A professional qualification for tech transfer professionals

06 Feb 2008 | News
The exchange of knowledge requires professional people who understand how to do it – including how to manage IP, says Gilles Capart from ProTon Europe.

Gilles Capart: no point in piling up guidelines.

Education in general, and continued education in particular, is one of the pillars of innovation in Europe. The exchange of knowledge requires properly educated professional people who understand how to do it – including how to manage intellectual property.

There is no point in piling up guidelines unless you have the professionals in place at both ends who understand how to convert opportunities into successful collaborations – without creating new barriers. And we need professionals that speak the same language, who understand each other. Achieve that, and you avoid many of the problems encountered in collaborative research.

That’s why we at ProTon Europe, the European association of knowledge transfer offices from public research organisations, are proposing the development of a qualification framework that defines the standards of competencies and skills of this new profession. This framework should be consistent with the European Qualification Framework for continued education.

Such a qualification would effectively define the profession of technology transfer. It would also make the profession more attractive to students as a potential career.

ProTon Europe is a member of the Science|Business Network.


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