plan for Your Horizon 2020 Research Project. Zenodo, 28 Apr. 2019. DOI.org (Datacite), https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.2653073.
  3. European Partnerships: Horizon Europe Infographics https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/knowledge-publications-tools-and-data/publications/all-publications/european-partnerships-horizon-europe-infographics_en.
  4. European Commission, How to draft a proposal on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHbc3Reu9Ts.
  5. Skills4EOSC Evidence-Informed Decision-Making Train of Trainers Course 2: Module07 - Lecture01 -- Open Science and Non-Personal Data, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0VdCRlnNy8.
  6. European Commission, How to evaluate Dissemination, Exploitation and Communication in Horizon Europe proposals, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tFiOCiVZJg.
  7. European Commission, Grant Management Process on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMXMd6_rbBQ.
  8. European Commission, Horizon2020 evaluation brief: https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/data/support/expert/h2020_expert-briefing_en.pdf.
  9. Communication from the Commission --- Guidelines on the application of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to technology transfer agreements, OJ C 89, 28.3.2014, p. 3--50 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX:32014R0316.