Entrepreneurship for academics

Tech Transfer UHasselt for researchers

The bookshelves of universities and colleges contain a great deal of knowledge which could benefit companies. Financial support from the Flemish government should enable all knowledge institutions to establish a unit that will exploit opportunities for harnessing more knowledge to benefit the economy and thereby achieve greater valorisation of research. Limburg Province, in the context of the Limburg Plan, has given this additional support. Two years ago Hasselt University could therefore embark on the expansion of a central Tech Transfer unit for Hasselt University and the Limburg colleges PHL, Xios and KHLim. Tech Transfer concentrates on creating economic value in accordance with the knowledge-skills-cash principle.

The first way is to cooperate with companies at the level of research. This can vary from ready-made standard analyses to long-term collaborative projects with an innovative research component. The knowledge institutions offer their expertise built up over the years, not only to multinationals but also to SMEs to stimulate (regional) development. Tech Transfer UHasselt is also closely involved with two knowledge platforms that were recently set up on the initiative of Hasselt University, namely LifeTechLimburg.be and Cleantechplatform.be. The purpose of these platforms is to stimulate collaborative relationships between knowledge institutions and participants in regional innovation. The knowledge platform LifeTechLimburg.be was set up to promote the interaction among knowledge institutions, life sciences companies and large Limburg hospitals. The multi-sectoral Cleantechplatform.be is an incubator where different parties work together around the cleantech theme. In this way the platform can activate the knowledge that exists within the institutions concerned and stimulate the development of company-specific knowledge that in turn is used to create new business projects in the field.

Secondly, whenever something new is invented at the university, Tech Transfer checks whether any practical applications and marketable end products are possible. If this is the case, a patent application is submitted as quickly as possible. In this way the research results and, in particular, their possible valorisation potential are protected. Interested companies can then buy the patent at a later stage or apply for a licence for their own use. On the other hand, a patent portfolio is a solid foundation for a high-tech spin-off.

This third valorisation path, the creation of a spin-off, appeals most to the imagination but is not that simple in practice. An important way to stimulate the creation of spin-offs is to promote entrepreneurship among students and researchers. Hasselt University already does this specifically among its students via the public limited company Ondernemerstalent and business cafés where students can meet experienced entrepreneurs (also see next paragraph). For researchers, among other things, a ‘Master Class’ is offered in which they are taken through all the stages in the creation of a spin-off by developing an actual business case. In such a workshop they can get a taste of entrepreneurship and, most importantly, decide if this career prospect appeals to them. For it is misleading to think that you can turn every researcher into an entrepreneur. Tech Transfer has therefore tried to find an alternative way of approaching the start-up of a spin-off. In this model the researcher – with intimate knowledge of the new technology and its possible applications – is brought together with an experienced entrepreneur who has a clear idea of the market – the anticipated trends, pricing, consumer preferences etc. Often the entrepreneur concerned develops into the CEO of the spin-off, whereas the researcher is more likely to end up in the role of CTO or R&D manager. “In this way we bring these two worlds together in a network from which new businesses can grow” says Ann-Pascale Bijnens, director of Tech Transfer at Hasselt University. “The aim is to create one or two spin-offs per year. When we were writing a business plan around diagnostic markers for multiple sclerosis (MS) for example, we got into contact with a spin-off from the University of Bristol which was developing a type of vaccine against MS. The combination of the two business plans – our testing and their treatment – formed a strong entity that could ultimately be financed.”