EU-China Cross-Border Innovation & Technology Transfer Project

Context and vision:

How can universities create societal and economic impact in an international context? The EU-China Cross-Border Innovation & Technology Transfer project group will cover the research aspects related to the specific case of Europe and China. There is no contradiction between,

(1) the expectation of policy makers to ensure direct benefits of innovation and valorisation within the region through subsidising strategic and applied research projects, and creating privileged conditions of early seed investments, and

(2) the need for extending these support measures to joint international and global university collaborative R&D and valorisation.

Confidence, trust, joint funding initiatives and multiplied success can be created, provided adequate management and policy options are taken for partnership agreements.

BACES, as a university network, is open to new societal models in an international setting, in particular concerning China and Europe. It is the ideal platform to investigate the benefit from international knowledge transfer and valorisation and to explore the conditions which could maximise success rates. As a neutral platform (collaborating with, but also independently of, government and economic stakeholders), BACES has the required multidisciplinary expertise to find solutions for the tension between regional interests on the one hand, and the international scope of valorisation projects on the other, and to make proposals for best practices and implementation models. The project will confront theory and practice and explore the required multidisciplinary inputs needed for the domain.

Implementation and milestones (2016-2018)

In order to take this change process forward, a centre of excellence will be built in this area. This will be done by addressing the following research gaps:

• Guidelines, lessons learned, and good practices in an international (EU-China) valorisation context are still under construction. In particular the questions on how to practically use appropriate vehicles for valorisation (patenting, licensing, start-up formation, join research agreements, contract research, consulting, informal exchange,…) within the EU-China context need answering.
• How can universities in Europe and China implement international knowledge/technology transfer and academic entrepreneurship in their curricula, merging both the valorisation and education mission of the university network?
• How can the network and the existing partnerships of the mother university be used when creating new economic activity?
• How can governments support and benefit from international technology transfer?

Milestones set out (2016-2018):

• Achieve involvement of BCR institutions and the high-tech industry
• Further develop the ongoing Multilayered Collaboration Model between Brussels Capital Region and Chinese Urban Regions (results of the IUTT project)
• Realise three workshops on the topic within the period 2016-2017, including one on ‘Innovation in an International Context’