› INFORMACIJSKA DRUZBA Zbornik 26. mednarodne multikonference Zvezek E INFORMATION SOCIETY Proceedings of the 26th International Multiconference Volume E 16. Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij 16th International Technology Transfer Conference Urednici • Editors: Tinkara Mlinar, Spela Stres IS2023 Zbornik 26. mednarodne multikonference INFORMACIJSKA DRUŽBA – IS 2023 Zvezek E Proceedings of the 26th International Multiconference INFORMATION SOCIETY – IS 2023 Volume E 16. Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij 16th International Technology Transfer Conference Urednici / Editors Tinkara Mlinar, Špela Stres http://is.ijs.si 11. in 13. oktober 2023 / 11 and 13 October 2023 Ljubljana, Slovenia Urednici: Tinkara Mlinar Služba za vsebinsko podporo projektom, prenos tehnologij in inovacije Institut »Jožef Stefan«, Ljubljana Špela Stres Direktorjeva pisarna Institut »Jožef Stefan«, Ljubljana Založnik: Institut »Jožef Stefan«, Ljubljana Priprava zbornika: Mitja Lasič, Vesna Lasič, Mateja Mavrič Oblikovanje naslovnice: Vesna Lasič Dostop do e-publikacije: http://library.ijs.si/Stacks/Proceedings/InformationSociety Ljubljana, oktober 2023 Informacijska družba ISSN 2630-371X Kataložni zapis o publikaciji (CIP) pripravili v Narodni in univerzitetni knjižnici v Ljubljani COBISS.SI-ID 170891779 ISBN 978-961-264-283-9 (PDF) PREDGOVOR MULTIKONFERENCI INFORMACIJSKA DRUŽBA 2023 Šestindvajseta multikonferenca Informacijska družba se odvija v obdobju izjemnega razvoja za umetno inteligenco, računalništvo in informatiko, za celotno informacijsko družbo. Generativna umetna inteligenca je s programi kot ChatGPT dosegla izjemen napredek na poti k superinteligenci, k singularnosti in razcvetu človeške civilizacije. Uresničujejo se napovedi strokovnjakov, da bodo omenjena področna ključna za obstoj in razvoj človeštva, zato moramo pozornost usmeriti na njih, jih hitro uvesti v osnovno in srednje šolstvo in vsakdan posameznika in skupnosti. Po drugi strani se poleg lažnih novic pojavljajo tudi lažne enciklopedije, lažne znanosti ter »ploščate Zemlje«, nadaljuje se zapostavljanje znanstvenih spoznanj, metod, zmanjševanje človekovih pravic in družbenih vrednot. Na vseh nas je, da izzive današnjice primerno obravnavamo, predvsem pa pomagamo pri uvajanju znanstvenih spoznanj in razčiščevanju zmot. Ena pogosto omenjanih v zadnjem letu je eksistencialna nevarnost umetne inteligence, ki naj bi ogrožala človeštvo tako kot jedrske vojne. Hkrati pa nihče ne poda vsaj za silo smiselnega scenarija, kako naj bi se to zgodilo – recimo, kako naj bi 100x pametnejši GPT ogrozil ljudi. Letošnja konferenca poleg čisto tehnoloških izpostavlja pomembne integralne teme, kot so okolje, zdravstvo, politika depopulacije, ter rešitve, ki jih za skoraj vse probleme prinaša umetna inteligenca. V takšnem okolju je ključnega pomena poglobljena analiza in diskurz, ki lahko oblikujeta najboljše pristope k upravljanju in izkoriščanju tehnologij. Imamo veliko srečo, da gostimo vrsto izjemnih mislecev, znanstvenikov in strokovnjakov, ki skupaj v delovnem in akademsko odprtem okolju prinašajo bogastvo znanja in dialoga. Verjamemo, da je njihova prisotnost in udeležba ključna za oblikovanje bolj inkluzivne, varne in trajnostne informacijske družbe. Za razcvet. Letos smo v multikonferenco povezali deset odličnih neodvisnih konferenc, med njimi »Legende računalništva«, s katero postavljamo nov mehanizem promocije informacijske družbe. IS 2023 zajema okoli 160 predstavitev, povzetkov in referatov v okviru samostojnih konferenc in delavnic, skupaj pa se je konference udeležilo okrog 500 udeležencev. Prireditev so spremljale okrogle mize in razprave ter posebni dogodki, kot je svečana podelitev nagrad. Izbrani prispevki bodo izšli tudi v posebni številki revije Informatica (http://www.informatica.si/), ki se ponaša s 46-letno tradicijo odlične znanstvene revije. Multikonferenco Informacijska družba 2023 sestavljajo naslednje samostojne konference: • Odkrivanje znanja in podatkovna središča • Demografske in družinske analize • Legende računalništva in informatike • Konferenca o zdravi dolgoživosti • Miti in resnice o varovanju okolja • Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij • Digitalna vključenost v informacijski družbi – DIGIN 2023 • Slovenska konferenca o umetni inteligenci + DATASCIENCE • Kognitivna znanost • Vzgoja in izobraževanje v informacijski družbi • Zaključna svečana prireditev konference Soorganizatorji in podporniki konference so različne raziskovalne institucije in združenja, med njimi ACM Slovenija, SLAIS za umetno inteligenco, DKZ za kognitivno znanost in Inženirska akademija Slovenije (IAS). V imenu organizatorjev konference se zahvaljujemo združenjem in institucijam, še posebej pa udeležencem za njihove dragocene prispevke in priložnost, da z nami delijo svoje izkušnje o informacijski družbi. Zahvaljujemo se tudi recenzentom za njihovo pomoč pri recenziranju. S podelitvijo nagrad, še posebej z nagrado Michie-Turing, se avtonomna stroka s področja opredeli do najbolj izstopajočih dosežkov. Nagrado Michie-Turing za izjemen življenjski prispevek k razvoju in promociji informacijske družbe je prejel prof. dr. Andrej Brodnik. Priznanje za dosežek leta pripada Benjaminu Bajdu za zlato medaljo na računalniški olimpijadi. »Informacijsko limono« za najmanj primerno informacijsko tematiko je prejela nekompatibilnost zdravstvenih sistemov v Sloveniji, »informacijsko jagodo« kot najboljšo potezo pa dobi ekipa RTV za portal dostopno.si. Čestitke nagrajencem! Mojca Ciglarič, predsednica programskega odbora Matjaž Gams, predsednik organizacijskega odbora i FOREWORD - INFORMATION SOCIETY 2023 The twenty-sixth Information Society multi-conference is taking place during a period of exceptional development for artificial intelligence, computing, and informatics, encompassing the entire information society. Generative artificial intelligence has made significant progress towards superintelligence, towards singularity, and the flourishing of human civilization with programs like ChatGPT. Experts' predictions are coming true, asserting that the mentioned fields are crucial for humanity's existence and development. Hence, we must direct our attention to them, swiftly integrating them into primary, secondary education, and the daily lives of individuals and communities. On the other hand, alongside fake news, we witness the emergence of false encyclopaedias, pseudo-sciences, and flat Earth theories, along with the continuing neglect of scientific insights and methods, the diminishing of human rights, and societal values. It is upon all of us to appropriately address today's challenges, mainly assisting in the introduction of scientific knowledge and clearing up misconceptions. A frequently mentioned concern over the past year is the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence, supposedly endangering humanity as nuclear wars do. Yet, nobody provides a reasonably coherent scenario of how this might happen, say, how a 100x smarter GPT could endanger people. This year's conference, besides purely technological aspects, highlights important integral themes like the environment, healthcare, depopulation policies, and solutions brought by artificial intelligence to almost all problems. In such an environment, in-depth analysis and discourse are crucial, shaping the best approaches to managing and exploiting technologies. We are fortunate to host a series of exceptional thinkers, scientists, and experts who bring a wealth of knowledge and dialogue in a collaborative and academically open environment. We believe their presence and participation are key to shaping a more inclusive, safe, and sustainable information society. For flourishing. This year, we connected ten excellent independent conferences into the multi-conference, including "Legends of Computing", which introduces a new mechanism for promoting the information society. IS 2023 encompasses around 160 presentations, abstracts, and papers within standalone conferences and workshops. In total about 500 participants attended the conference. The event was accompanied by panel discussions, debates, and special events like the award ceremony. Selected contributions will also be published in a special issue of the journal Informatica (http://www.informatica.si/), boasting a 46-year tradition of being an excellent scientific journal. The Information Society 2023 multi-conference consists of the following independent conferences: • Data Mining and Data Warehouse - SIKDD • Demographic and Family Analysis • Legends of Computing and Informatics • Healthy Longevity Conference • Myths and Truths about Environmental Protection • International Conference on Technology Transfer • Digital Inclusion in the Information Society - DIGIN 2023 • Slovenian Conference on Artificial Intelligence + DATASCIENCE • Cognitive Science • Education and Training in the Information Society • Closing Conference Ceremony Co-organizers and supporters of the conference include various research institutions and associations, among them ACM Slovenia, SLAIS for Artificial Intelligence, DKZ for Cognitive Science, and the Engineering Academy of Slovenia (IAS). On behalf of the conference organizers, we thank the associations and institutions, and especially the participants for their valuable contributions and the opportunity to share their experiences about the information society with us. We also thank the reviewers for their assistance in reviewing. With the awarding of prizes, especially the Michie-Turing Award, the autonomous profession from the field identifies the most outstanding achievements. Prof. Dr. Andrej Brodnik received the Michie-Turing Award for his exceptional lifetime contribution to the development and promotion of the information society. The Achievement of the Year award goes to Benjamin Bajd, gold medal winner at the Computer Olympiad. The "Information Lemon" for the least appropriate information move was awarded to the incompatibility of information systems in the Slovenian healthcare, while the "Information Strawberry" for the best move goes to the RTV SLO team for portal dostopno.si. Congratulations to the winners! Mojca Ciglarič, Chair of the Program Committee Matjaž Gams, Chair of the Organizing Committee ii KONFERENČNI ODBORI CONFERENCE COMMITTEES International Programme Committee Organizing Committee Vladimir Bajic, South Africa Matjaž Gams, chair Heiner Benking, Germany Mitja Luštrek Se Woo Cheon, South Korea Lana Zemljak Howie Firth, UK Vesna Koricki Olga Fomichova, Russia Mitja Lasič Vladimir Fomichov, Russia Blaž Mahnič Vesna Hljuz Dobric, Croatia Mateja Mavrič Alfred Inselberg, Israel Jay Liebowitz, USA Huan Liu, Singapore Henz Martin, Germany Marcin Paprzycki, USA Claude Sammut, Australia Jiri Wiedermann, Czech Republic Xindong Wu, USA Yiming Ye, USA Ning Zhong, USA Wray Buntine, Australia Bezalel Gavish, USA Gal A. Kaminka, Israel Mike Bain, Australia Michela Milano, Italy Derong Liu, Chicago, USA Toby Walsh, Australia Sergio Campos-Cordobes, Spain Shabnam Farahmand, Finland Sergio Crovella, Italy Programme Committee Mojca Ciglarič, chair Marjan Heričko Baldomir Zajc Bojan Orel Borka Jerman Blažič Džonova Blaž Zupan Franc Solina Gorazd Kandus Boris Žemva Viljan Mahnič Urban Kordeš Leon Žlajpah Cene Bavec Marjan Krisper Niko Zimic Tomaž Kalin Andrej Kuščer Rok Piltaver Jozsef Györkös Jadran Lenarčič Toma Strle Tadej Bajd Borut Likar Tine Kolenik Jaroslav Berce Janez Malačič Franci Pivec Mojca Bernik Olga Markič Uroš Rajkovič Marko Bohanec Dunja Mladenič Borut Batagelj Ivan Bratko Franc Novak Tomaž Ogrin Andrej Brodnik Vladislav Rajkovič Aleš Ude Dušan Caf Grega Repovš Bojan Blažica Saša Divjak Ivan Rozman Matjaž Kljun Tomaž Erjavec Niko Schlamberger Robert Blatnik Bogdan Filipič Stanko Strmčnik Erik Dovgan Andrej Gams Jurij Šilc Špela Stres Matjaž Gams Jurij Tasič Anton Gradišek Mitja Luštrek Denis Trček Marko Grobelnik Andrej Ule Nikola Guid Boštjan Vilfan iii iv KAZALO / TABLE OF CONTENTS 16. Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij / 16th International Technology Transfer Conference ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 PREDGOVOR / FOREWORD ............................................................................................................................... 3 PROGRAMSKI ODBORI / PROGRAMME COMMITTEES ............................................................................... 5 ZAHVALE / ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................................................. 10 Research Infrastructures and Cooperation with Industry / Arbeiter Jana, Brečko Barbara, Bučar Maja ............. 11 Randomized Optimization: From Algorithmic Studies to Industrial Applications / Filipič Bogdan ................... 14 Creating Conditions for an Active Role of Public Administrations in Academia-Industry Cooperation: an Overview of Critical Points through the ExSACT Project / Fric Urška, Lutman Tomaž, Mlinar Tinkara ..... 18 Technology Transfer Office as a Support Structure for Innovation Management: The Experience of Latvia / Krumina Justine ................................................................................................................................................ 22 A Statutory Model for Organising the Process of Intellectual Property Protection and Commercialisation in Polish Public Universities / Rutkowska-Sowa Magdalena ............................................................................. 24 "A Comprehensive Analysis of Portuguese National and Regional Policy Instruments for Technology Transfer .......................................................................................................................................................................... 28 Offices" / Da Costa Helena Rosário, Cruz Katiuska ............................................................................................ 28 Compulsory Licensing in Belarus / Uspenskiy Alexander, Uspenski Aliaksei, Prybylski Maksim .................... 33 Assessing the Contribution of Hubs to Uganda's Innovation Ecosystem, A Case Study on the Role of Innovation Hubs in Kampala / Amanya Linda .................................................................................................................. 36 The Importance and Benefits of the Technology Transfer Ecosystem (TTE) / Mrak Matej ................................ 41 The Interconnection of Property Technology and Intellectual Property: Literature Review / Ribičić Marijana . 45 An Information-Centric Perspective on Data / Rožanec Jože M., Montero Santos Lola, Delinavelli Giacomo .. 50 Fostering Research & Innovation in AI through Regulatory Sandboxes / Montero Santos Lola, Rožanec Jože M. ..................................................................................................................................................................... 54 New Initiatives for Knowledge Transfer between Industry and Academia: The INDUSAC Project / Odić Duško, Mrgole Urška, Trobec Marjeta ............................................................................................................ 58 Indeks avtorjev / Author index ................................................................................................................... 63 v vi Zbornik 26. mednarodne multikonference INFORMACIJSKA DRUŽBA – IS 2023 Zvezek E Proceedings of the 26th International Multiconference INFORMATION SOCIETY – IS 2023 Volume E 16. Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij 16th International Technology Transfer Conference Urednici / Editors Tinkara Mlinar, Špela Stres http://is.ijs.si 11. in 13. oktober 2023 / 11 and 13 October 2023 Ljubljana, Slovenia 1 2 PREDGOVOR / FOREWORD Dear guests, experts, panellists, participants, It is a great honour to welcome you to the national event of the European Union campaign to boost knowledge valorisation, which takes place during this year’s Science Month and the traditional 16th International Technology Transfer Conference. We gathered today as a community of professionals, whose everyday work is closely intertwined with science and research, as well as innovation. One of the main missions of the Jožef Stefan Institute is the accumulation and dissemination of knowledge at the frontiers of natural sciences, life sciences and engineering. Equally important is our ambition to turn research results into sustainable products and solutions to improve the quality of life, including environmental benefits, as we contribute to the development of several key enabling technologies, such as quantum and nanotechnologies, biotechnologies, new materials, communication and computer technologies, and nuclear engineering, to mention some of them. Every day, we are faced with many new challenges, and as scientists, we are entrusted to deliver appropriate answers and solutions, either on a national or global level. It is important we do not betray this trust. Throughout the years, especially since the organisation of the 1st International Technology Transfer Conference, we have been continuously learning from our friends in esteemed institutions across the world, which importantly contributed to the development of the technology transfer system within the Jožef Stefan Institute. Additionally, the new gained knowledge enabled us to become an active partner in building a national support innovation system in close collaboration with the competent ministries, agencies, support organizations, and partner public research organizations. We helped address numerous challenges, such as securing funding sources for innovation within spin-out companies during the proof of concept phases, proposing changes in national legislation related to research and innovation, spin-out development, and establishing and coordinating two consecutive consortia of technology transfer offices at leading Slovenian research institutions and universities. Looking ahead, the Central and Eastern European Technology Transfer (CEETT) initiative presents a promising investment program in collaboration with the EIF, and Slovenian and Croatian development banks. This initiative will offer spin-out teams the unique opportunity to secure investment pre-incorporation. Furthermore, we celebrate a significant legislative milestone with the incorporation of spin-outs into the new national Act on Scientific Research and Innovation. Since 2022, Slovenian public research organizations can take equity in their spin-outs, marking a pivotal recognition of spin-outs in national law. This breakthrough, while promising, necessitates practical implementation, offering both challenges and opportunities that we shall explore in our discussions. At the commencement of the 16th International Conference on Technology Transfer, we eagerly anticipate reflecting on the journey taken. Many participants from the Conference and especially at the competition for the best innovation from public research institutions have embarked on the initial stages of commercialization and some of them successfully established spin-out companies based on technologies and inventions developed within their research institutions. The entrepreneurial researchers' pitch competition emerged as a pivotal platform, often marking the teams' initial exposure to the prospect of establishing their own ventures. The competition guided them through the vital stages of developing their first business model and crafting an impactful pitch. To date, nearly 100 entrepreneurial research 3 teams have engaged in the competitions, resulting in the awarding of 30 winners. We also take immense pleasure in the growth of the conference in the last three years, notably through the inclusion of peer-reviewed contributions from researchers specializing in the field of technology transfer. This expansion augments the knowledge base and elevates awareness surrounding the transfer of technologies and innovations. Finally, let's reflect on the evolving organizational structure of the technology transfer organization and cooperation with industry at the Jožef Stefan Institute. The team of dedicated individuals over the past decade and a half has stabilized the Institute’s support for researchers in the commercialisation and advancement of their innovations. Thank you for being a part of this incredible journey, and here's to the promising future that lies ahead. Organizing Committee of the 16th ITTC 4 ORGANIZACIJSKI ODBOR, PARTNERJI IN SPONZORJI / ORGANIZING COMMITTE, PARTNERS AND FINANCERS The main organizer of the 16th ITTC Conference is Jožef Stefan Institute. The organizing committee: Dr. Špela Stres, MBA, LLM, Jožef Stefan Institute Robert Blatnik, M. Sc., Jožef Stefan Institute Marjeta Trobec, M. Sc., Jožef Stefan institute Urška Mrgole, Jožef Stefan Institute Petra Žagar, M. Sc., Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation The scientiffic programme committee: Scientific papers on technology transfer and intellectual property Niko Schlamberger, President of Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA Doc. Dr. Tamara Besednjak Valič, Faculty of Information Studies in Novo Mesto Prof. Alexandru Marin, University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest Co-financing The event is organized and co-financed in the frame of the Enterprise Europe Network (GA project number 101052776). 5 Collaboration The 16th ITTC is organized in collaboration with the International multiconference Information Society (IS2023). EUROPEAN UNION CAMPAIGN TO BOOST KNOWLEDGE VALORISATION The 16th ITTC is taking place under the umbrella of the EU campaign to boost knowledge valorisation. THE SCIENCE MONTH The 16th ITTC is organised within the Science Month that is coordinated by the Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Innovation. 6 Associated Partners Agriculture Institute of Slovenia Faculty of Information Studies Geološki zavod Slovenije National Institute of Biology Rudolfovo – Science and Technology Centre Novo mesto 7 University of Ljubljana University of Maribor University of Primorska 8 Promotion Partners Centre of excellence for integrated approaches in chemistry and biology of proteins LUI - Ljubljana University Incubator RRA Koroška – the Regional Development Agency for Koroška ZRS Bistra Ptuj – Scientific Research Centre Bistra Ptuj 9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors and organizing committee of the Conference would like to express cordial thanks to all who helped make the 16th International Technology Transfer Conference a success. We would like to acknowledge the valuable contributions of the members of the scientific programme committee: • Niko Schlamberger, President of Slovenian Society INFORMATIKA • Doc. Tamara Besednjak Valič, Faculty of Information Studies in Novo Mesto • Prof. Alexandru Marin, Politehnica University of Bucharest for their contribution to the scientific programme, review of the scientific contributions, and selection for publication in these Conference proceedings. Our special thanks go to the evaluation commission members: • Alexandre Massart, Managing Partner Blend Ventures Ltd. • Ioannis Sagias, Deputy Head of Unit for Valorisation Policies and IPR DG for Research and Innovation, EC • Jure Tomc, CEO Cresco Innovation & CEO JT Business Development • Andrea Di Anselmo, President of META Group for their evaluation of written technology commercialization proposals and selection of winning teams, authors of inventive technologies with the best potential for commercialization of the technologies, developed at Public Research Organizations. 10 Research Infrastructures and Coopeation with Industry Jana Arbeiter Barbara Brečko Maja Bučar Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences Faculty of Social Sciences University of Ljubljana University of Ljubljana University of Ljubljana Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia jana.arbeiter@fdv.uni-lj.si barbara.brecko@fdv.uni-lj.si maja.bucar@fdv.uni-lj.si ABSTRACT had the ambition to also identify main barriers to closer cooperation and suggest possible policy actions to stimulate this The paper addresses the experience of European important cooperation. The findings of the survey were presented Strategic Framework on Research Infrastructure (ESFRI) at the ESFRI Forum in Brno, 2022 [4] as well as by the ESFRI Landmarks in their work with partners from industry. While the Drafting Group on RI – industry cooperation. Some of the main mission of the RIs is to provide infrastructure support to observations and findings from the discussion at these fora have scientific work, they are also cooperating intensively with the been integrated into the text as well. The end objective of our industry. Our survey among 42 ESFRI Landmarks showed that analysis was to contribute to the implementation of ERA Action as many as 82% of them have a strong and well-established 8 [5], and in this way to the creation of competitive innovation cooperation with partners. However, there are still several ecosystem at EU level. barriers to cooperation on both sides, with the management of intellectual property being an important one. KEYWORDS 2 THE SURVEY Research infrastructures, industry, cooperation, barriers, The survey on RIs industry cooperation was prepared by the intellectual property. support team to ESFRI Chair in 2022[6]. The questionnaire was sent to 43 ESFRI Landmarks. 35 replies were received. Of these, 49% Landmarks responded that they regularly cooperate with 1 INTRODUCTION industry, while 34% do so occasionally [7]. This confirmed our One of the most important achievements of the European initial assumption that the cooperation between RIs and industry Research Area (ERA) has been the establishment of research is well established. It mostly takes place at national level [8]. infrastructures (RIs) at the European level. With coordination Most common form of cooperation is joint research projects, efforts of European Strategic Forum on Research Infrastructures which are either financed at the EU level or by the national (ESFRI), the roadmaps of EU RIs have been developed[1], a set research funds. RIs offer industry access to their equipment, offer of Working Groups[2] formed to support the work of RIs as well them various services, access to data, etc. They believe that as help provided by the ESFRI and EC to meet fully the cooperation with industry is beneficial to them and plan to objectives of RIs. The RIs are essential pillars supporting expand it: 72% of the respondents actively stimulate the European basic research, yet their impact extends beyond the cooperation. The tools to promote cooperation are various. RIs scientific community. They are facilities that provide resources involve industrial partners in decision-making bodies as and services for all research communities to conduct research and members of strategic/ scientific boards. Several reported on the foster innovation, suggesting that they intensively cooperate with establishment of specialized offices, which serve as contact industry as well. The cooperation includes also transfer of points for industry. Another way to promote cooperation is the knowledge/ technology developed jointly with using equipment preparation of special industry- focused days to present the or/ and data or/and testing facilities of the Ris. potential forms of cooperation and services they can offer. It is In their cooperation with industry, RIs often encounter similar interesting that RIs are engaged in so many different activities to problems as we can observe in the relationship between public promote cooperation although it is not very important in terms of research organizations (PROs) and private sector [3]. To identify revenue. At best, according to our survey, the RIs state that no the level and type of cooperation between RIs and industry, we more than 10% of their revenues are derived from industry. In prepared a special survey, sent to ESFRI Landmarks. The survey part, the reasons for this may lie in unclear regulations as to commercial activities of publicly- financed infrastructures in Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or some countries. classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full The importance of cooperation is reflected in the high percentage citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must of responses on the future plans to intensify the cooperation: as be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). many as 92% of the RI respondents wish to expand the Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). cooperation and plan to actively engage in this. One of the motivation factors is the fact that RIs can complement 11 traditionally insufficient financial resources received from the starting point in establishing the cooperation. This is often government(s) with the money from business sector. This may achieved best by regular exchange of personnel or by close enable them to invest in appropriate new research equipment as interaction of the key personnel from both partners working on a well as maintain the existing infrastructure, either directly particular issue. Here, the issue of motivation on the side of relevant for the research cooperation or expanding the options for individual researchers working in RIs, was identified as possible basic research. In times of increasing costs of investment in issue that needs special attention. The so called “liaison officer” sophisticated research equipment this is becoming increasingly in RI would need to be specifically stimulated to engage in important factor. cooperation with the industry, since this could mean that the Among the factors which may hinder cooperation the lack of traditional path of career progress through publications and interest on the side of industrial partners in their area of work was citations would be slowed down. To cooperate with industry most often cited by the RIs. However, several suggestions were especially in the area of knowledge/ technology transfer, provided as to the needed activities at the policy level as well as specialised staff is needed, which is often not available in Ris. at the level of RIs to promote and ease the cooperation, with a clear objective to make transfer of knowledge from RIs to 3.2 At the policy level industry smoother. Issues related to financing of the cooperation were identified as a barrier to cooperation. On one hand, some RIs mentioned that it is sometimes expected that since they receive public financing, 3 ACTIVITIES TO PROMOTE they should not be charging industrial partners for their services. COOPERATION On the other hand, the regulations in some cases make it too complicated to carry out commercialization of services to 3.1 At RI’s level industry. The lack of suitable business models de- stimulates To promote cooperation with industry, RIs themselves have some of the RIs to pursue cooperation more actively, so it was indicated that they should do more to increase the visibility of the suggested that a special platform, where sharing good practices services they are capable of offering. Various activities were and successful modes of cooperation are shared among RIs. This proposed by the respondents. Let us share the most interesting would help less experienced ones to learn from those with proposals. extensive practice of working with industry. Samples of The appointment of an industry liaison officer was identified as agreements on sharing intellectual property benefits would be an important action to bridge the communication gap between helpful as well. scientists working in RIs and the researchers from industry. As The respondents to the survey proposed that such a platform several other studies on cooperation between public research should be established by EC so as to serve to RIs in all member organisations (institutes or/and universities) have identified states. It could be used to share good practices in all areas of (among others, see [9] Bučar and Rojec, 2019; [10] Jensen et al., cooperation: from legal and financial issues, overall appropriate 2010; [11] Arvanitis and Bolli, 2009), the objectives of the business models, negotiations on intellectual property issues, researchers in the public research organisations (PROs) and the personnel issues, etc. representatives of the industry are often highly different. While Other policy measures suggested to support the cooperation the criteria in many countries for successful research are based include: on the publication record and this has significant impact on the a) Financing of joint research projects, where the funding, the industrial research is focused on more immediate cooperation between RIs and industry could be goal of finding optimal solutions to the business processes, be it recognized as a positive characteristic of project in manufacturing or in services. The trend in PROs is towards application; open science and many of the funding agencies require the results b) Encouragement of exchange of personnel and/or hosting of the research to be available widely and free of costs. On the of researchers from industry by RIs (for example, to other hand, industry needs to protect the findings as their carry out Ph.D. research); intellectual property. Careful balancing on how to meet the c) Special grants to SMEs to co-finance some of the costs requirements of the two different approaches and at the same of using the services of RIs; time reach a working arrangement for both parties is needed. It d) The cooperation of RIs and industry should be actively seems that some RIs have been more successful in this than the promoted both at EC level a well as at the level of others, thus sharing of the experiences may ease the cooperation Member States, with specific resources available for for others. such a promotion. Also, the already mentioned involvement of industrial representatives in different RI’s decision-making bodies should be systematically encouraged. The latter would be important in shaping the RIs development strategy since input from industry would indicate which research fields are considered as most relevant for the RIs to focus on. Additional dilemma faced by RIs is how to communicate with partners from industry. Differences in the objectives of participating in cooperation need to be openly discussed and at least initially, this may take some time. A clear understanding of each other’s objectives, and respect for these, need to be a 12 4 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The survey findings aligned closely with our initial The research was supported by Slovenian research agency, grant assumptions concerning the collaborative engagement between number V5-2283. RIs and industry. There is significant interest on the side of RIs The authors wish to thank the EC ESFRI Secretariat for the help to expand such cooperation. Recognized barriers, including the in the implementation of the survey. Valuable comments to the misalignment of objectives between RIs and industrial partners, draft questionnaire were provided by the members of the have already been subject to policy interventions at various levels. Executive Board of ESFRI and its Chairperson, Jana Kolar. There are several measures at national and EC level [12], which could be utilized to support such cooperation, yet it often seems REFERENCES & ENDNOTES that the awareness of their existence is still limited, especially among the SMEs. Overall, the survey underscored transformative potential of [1] ESFRI Roadmap | www.esfri.eu RI-industry collaboration in fostering a competitive innovation [2] Working Groups | www.esfri.eu [3] Maja Bučar and Matija Rojec. 2019. Determinants of success in science - ecosystem across the European union, bearing an important industry cooperation: case of Slovenia. In Challenges and solutions for significance in the context of the ERA’s overarching objectives. fostering entrepreneurial universities and collaborative innovation : academic Proceedings of the 2019 University-Industry Interaction The imperative role of ESFRI in promoting the cooperation of Conference Serie. University Industry Innovation Network, 52-63. RIs and industry and addressing barriers therein cannot be [4] 81st ESFRI Forum Plenary Meeting | www.esfri.eu overstated. Within the policy discussions on European [5] European Research Area Policy Agenda – Overview of actions for the period 2022-2024; European Research Area Policy Agenda (europa.eu) innovation ecosystems, the role and extent of cooperation of RIs [6] In the period 2022-2023, the Chair of ESFRI was Jana Kolar, Slovenia. with industry needs to be appropriately recognized. This is To support the implementation of her Workplan, a team of researchers from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana was particularly significant if the enhancement of knowledge/ established. technology transfer from public research to industry is to be [7] Maja Bučar, Otto Gerdina in Barbara Neža Brečko. 2023. Cooperation of ESFRI research infrastructures (landmarks) with industry: report 2022. implemented, thereby contributing to the competitiveness of the Brussels: European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures (ESFRI) European industry. and Ljubljana: Faculty of Social Sciences. In summary, RIs have the pivotal role as enablers of scientific DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.8178551 [8] ESFRI Landmarks are often distributed, meaning that they have partners progress and innovation in Europe. However, the evolving in the member states, but through them, support can be provided also at cooperation between RIs and industry shows the potential for the EU level, if needed. [9] Maja Bučar and Matija Rojec. 2019. Determinants of success in science - mutual benefit, both in designing appropriate research questions industry cooperation: case of Slovenia. In Challenges and solutions for as by further development of technology transfer from Ris to fostering entrepreneurial universities and collaborative innovation : industry. This is calling for continuous efforts at both the academic Proceedings of the 2019 University-Industry Interaction Conference Serie. University Industry Innovation Network, 52-63. operational and policy levels, where the role of ESFRI is of high [10] Richard Jensen, Jerry Thursby and Marie C. Thursby. 2010. University- importance in order to nurture a competitive innovation industry spillovers, government funding, and industrial consulting. Cambridge, MA.: National Bureau of Economic Research. NBER ecosystem across the European Union. Working Paper 15732. [11] Spyros Arvanitis and Thomas Bolli. 2009. A Comparison of Firm-level Innovation Cooperation in Five European Countries . Zurich: ETH Zurich. KOF Working Papers No. 232. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-005861213 [12] Rene Martins. 2023. Fostering knowledge valorisation – perspectives from RI policy makers; INESC / RITIFI Seminar, BRUSSELS, 16 June 2023. Available at: Rene-Martins_INESC_15_June_2023_RM.pdf 13 Randomized Optimization: From Algorithmic Studies to Industrial Applications Bogdan Filipič Jožef Stefan Institute Ljubljana, Slovenia bogdan.f ilipic@ijs.si ABSTRACT two sections present cases studies from their practical applica- tions. Section 3 overviews our work in engineering design and As opposed to deterministic optimization techniques, randomized focuses on the recent use case of designing an electric motor for optimization algorithms rely on random choices when searching the automotive industry. Section 4 lists the applications in pro-for good solutions to a given problem. They represent a viable duction process optimization and presents a system developed alternative for solving real-world problems whose properties are to tune the parameters of a metallurgical production process. usually unknown and their complexity too high to be solved Section 5 summarizes our work and provides ideas for future with deterministic techniques. In our research group, we are development. specialized in studying and designing randomized optimization algorithms and deploying them in practice. In this paper we 2 ALGORITHMIC STUDIES report on our algorithmic studies that have led to successful industrial applications. We illustrate these with two case studies Our interest in randomized optimization was inspired by the in- from engineering design and production process optimization. troduction of genetic algorithms as a method to perform search, optimization, and machine learning [13]. After the initial experi-KEYWORDS ments on test problems and first attempts at solving real-world problems, we specialized in evolutionary multiobjective opti- optimization, black-box problems, randomized algorithms, nu- mization [2]. Our early achievement in this area was the design merical simulation, visualization, engineering design, production of the Differential Evolution for Multiobjective Optimization 1 INTRODUCTION (DEMO) algorithm [16], which combines the search mechanism of single-objective Differential Evolution [18] with the concepts Many problems in science, engineering and business can be for-of multiobjective optimization from the NSGA-II algorithm [3] mulated as optimization problems, where the task is to find the and finds multiple trade-off solutions in a single algorithm run. best solution among the possible alternatives with respect to The algorithm was later extended to Asynchronous Master- a given criterion. Mathematics and, in particular, operation re- Slave DEMO (AMS-DEMO) [4] suitable for solving computation-search provide various optimization methods that are applicable ally demanding problems, as it is parallelized and adjusted for given that the problems meet certain preconditions, such as lin- both homogeneous and heterogeneous multiprocessor architec- earity, continuity, existence of derivatives, etc. Unfortunately, tures. Another modification of the basic algorithm was DEMO real-world problems rarely comply with these requirements. Fre- based on Gaussian Process models (GP-DEMO) [15], which incor-quently, their structure and properties are unknown, they may in- porates two practically relevant approaches: surrogate models volve several possibly conflicting objectives as well as constraints. for faster evaluation of solutions and newly defined relations for This makes them intractable for traditional mathematical opti- comparing solutions under uncertainty to minimize the effect of mization methods. However, with the rise of computing power, a errors due to inaccurate surrogate model approximations. new class of optimizers, called randomized or stochastic optimiza- Significant attention was also paid to the visualization of op- tion algorithms [17] has emerged. Their key characteristic is that, timization results. This turned out to be useful in solving both unlike in deterministic mathematical methods, certain algorithm artificial test problems and real-world problems as it helped better steps depend on random choices. Randomized algorithms search understand the problems themselves as well as the working of the for good solutions according to some heuristic and handle the algorithms. We introduced a method for visualizing fronts of non- problems in a black-box manner, i.e., without dealing with their dominated solutions called visualization with prosections [19] structure and properties. Many of them are population-based, as and created a taxonomy of the existing visualization methods for is the case, for example, with evolutionary algorithms [5]. multiobjective optimization [8]. In the Computational Intelligence Group of the Department of Intelligent Systems at the Jožef Stefan Institute, we have decades 3 ENGINEERING DESIGN OPTIMIZATION of experience in studying, designing and deploying randomized We have approached several engineering design optimization optimization algorithms. In this paper we report on our algorith- problems using randomized algorithms. The addressed devices mic studies that have led to successful industrial applications. and the related optimization tasks were as follows: The paper is further organized as follows. Section 2 outlines the research topics dealt with and the proposed algorithms. The next • Electric motor for home appliances – determining the geometry of its rotor and stator such that the power losses Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal are minimal [21]; or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or • Energy supply system based on renewable sources – find- distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this ing its configuration, i.e., the type and the number of its work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner /author(s). components (photovoltaic panels, batteries, etc.), such that Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia both the proportion of unsupplied energy and the costs of © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). the system construction and operation are minimal [6]; 14 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia Bogdan Filipič (a) (b) (c) Figure 1: An electric motor for the automotive steering system: (a) a product example (source: MAHLE archive), (b) numerical simulation of the magnetic field (source: MAHLE archive), (c) visualization of candidate designs with respect to selected characteristics. • Cyclone dust separator (a device for removing dust par- costly simulation-based solution evaluations with fast- ticles from gas streams, widely used in industry) – deter- calculating surrogate models. mining, through a number of design variables, its shape • Solution evaluation was carried out through a custom- such that the device operates with maximum collection designed five-step procedure performing a sequence of efficiency and minimum pressure drop [23]. solution checks and eliminating a large proportion of in- feasible solutions without running the costly simulations. A recent engineering design challenge we dealt with was the • The most complex step of the solution evaluation proce- development of an electric motor for the automotive steering dure, the detailed numerical simulation, was parallelized system [20] carried out for MAHLE Electric Drives Slovenija, to take advantage of the available multicore processors. an internationally recognized producer of components for the Robustness of electric motor designs is related to the limita- automotive industry. Specifically, a synchronous electric motor tions of manufacturing where the matching of products with the with surface-mounted magnets was considered. An example of optimized design can only be ensured within certain tolerances. the product is shown in Figure 1(a). For this reason, the designs are required to be robust in that In the optimization problem formulation, both technical and small changes in design variables, within the tolerances, do not economic aspects were involved. The task was to determine the significantly affect the characteristics of the electric motors. In geometry characteristics of the electric motor and the material the design process, this was checked by simulating a variety of properties of its components in such a way that the motor meets designs slightly differing from the original one. the technical requirements specified by the customer and its Finally, in addition to producing numerical results in the form price is as low as possible. There are 13 design variables and of the optimized values of design variables and the related electric seven constraints referring to the technical characteristics of the motor characteristics, the procedure was also required to provide electric motor, given in the form of either minimum or maximum insight into the solution space. For this purpose, the methods for value to be respected. The optimization objective to be minimized data analysis and visualization were applied. Figure 1(c) shows is the total price of the electric motor, resulting predominantly an example of visualization where, for a chosen pair of design from the costs of the magnets and the copper winding. variables, the value of a selected electric motor characteristic is In design tasks of this kind, a numerical simulator capable of indicated by color. evaluating possible solutions (designs) is crucial for the automa- The project resulted in a design of the considered electric mo- tion of the design procedure. MAHLE uses the Ansys Maxwell tor model substantially outperforming the prototype initially de- simulator [1] based on the finite element method that, given veloped by the company using a simpler optimization procedure. the values of design variables, calculates the values of the re- As the key achievement, the price of the product was reduced by garded technical characteristics and the optimization objective 10% compared to the price of the initial version. Given that large (Figure 1(b) shows the result of the magnetic field simulation). series are manufactured, this represents substantial savings for This makes it possible to approach the problem in a black-box the company and considerably improves their competitiveness manner, where the designs are iteratively evaluated and improved. in the market. However, as numerical simulations are time-consuming, the key challenge is to set up the optimization process in such a way that 4 PRODUCTION PROCESS OPTIMIZATION it can find good solutions in acceptable time. To solve this design Our practically oriented studies and applied projects in produc- optimization problem, we implemented a prototype software en- tion process optimization refer to the following processes and vironment incorporating measures to speed-up the optimization the related optimization tasks: process, while additionally ensuring the robustness of solutions • and supporting the design process with visualization. Deep drawing (a particular kind of sheet metal forming The measures taken to speed-up the optimization process were used, for example, in the automotive industry for the man- the following: ufacturing of car body parts) – increasing the process stability by tuning the input parameter values [12]; • As an optimization algorithm, a specific version of the • Clothing production – finding an optimal sequence of covariance matrix adaptation evolution strategy (CMA-ES) steps in the processing of work orders to minimize the called lq-CMA-ES [14] was used, which partially replaces production preparation costs [11]; 15 Randomized Optimization: From Algorithmic Studies to Industrial Applications Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia (a) (b) (c) Figure 2: Continuous casting of steel: (a) pouring of molten steel into the mold where the casting process starts, (b) casting device (source: Štore Steel archive), (c) cooling of billets. • Continuous casting of steel (a key process in steel produc- The optimization algorithm used is Differential Evolution for tion) – determining the values of process parameters such Multiobjective Optimization (DEMO) [16]. While exploring the that the conflicting criteria for process safety, productivity, process parameter space using population-based search, it in- and product quality are fulfilled [9, 7]. vokes the simulator to assess the quality of candidate parameter settings. Progressively, it converges to a set of trade-of solutions. Among these, the largest amount of our work was devoted As a simulator, a numerical model of the steel casting process to the optimization of steel casting. In this process, molten steel based on a meshless method [22] is deployed, designed and cali-extracted from the furnace passes through a sequence of rolls brated for the considered casting machine during its introduction and water sprays in the casting machine where it is cooled and into production. Given the values of input variables, the simu- shaped into semi-finished products. Of crucial importance for lator numerically evaluates the casting process and returns the the quality of cast steel is the control of metal flow and heat values of output variables. extraction during casting. They depend on numerous process Visualization of solutions (process parameter settings) result- parameters, such as the casting speed and coolant flows. Finding ing from the optimization procedure is done in parallel coordi- the optimal values of process parameters is not trivial as the nates. This is a method suitable for visualizing multidimensional number of possible parameter settings grows exponentially with spaces. Each dimension corresponds to a parallel axis and a so- the number of parameters, and trial-and-error parameter tuning lution is represented as a polyline through the related vertices is unattainable in practice. Fortunately, numerical simulators of on the axes. As illustrated in Figure 3, both input and output the process exist that, integrated with efficient optimizers, allow values of solutions are shown in a single plot. Moreover, the user for automated computer-aided parameter tuning. can interactively analyze the solutions depending on the require- We were dealing with various problem formulations for sev- ments for a particular product order. By indicating the intervals eral steel producers. Here we present an optimization system for selected variables (as shown in the figure for the first two developed for and installed at Štore Steel, a steel company best output variables), one can see what input values are required and known for their production of spring steels for the automotive how they affect the remaining output values. industry. A new casting device at the plant was considered and The practical importance of this optimization system is in that the quality of cast steel was of primary concern. Figure 2 shows it automates the process parameter optimization and in this way the initial stage of the continuous casting process, the casting replaces the time consuming trial-and-error experiments carried device, and the outcome, i.e, cast steel in the form of billets. out previously when only the numerical simulator was available. The optimization problem was formulated to include six input The automation is particularly beneficial as parameter tuning variables (process parameters) subject to boundary constraints has to be performed individually for each steel grade. As a result, and three output variables indicating the process suitability and, the company is more flexible in responding to customer requests consequently, the expected steel quality. For output variables, and achieves a higher quality of their products. boundary constraints and target values were specified in advance. The goal of optimization was to find the values of process param- 5 CONCLUSION eters such that the resulting values of output variables respect the Randomized optimization is the primary research topic of our boundary constraints and their deviations from the respective research group. We have contributed to the field with new al- target values are as small as possible. gorithms exhibiting competitive performance on multiobjective Starting with this problem formulation, we designed and im- optimization problems, as well as with the methodological in- plemented a software system to automate the process parameter sights into visualization of solutions for this type of problems. tuning [10]. The system consists of the following components: Potential industrial users often see the fact that randomized • An optimization algorithm to search the space of parame- optimization algorithms generally return suboptimal solutions ter settings and identify the settings representing trade- and produce different results over repeated runs as their critical offs between the objectives; disadvantage. However, for problems not amenable to mathemat- • An interface to the numerical simulator of the continu- ical treatment these algorithms may be the only viable approach. ous casting process to evaluate the parameter settings As frequently found in practice and confirmed by our case studies encountered by the optimization algorithm; as well, substantial gains may result from their deployment. • A visualization method to present the optimization results Our further research efforts are directed towards shifting from and support their analysis. black-box to gray-box problem handling, where the idea is to 16 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia Bogdan Filipič Figure 3: Visualization of optimized process parameter settings in parallel coordinates (blue color indicates solutions selected by the user). characterize the problems with features extracted from the sam- [9] Bogdan Filipič, Tea Tušar, and Erkki Laitinen. 2007. Preliminary numerical experiments in multiobjective optimization of a metallurgical production ples of their solutions and then use these features to better un- process. Informatica, 31, 2, 233–240. derstand the problems [24]. As a future step, problem features [10] Bogdan Filipič, Jernej Zupančič, and Tea Tušar. 2018. KN3-Opt: Optimiza- will be matched with algorithm performance to help select the tion of steel continuous casting on the KN3 caster. Software. Version 1.2. Ljubljana: Jožef Stefan Institute, (2018). most efficient algorithm for a given problem. Moreover, in the [11] Iztok Fister, Marjan Mernik, and Bogdan Filipič. 2010. A hybrid self-adaptive applied work we plan to expand from solving specific problems evolutionary algorithm for marker optimization in the clothing industry. to providing optimization environments capable of solving sets Applied Soft Computing, 10, 2, 409–422. doi: 10.1016/j.asoc.2009.08.001. [12] Gašper Gantar, Karl Kuzman, and Bogdan Filipič. 2005. Increasing the stabil-of related problems and offering more flexibility to the users. ity of the deep drawing process by simulation-based optimization. Journal of Materials Processing Technology, 164-165, 1343–1350. doi: 10.1016/j.jmatp ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS rotec.2005.02.099. [13] David E. Goldberg. 1989. Genetic Algorithms in Search, Optimization and We acknowledge the financial support from the Slovenian Re- Machine Learning. Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing, Boston, MA, US. [14] Nikolaus Hansen. 2019. A global surrogate assisted CMA-ES. In Proceedings search and Innovation Agency (research core funding No. P2-0209 of the Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference, GECCO ’19. ACM, and project No. N2-0254) and the funding from our industry part- 664–672. doi: 10.1145/3321707.3321842. ners Štore Steel d.o.o. and MAHLE Electric Drives Slovenija d.o.o. [15] Miha Mlakar, Dejan Petelin, Tea Tušar, and Bogdan Filipič. 2015. GP-DEMO: Differential evolution for multiobjective optimization based on Gaussian We also acknowledge the support from the Office for Substantive process models. European Journal of Operational Research, 243, 2, 347–361. Project Support, Technology Transfer and Innovation and the Of- doi: 10.1016/j.ejor.2014.04.011. fice for Industrial Liaison at the Jožef Stefan Institute in forming [16] Tea Robič and Bogdan Filipič. 2005. DEMO: Differential evolution for multiobjective optimization. In Evolutionary Multi-Criterion Optimization, EMO the partnerships and managing intellectual property rights. 2005 (Lecture Notes in Computer Science). Vol. 3410. Springer, 520–533. doi: 10.1007/978- 3- 540- 31880- 4_36. REFERENCES [17] Johannes Josef Schneider and Scott Kirkpatrick. 2006. Stochastic Optimiza- tion. Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-34560-2. [1] Ansys, Inc. 2023. Ansys Maxwell, Low frequency EM field simulation. Re- [18] Rainer Storn and Kenneth Price. 1997. 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Information Sciences, 607, 244–262. doi: 10.1016/j.ins.202 205607. 2.05.106. 17 Creating Conditions for an Active Role of Public Administrations in Academia-Industry Cooperation: an Overview of Critical Points Through the ExSACT Project Urška Fric Tomaž Lutman Tinkara Mlinar Knowledge and Technology Office for Substantive Project Office for Substantive Project Transfer Office Support, Technology Transfer and Support, Technology Transfer and Faculty of Information Studies in Innovation Innovation Novo mesto Jožef Stefan Institute Jožef Stefan Institute Novo mesto, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia urska.fric@fis.unm.si tomaz.lutman@ijs.si tinkara.mlinar@ijs.si ABSTRACT minimis rule). Due to limited recognition of the state aid rules, The ATTRACT European Scientific Research Infrastructures the allocation of funding and IPR needs management given state (ERIs) have formed an ERI Innovation Ecosystem (ERI-IE) as aid restrictions. Ambiguities result in state investments into an essential tool in boosting academia-industry collaboration. academia-industry collaboration or limited and complicated The state administration encourages academia-industry research/technology infrastructure (RI/TI) usage. The provision (co)operation with financial incentives. However, it still of state aid and understanding or lack of knowledge thereof may encounters rules and legislation to protect competition in the free thus support or slow down such investments and the smooth market imposed within state aid limitations. Due to limited transition of technology through the technology readiness level recognition of state aid practices, the allocation of funding and (TRL) with the involvement of the ERI-IE [1, 2]. Improving the intellectual property rights (IPR) needs management given state understanding the state aid rules in financing research, RI/TI's aid restrictions. Ambiguities result in state investments into use, and IPR transfer procedures within ERIs collaborative academia-industry collaboration or research/technology projects with industry would improve incentives efficiency for infrastructure (RI/TI) usage needing improvement and research to the economy transition. To address the current status simplification. This status quo, therefore, necessitates an quo, the following research question(s) have been defined to examination of this field – to explore the effect of the state guide research in the ExSACT project (Enable State administration on financing research, RI/TI and IPR transfer Administration to be an Active Contributor in the Process of risk procedures through state aid rules abiding (RI/TI and IPR) Absorption and Risk Reduction Through IPR and State Aid): management. The following paper presents existing conditions How to simplify and optimise public investments (into): and the most common challenges for creating conditions for an a) research and technology infrastructures; active role of public administrations to mitigate risks in b) background and foreground IPR; academia-industry cooperation (in the EU). It concludes with c) when academia-industry collaboration is in question, must state aid regulations be considered? state-of-the-art results obtained through the project ExSACT. The research will, therefore, in the domain of crucial objective, explore the state administration's effect on financing KEYWORDS research, RI/TI, and IPR transfer procedures through the state aid IPR, Protection, Public Administration, Role, Technology rules abiding (RI/TI and IPR) management. After successfully Transfer, Challenges, EU, ExSACT addressing the crucial objective, a seamlessly integrated ERI supporting research and economy from knowledge creation through defining IP to commercialisation with proper funding, 1 INTRODUCTION given state aid limitations, would: 1.1 The Baseline and Status Quo a) enhance investments; The ATTRACT European Scientific Research b) lower risk; and Infrastructures (ERIs) have formed an ERI Innovation c) enable involved stakeholders to bring more science to Ecosystem (ERI-IE) as an essential tool in boosting academia- everyday use. industry collaboration. ERI-IE operates in the global competitive A better understanding of RI/TI use and IPR contractual environment wherein technological development is one of the issues concerning state aid rules will be easier to implement by few competitive levers capable of added value creation [1, 2]. the state administrations of the ERI-IEs. The state administration encourages academia-industry (co)operation with financial incentives. Still, it encounters rules 2 METHODOLOGY and legislation to protect competition in the free market imposed To achieve the crucial objective and for a better within state aid rules. The regulations, however, do allow the understanding of RI/TI use and IPR contractual issues granting of aid within substantive exceptions (e.g., particular concerning state aid rules and more straightforward importance for development), special conditions (advance implementation by the state administrations of the ERI-IEs, notification of state aid to the European Commission (EC) and quantitative and qualitative research has been carried out, its consent), or in a simplified form up to a certain amount (de namely: 18 1. analysis of the critical points of RI/TI and IPR economic basis, using the market approach, the cost approach, or management; the income approach. 2. preparation of a review of systems for valuing Public higher education and public research institutes transferring IPR in collaborative projects in the ERI- may, as stated in Article 21 of the Slovenian Employment IE; Inventions Act (ZPILDR), establish: (i) organisational 3. preparation of a review of the regulation of the state infrastructures necessary for dealing with inventions; (ii) the aid system in RI/TI and IPR management; rulebook, which regulates the process of taking over official 4. preparation of a proposal for a sustainable system and changes to be implemented for more effective financial inventions in a way that is adapted to the needs of scientific support of the innovation system, following and research work and the publication of scientific achievements; properly manifesting the EU state aid rules in the ERI- (iii) the shares determined by the regulations, which belong to IE of ATTRACT. the institution, the unit of the institution in which the inventor is A quantitative and qualitative analysis of critical points for employed, and the inventor(s), in the exploitation of the the transfer of IPR and the development of guidelines for the invention, whereby the share of the award to the inventors must management of IPR in joint research and development (R&D) not amount to less than 20% of the gross license fee that the projects has been carried out based on secondary data and institution receives from exploitation of the invention. Pursuant primary data, obtained through semi-structured interviews. The to Article 21 of the Act on Inventions from the Employment research includes: Relationship, upon fulfilment of the above conditions (i, ii, iii), 1. an international comparative review of systems for valuing the market value of IP rights in collaborative the state is specifically obliged to provide funds for the projects and a comprehensive process of detection organisational infrastructure necessary to deal with inventions registration of IP as an intangible asset and IP according to the provisions of this Act and for their effective valuation; exploitation [4]. 2. a review of the regulation of the state aid system and The EC recommends that public research organisations a proposal for a sustainable system of the state aid should have technology transfer strategic missions and policies. system and the changes. IP should be suitably managed by promoting its identification, exploitation and, where appropriate, protection in line with the 3 PRELIMINARY RESULTS strategy and mission of the public research organisation and to maximise socioeconomic benefits [5]. To this end, different 3.1 RI/TI and IPR Management Critical Points strategies may be adopted – possibly differentiated in the Research infrastructures (RIs) are the scientific respective scientific/technical areas – for instance, the ‘public community's facilities, resources, and services to conduct top- domain’ approach or the ‘open innovation’ approach. level research. They can be single-sited, distributed, or virtual. Appropriate incentives should be provided to ensure that all RIs include major scientific equipment or sets of instruments, relevant staff play an active role in implementing the IP policy. collections, archives or scientific data, computing systems and The Slovenian ZPILDR does not envisage organisational communication networks, and any other research and innovation infrastructure and financing for companies, only those intended infrastructure of a unique nature that is open to external users. to prepare, protect, and market IP [4]. RIs are organised and financed at the regional, national and Large companies often have their own departments with European levels [1]. experts in IP management, while small companies mostly Technology infrastructures (TIs) are similar to RIs. Still, outsource legal, financial and accounting support related to IP. they are primarily intended for industrial users, including small SMEs aware of IP protection often turn to patent attorneys for and medium enterprises (SMEs), which seek support to develop help preparing and protecting IP. Both companies and public and integrate innovative technologies to commercialise new research organisations (ROs) usually hire external patent products, processes, and services. TIs can have public, semi- attorneys to conduct IP protection procedures at the IP offices. public, or private status. Like RIs, TIs are organised and funded Bigger companies that file many patent applications normally on different levels [3]. also have internal patent attorneys. Although there are some differences between RIs and TIs, Research & technological infrastructures and suitably many infrastructures fit into both groups. The primary objective protected IP rights are key elements that support successful of an RI is to establish and operate on a non-economic basis. technology transfer from research organisations to industry. In However, they can carry out limited economic activities if this way, science returns benefits to the economy as the public closely related to their principal task and not jeopardise their budget generator. Cooperation of ROs with the economy in achievement. general is divided into the following activities [6]: The primary goal of a TI is to support SMEs and industry to 1. contractual cooperation with the economy, which develop the technologies with its help. In the case of TIs, includes consulting, contract research and collaborative economic activities are encouraged. However, these are research; sometimes partially financially supported by public means. 2. commercialisation of IP by establishing spin-off/spin- RIs and TIs should share information about their resources out companies; and services publicly. The price for using RIs and TIs can be set 3. licensing and sale of RO's IPR; on a non-economic basis, using the cost approach, or on an 4. communication through public announcements and events; 19 5. teaching; Internal IP registration procedures in the involved 6. exchange and transfer of personnel. organisations are most transparently regulated for inventions (69%) and trade secrets (41%), such as software and secret know- EC has set rules on state aid regarding cooperation between how, as seen in Figure 1. It is also apparent from the results that academia and industry, more specifically in collaborative certain forms of IP, such as industrial design and trademark, are research, contract research/research service, licensing and poorly represented and constitute a potential source of previously consultancy – COMMUNICATION FROM THE unprotected IP. In the involved organisations, the largest share COMMISSION, Framework for State aid for research and (55%) of marketing is devoted to products and services, followed development and innovation (2022/C 414/01) [7]. In order to by marketing of IP (41%). Additionally, more than half of the understand these rules and use them in practice, different involved organisations search for market connections through guidelines and examples have been presented [8, 9]. We however market and potential partner monitoring. Based on our survey believe that the awareness of these rules is insufficient. Public results, organisations do not sufficiently encourage joint national administrations could be more actively involved by providing or EU project applications (34%) or the joining of consortia educational materials, organizing info days and similar. Relevant (28%). stakeholders like technology transfer offices, financial offices, decision-makers in research organizations and companies should be involved. 3.2 Quantitative Analysis of IPR Transfer As part of the ExSACT project within the ATTRACT phase 2 initiative, a survey was administered to 18 participating research & development & innovation (R&D&I) project partners. Responses from 29 individuals representing 16 different European projects were collected between April and June 2023. The majority of respondents were affiliated with start- ups (10), followed by universities (8), research institutes (5), small enterprises (5), micro-enterprises (3), large enterprises (3), Figure 2: The most well-known offered IPR-related services. and spin-off companies (2). Notably, seven individuals were employed at two separate institutions. More than 90% of the The most common (83%) and well-known offered IP-related R&D&I projects our respondents are part of use their own IP. process in the involved organisations is the evaluation of created However, less than 25% of them successfully licensed it to other IP. The least common (21%) is the use of patent or IP attorneys, organisations. This implies that organisations are aware of the as seen in Figures 2 and 3. Given the frequent occurrence of IP importance of IP. However, they need substantially more in these projects and organisations, there appears to be great encouragement and assistance in licencing, for example, through potential for multilevel IP analysis, thereby improving its quality. better collaboration with their technology transfer offices. Almost 80% of respondents reported that individuals or offices for handling IP are well known in the involved organisations. More than half of the organisations highlight IP as part of their marketing strategies. However, only half of them consistently reward the inventors for the successful commercialisation of inventions. This, coupled with the fact that only 45% of individuals had a positive experience in managing IP rights in collaborative projects involving research organisations and companies, and even less (34%) of them had a positive experience in valuation and determination of the price value of said IP, might discourage employees from seeking appropriate IP Figure 3: The least known offered IP-related services. registration and commercialisation. The level of uncertainty about whether a particular IP-related service is offered at included organisations was, except for evaluation of created IP, coordination of IP protection processes and drafting agreements on shared ownership of IP, such as inventions, more than 20%. Notably, 31% of survey participants were uncertain whether their technology transfer office handles IP registration as intangible assets. This could be resolved by better promoting IP-related processes by the designated technology transfer offices. Figure 1: Transparency of procedures for the internal registration of IP. 20 3.3 Qualitative Analysis of IP and State Aid Rules interviewees are familiar with these rules, but their detailed Within the ATTRACT Project familiarity can be questionable. As observed by interviewees, it Five ATTRACT project partners from different R&D&I is important that supportive units such as technology transfer and projects participated in semi-structured interviews, collectively financial offices, which (should) understand state aid rules, support academia-industry cooperation. We recommend that all providing insights into various topics related to IP and the staff of these offices are properly trained and enough manpower application of state aid regulations. Interviewees were mostly is provided to these offices. The preliminary results dictate our researchers and group leaders from research organizations and future work, which will also focus on those points that we did not companies. The prevailing IP form anticipated to emerge from initially expect to be given such high priority by the interviewees. these projects are patents, followed by secret know-how and In future, a comprehensive overview of awareness in public trade secrets. While all interviewees exhibited familiarity with research organisations and companies about the state aid rules the EC's regulations about state aid for R&D, a notable point of will be a subject of research, including a larger actual sample of consensus among them was their shared frustration regarding organizations and offices. An internationally comparative view these rules. They noted how these regulations force them to set on the regulation of the state aid system in infrastructure use and an excessively high market price for their products, making them IPR transfer in cooperative R&D projects in the ERI-IE based on good practices of the general procedure for using the state aid less appealing to potential investors and hindering their progress. system will be prepared to guide the users and the state Technology transfer offices are common within academic administrations of the ERI-IE countries for maximum impact institutions, whereas start-ups, spin-offs, and SMEs rely on delivery with least friction among the stakeholders possible. external IP attorneys. Our interviewees noted a prevalent issue within university technology transfer offices, namely, their understaffing. As a 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS result, the researchers often need to perform specific time- The authors equally participated in all stages of preparing, consuming tasks, such as conducting state-of-the-art analyses. establishing, and framing the paper. All authors read and Furthermore, a noteworthy observation made by one of our approved the final paper. interviewees was the existing disparity between laboratory This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme research and the process of bringing innovations to the market. under grant agreement No. 101004462. The absence of direct communication channels between scientists and the industrial sector exacerbates this gap. Interviewees with ties to the academic world expressed REFERENCES frustration over the extended duration of the patent application [1] European Commission. 2019. European Research Infrastructure. process. In some cases, they deemed it more advantageous to https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020- 2024/our-digital-future/european-research-infrastructures_en prioritise publishing research papers to earn recognition for [2] European Commission. 2021. European Innovation Ecosystem. career advancement over safeguarding their IP, particularly when https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/funding/funding- dealing with patents of limited or negligible exploitable opportunities/funding-programmes-and-open-calls/horizon- europe/european-innovation-ecosystems_en potential. Furthermore, laboratories or SMEs occasionally [3] European Commission. Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, preferred maintaining their developed IP as a trade secret rather Technology infrastructures. 2019. Commission Staff Working Document, Publications Office. https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/83750 than pursuing patent protection, ensuring their knowledge [4] Employment-related Inventions Act (Official Gazette of the RS No. remained concealed. 15/07). http://pisrs.si/Pis.web/pregledPredpisa?id=ZAKO361 [5] European Union. 2022. COUNCIL RECOMMENDATION (EU) 2022/2415 of 2 December 2022 on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation. https://eur- 4 CONCLUSION lex.europa.eu/legalcontent/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A32022H2415&qid Public funding for R&D is subject to critical scrutiny by =1670573108748. [6] Finne H., Day A., Piccaluga A., Spithoven A., Walter P., Wellen D. 2011. the public and state-level decision-makers about the A Composite Indicator for Knowledge Transfer, Report from the European effectiveness and rationale for increasing funding for science. Commission's Expert Group on Knowledge Transfer Indicators. The impacts of science on social well-being are long-term and https://meri.belspo.be/site/docs/papers/ERAC%20Report_2011_A%20C omposite%20Indicator%20for%20Knowledge%20Transfer.pdf. primarily indirect. If we recall – the EC recommends that public [7] European Union. 2022. Communication from the Commission — ROs should have technology transfer strategic missions and Framework for State aid for research and development and innovation policies. IP should be suitably managed by promoting its (2022/C 414/01). https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal- identification, exploitation and, where appropriate, protection in content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A52022XC1028%2803%29 [8] Kaiser, M. Neu, F. Teernstra. 2021. State Aid on R&D&I – The Right Way. line with the strategy and mission of the public ROs and to EARTO Report. https://www.earto.eu/wp-content/uploads/EARTO- maximise socioeconomic benefits. To this end, different Report-on-State-Aid-on-RDI-The-Right-Way-Final.pdf. strategies may be adopted – possibly differentiated in the [9] Kebapci, H., Von Wendland, B., Kaymaktchiyski, S. 2020. State Aid Rules in Research, Development & Innovation. Addressing Knowledge and respective scientific/technical areas – for instance, the ‘public Awareness Gaps among Research and Knowledge Dissemination domain’ approach or the ‘open innovation’ approach. Organisations. Decision Tree, Kaiser, L. (Ed.), Neu, M. (Ed.), Teernstra, Appropriate incentives should be provided to ensure that all F. (Ed.), Nicolaides, P. (Ed.), EUR 30436 EN, Publications Office of the relevant staff play an active role in implementing the IP policy. European Union, Luxembourg, doi:10.2760/675525. As seen from the preliminary results of the ExSACT project, they are already an essential source of feedback for public administrations on state aid for R&D. The current recognition of familiarity with the EC's regulations about state aid for R&D is particularly crucial. In our sample, most of the 21 Technology Transfer Office as a Support Structure for Innovation Management: The Experience of Latvia Justīne Krūmiņa Department of Doctoral Studies Rīga Stradiņš University Latvia Justine.Krumina@rsu.lv ABSTRACT following sectors were planned: bioeconomy, smart energy, biomedicine, smart materials, information and communication The study describes a support structure – technology transfer technologies). The aim of Technology Scouts is to foster office for knowledge and technology management in Latvia cooperation between researchers and entrepreneurs by helping to between 2007 and 2023. The analysis is based on the operational find the right research organisation and researcher to solve a programme of the Latvia for 2007–2013, 2014–2020, and 2021– problem [3]. From the analysis of the programming documents, 2027. no information is available on whether the Scouts will be supported in the next programming period. KEYWORDS Innovation management, Technology transfer office, TTO, 2 CASE STUDIES Strategy. In 2023, an analysis of the planning documents shows that in Latvia, technology transfer offices or more developed units of 1 INTRODUCTION them are operating in science universities (in one case with The analysis of the role of technology transfer offices in transformation features). The objectives of the science university university-industry cooperation has received much attention in are also related to technology transfer – to develop research, academic literature, especially as an interdisciplinary topic. It is study, innovation, technology transfer and business incubation important to point out that knowledge and technology transfer processes that ensure dynamic development of the economy and processes are influenced by personnel capacity and experience, the emergence of new, modern economic sectors [4]. university resources, legal framework, institutional arrangements, political and other issues [1]. The strategies of universities and research institutes indicate an important role for knowledge and technology transfer activities. In Latvia, technology transfer offices have existed for more than Riga Technical University has indicated in its 2023–2027 15 years. The first six Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) were Strategy that the development of the Science and Innovation already established in 2005, funded under the support Centre will be supported, including the scaling-up of the programme established by the Ministry of Economics. Three operational model by providing for a binding second-level years later, during the 2007–2013 programming period of the EU strategic planning document – Innovation Development funds, the activities of the TTOs were supported by the Strategy, the implementation of which is the responsibility of the Operational Programme “Entrepreneurship and Innovation”, Vice Rector of Innovations [5]. In turn, the 2021–2027 Strategy under which eight TTO projects were approved and implemented [6] of the University of Latvia sets out a number of tasks, such in the period 2008–2013 in Latvian scientific institutions and as: to establish a support system for know-how and technology universities [2]. The main performance indicators of the transfer; to expand the involvement of entrepreneurs as research programme were related to the implementation of the classical cooperation partners in all areas of science; to develop forms of TTO tasks, such as the number of contracts for entrepreneurial skills and expand students' involvement in commissioned research, provision of research services and sale creating innovations; to develop an open science approach. It of industrial property or rights to use it, the number of should be noted that the Institute of Solid-State Physics, applications for industrial property objects, the number of University of Latvia, also pays significant attention to knowledge commercialisation offers, as well as revenues from contract and technology transfer activities, which is also indicated in the research and/or licensing agreements [2]. 2017–2026 Strategy [7]. At the end of the 2013 programming period, targeted public The 2022–2027 Strategy [8] of Rīga Stradiņš University states funding for TTO activities was reallocated to various activities that the growth of internationally high-quality scientific results to promote knowledge and technology transfer. During the should be promoted by organising the development of research programming period, a new support unit was created in the and innovation in research centres of excellence and innovation. technology transfer system – Technology Scouts. The Scouts As well as increasing the revenues of scientific activities from were active at the University of Latvia, Riga Technical the private sector, from which the author concludes – both University and in the following sectors: bioeconomy, smart performance indicators of TTOs are included, as well as revenues materials and information and communication technology (the 22 from the licensing or sale of contract research and industrial policymakers (sector ministries) and implementers, industry property. associations, various networks, investors, universities, etc.[11]. In view of the above, a direct publicly funded support mechanism On the other hand, the 2023–2027 Strategy of Latvia University for TTO and technology scouting activities in scientific of Life Sciences and Technologies describes technology transfer institutions is not planned to be introduced in the planning period in this science university in great detail. Knowledge and from 2024, thus leaving the maintenance of administrative technology transfer is one of the priority tasks for which a activities for knowledge and technology transfer to the Knowledge and Technology Management Plan has also been responsibility of scientific institutions. developed, with tasks such as promoting the commercialisation of intellectual property through performance indicators, 3 CONCLUSIONS developing innovation and entrepreneurial skills of personnel In Latvia, there is a very pronounced institutional gap in the [9]. organisation of knowledge and technology transfer processes. The analysed science university strategies foresee knowledge Strong innovation management centres are emerging in some universities and research institutions, combining publicly funded and technology transfer activities which will be organised support instruments with private institutional resources to directly or indirectly by the relevant competent bodies – TTOs or develop organisational and legal issues of knowledge and similar innovation management structures. It is noticeable that in technology transfer, build a strong panel of experts, and develop the 15 years of development of the TTO, there has been a international relations with the industry. In scientific institutions significant accumulation of experience in the organisation of and universities without the financial resources to provide focal commissioned research with industry, in the marketing of points, the coordination of TTO activities is reallocated within science, in the development of a strategy for the existing human resources, thus not creating strong centres for commercialisation of scientific developments and in the TTO development. organisation of the licensing process, including a strategy for the registration of intellectual property rights, in those scientific ACKNOWLEDGMENTS institutions that continued to fund TTO activities in the 2013– Research have funded by project "Support for involving doctoral 2017 programming period and beyond. students in scientific research and studies". Project No. 8.2.2.0/20/I/004. It is important to note that TTOs have established networks, e.g., the Baltic TTO Network was established in 2022 with the support REFERENCES of WIPO with the aim of promoting the exchange of knowledge [1] Bonarccorsi, A., & Piccaluga, A. (1994). A theoretical framework for the and technology transfer experiences and practices between evaluation of university—industry relationships. R&D Management, 24, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as, for example, the regulatory 229—247 framework for knowledge valorisation is relatively similar. [2] Ekonomikas ministrija, 2016. 1.2.1.specifiskā atbalsta mērķa „Palielināt privātā sektora investīcijas P&A” 1.2.1.2.pasākuma “Atbalsts tehnoloģiju However, during the development of the TTO, a stable funding pārneses sistēmas pilnveidošanai” Sākotnējais novērtējums. Available at stream is needed to enable the TTO to be self-financing after a https://www.em.gov.lv/en/media/10104/download, Retrieved 2023/09 certain period of time. As the implementation of RIS3 in Latvia [3] Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Tehnoloģiju skauti. Available at https://labsoflatvia.com/tehnologiju-skauti, Retrieved also requires the development and accessibility of knowledge 2023/09 and technology transfer and the commercialisation of research [4] The Saeima has adopted and the President has proclaimed the following results in all RIS3 specialisation areas and in the social sciences law: Law on Higher Education Institutions. Available at and humanities as an area with horizontal implications for RIS3 https://likumi.lv/ta/id/37967-augstskolu-likums, Retrieved 2023/09 [5] Riga Technical University, 2023. RTU Stratēģija 2023. - 2027. gada. See implementation, the Ministry of Education and Science ensures https://files.rtu.lv/public/ortus/Strategija_RTU.pdf, Retrieved 2023/09 targeted investment in the development of the R&D system as [6] University of Latvia, 2021. University of Latvia Strategy 2021-2027, well as RIS3 monitoring, while the Ministry of Economics adapted version. Available at https://dspace.lu.lv/dspace/bitstream/handle/7/61905/LU_strategija_bukl should provide business sector analytics [10]. In parallel with the ets_2021.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y, Retrieved 2023/09 development of programmes for technology transfer, [7] Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia, 2017. Latvijas commercialisation of research results and development of new Universitātes Cietvielu fizikas institūta Stratēģija 2017-2026. Available at products and services, e.g., “Regulations for the implementation https://www.cfi.lu.lv/fileadmin/user_upload/lu_portal/projekti/cfi/Citi_d okumenti/LU_CFI_Strategija_2017-2026.pdf of measure 1.2.1.2 “Support for the improvement of the , Retrieved 2023/09 [8] Rīga Stradiņš University, 2021. “Rīgas Stradiņa universitātes attīstības technology transfer system” of the specific support objective stratēģijas 2022.-2027. gadam izstrāde. Available at 1.2.1 “Increase private sector investment in R&D” of the https://www.rsu.lv/sites/default/files/docs/rsu_strategija_2027_kopsavilk Operational Programme “Growth and Employment”. ums.pdf, Retrieved 2023/09 [9] Latvia University of Life Sciences and Technologies, 2022. Latvijas Within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Facility Biozinātņu un tehnoloģiju universitātes attīstības stratēģija 2023.-2027. activity 5.1.1.1.i. “Development and continuous operation of a gadam. Available at https://www.lbtu.lv/sites/default/files/2023- 01/LBTU_Attistibas_Strategija_2023-2027_gala.pdf, Retrieved 2023/09 fully-fledged innovation system governance model”, the project [10] Ministru kabineta rīkojums Nr. 246 Par Zinātnes, tehnoloģijas attīstības implements a new innovation governance model in RIS3 areas, un inovācijas pamatnostādnēm 2021.-2027. gadam; Rīgā 2021. gada 14. fostering the development of innovation ecosystems in RIS3 aprīlī (prot. Nr. 33 19. §). Available at https://likumi.lv/ta/id/322468-par- zinatnes-tehnologijas-attistibas-un-inovacijas-pamatnostadnem-2021- areas, for example by fostering knowledge and technology 2027-gadam, Retrieved 2023/10 transfer between ecosystem actors, i.e., through triple-helix, [11] Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA). RIS3 vadības which led to the creation of 5 RIS3 Steering Groups in October grupas - RIS3 pārvaldības operacionālais līmenis. Available at 2022: Biomedicine, Medical Technologies, Pharmaceuticals; https://www.liaa.gov.lv/lv/ris3-vadibas-grupas-ris3-parvaldibas- operacionalais-limenis, Retrieved 2023/10 Information and Communication Technologies; Photonics, Smart Materials, Technologies and Engineering Systems; Knowledge Intensive Bioeconomy; Smart Energy and Mobility, aiming to create a dialogue between stakeholders in the RIS3 value chain ecosystems – companies, research organisations, 23 A Statutory Model for Organising the Process of Intellectual Property Protection and Commercialisation in Polish Public Universities * Magdalena Rutkowska-Sowa † Department of Intellectual Property Law, Public Economic Law and Labour Law Faculty of Law/ University ofBialystok, Bialystok/Poland m.rutkowska@uwb.edu.pl ABSTRACT/POVZETEK fulfil the so-called „third mission”, that is seen by many as crucial for making universities more responsive to societal For almost two decades, the Polish legislator has been needs. The idea behind it is that universities should not only encouraging the spread of the idea of entrepreneurship in the serve their students but also engage with society, industries, and academic environment, delineating the scope of organisation of local communities to contribute to social development and the process of protection and commercialisation of the R&D economic growth. It often requires universities to work more results created by university employees. As part of successive closely with various external stakeholders and to develop new amendments to the Act - Law on Higher Education, it has partnerships and collaborations outside the traditional academic proposed the introduction of internal regulations governing the sphere [3]. management of intellectual property rights and the principles of Through two decades of successive revisions of the commercialisation, the establishment of organiational units Act - Law on Higher Education, the polish legislature has responsible for supporting the commercialisation process, and advocated the adoption of internal regulations governing the incentives such as additional remuneration for the management of intellectual property rights and the principles of implementation of the so-called third mission of the university. commercialisation, the establishment of organizational units The aim of the conference paper is to show how the statutory dedicated to oversee those processes, and the implementation of model of intellectual property management at Polish public incentives, including supplementary compensation, to bolster universities looks like. The final conclusions will take into the realization of universities' "third mission." Currently, the account the results of research carried out in 2023-2024 under Act of 20 July 2018 - the Law on Higher Education and Science the project entitled: "Transfer of R & D results from universities contains a separate section „Commercialisation of research of Podlaskie voivodeship to the economic and social results and know-how”. environment", funded by the Ministry of Education and Science. REGULATIONS GOVERNING THE MANAGEMENT OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS AND THE KEYWORDS / KLJUČNE BESEDE PRINCIPLES OF COMMERCIALISATION At the level of statutory provisions, legislator assumes commercialization, public universities, technology transfer that the senate of public university shall establish regulations units, internal regulations governing the management of copyright, related rights and OPENING REMARKS industrial property rights as well as the principles of It is important to note at the outset that this paper commercialisation. It shall specify in particular: refers only to public universities, of which there are currently 1) the rights and obligations of university, employees, 133 in Poland [1]. The main legal act regulating their doctoral students and students with regard to the protection functioning is The Act of 20 July 2018 - The Law on Higher and use of IP rights, Education and Science [2]. It explicitly indicates that the 2) the rules for the remuneration of authors, mission of the higher education system and science is to 3) the rules and procedures for commercialisation, provide the highest quality of education and scientific activity, 4) the rules for the use of a university’s assets used for to shape citizenship, and to participate in social development commercialisation and the provision of services in the field and the creation of an economy based on innovation (art. 2). of scientific activity; Thus, it can be assumed that Polish universities are obliged to 5) the rules for the distribution of funds obtained from ∗Article Title Footnote needs to be captured as Title Note commercialisation between an author who is an employee †Author Footnote to be captured as Author Note of a university and that institution Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or 6) the rules and of mode of providing a university by classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or employees, doctoral students and students with distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this information on the research results and know-how related work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). to them, information on the commercialisation funds Information Society2023,9–13October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). obtained by the employee and the rules and mode of 24 provision by an employee of a part of the funds obtained economy in the previous year, as published by the President of from commercialisation to the institution; Statistics Poland. In 2022 the amount was 317.30 PLN [8]. 7) the rules and mode of providing an employee by a If the employee does not accept the offer to conclude university with information on the decisions concerning the agreement the rights to the research results and the related commercialisation or non-commercialisation and the part know-how, together with the information, works, including the of the funds derived from commercialisation they are ownership of the media on which they are recorded, and entitled to ( cf. art. 152). technical experiments, shall remain with the university. It should be emphasised that the aforementioned rules THE DECISION-MAKING PROCESS FOR THE of procedure and time limits shall not apply if the research was COMMERCIALISATION OF R&D RESULTS conducted: It is worth noting that the further described 1) under an agreement with the party financing or co-financing obligations related to the process of protection and such research, providing for an obligation to transfer the rights commercialisation concern R&D results created by university to the research results to that party or to an entity other than a employees. With regard to students and doctoral students, the contracting party; university may define rules for dealing with the results of their 2) with the use of financial resources, the rules for the granting creative work and support them in securing their resources. or use of which specify a different way of disposing of the However, given the general principles of intellectual property research results and the related know-how. law, in the absence of a separate agreement, it is the It is also worth pointing out that upon receipt of student/doctoral student who remains the subject of rights and information from an employee on the research results and the retain the freedom to dispose of the R&D results. related know-how, a university and an employee may, in a Furthermore, the procedure discussed below relates manner other than provided above, determine the rights to such only to: results or the manner of their commercialisation by way of 1) scientific research being an invention, utility model, anagreement (art. 157). industrial design or integrated circuit topography, grown or discovered and developed plant variety, EMPLOYEE’S OBLIGATIONS 2) development works, Beyond doubt, academics play a multifaceted role in 3) artistic creation – created under the performance of duties technology transfer, contributing their expertise, research, resulting from the employment relationship by an employee of innovation, collaboration, and industry partnerships to bring a university, and the know-how related to such results (art. university-developed technologies from the lab to practical 153). applications that benefit society and the economy.They It should be also clearly stated that the current collaborate with colleagues within their own institutions and statutory regulation does not define the process of across other universities, research institutions, industries, and commercialisation of R&D results (in this respect generally government organisations. These networks facilitate the applicable acts of law are in force, including: Act of 15 exchange of ideas, resources, and expertise, accelerating the September 2000 Commercial Companies Code [4], Act of 23 technology transfer process. Effective communication and August 1964 Civil Code [5], the Act of 30 June 2000 – engagement with these stakeholders are crucial for securing Industrial Property Law [6], the Act of 4 February 1994 on funding, support, and resources for technology transfer copyright and related rights [7]), however, obliges the initiatives. university to decide whether it will undertake the Employee’s input is critical in the commercialization commercialisation of R&D results or transfer the rights back to of technologies. By actively engaging in activities such as the employee. licensing agreements, startup creation, and technology spin- The first step required of an employee is to provide a offs, they ensure that the technologies are properly transferred university with information on the research results and know- to the private sector for further development and market how relating to them. In the case of an employee’s declaration penetration. of interest in the transfer of rights to those results and the In view of the above, the legislator has formulated a related know-how, the higher education institution shall decide catalogue of obligations to be observed in the process of on their commercialisation within 3 months. protection and commercialisation of R&D results. An employee Where a university decides not to undertake commercialisation of a public university shall be obliged to: or after the expiry of the 3 months’ time limit, the higher 1) preserve the confidentiality of the research results and related education institution shall, within 30 days, make an offer to the know-how, employee to conclude an unconditional and paid agreement for 2) provide the higher education institution with all its the transfer of the rights to the research results and the related information, works, together with the ownership of the media know-how, together with the information, works, including the on which they were recorded, and the technical experience ownership of the media on which they are recorded, and needed for commercialisation, technical experiments. The agreement shall be concluded in 3) refrain from any action aimed at the implementation of the writing; otherwise, it shall be null and void. The remuneration results, payable to a university for the transfer of rights may not be 4) cooperate in the commercialisation process, including the higher than 5% of the average remuneration in the national proceedings aimed at obtaining exclusive rights - not longer 25 than for the period in which the rights of the higher education centers (hereinafter referred to as a TTC). These units are institution apply. differentiated by their structure and scope of action. These obligations are formulated in very general terms and An ABI shall be established to support the business should be made more specific in the IP internal management activities of the employees, doctoral students and students. It regulations and/or in the employee's contract. can operate in the form of a general university unit (under regulations approved by the senate) or a capital company. EMPLOYEE’S RIGHTS A TTC shall be established for the purpose of direct As can be seen from the above, the process of commercialisation, consisting in the sale of research results or protection and commercialisation is formalized and very know-how related to these results, or to the provision of these involving and time-consuming. The statutory model does not results or know-how for use, in particular on the basis of a balance these challenges by establishing an incentive system, in license, rental and lease agreement. It may be established as a fact it only provides for additional remuneration for successful general university unit and shall operate under regulations commercialisation. approved by the senate. Art. 155 states that, in the case of commercialisation, an The law requires that the director of an ABI in the employee shall be entitled to no less than 50% of the value of form of a general university unit or a TTC shall be employed by funds obtained by the university from direct commercialization/ the rector after consultation with the senate from among by the special purpose vehicle as a result of a given indirect candidates presented by their supervisory boards. commercialisation, reduced by no more than 25% of the costs According to art. 149 a higher education institution directly related to such commercialisation, which were incurred may also, for the purpose of indirect commercialisation, by the university or the special purpose vehicle. consisting in taking up or acquiring shares in companies or It is worth noting that also in the reverse situation, in the case of commercialisation by an employee, a university shall be taking up subscription warrants entitling it to subscribe for or entitled to 25% of the value of funds obtained by the employee take up shares in companies, in order to implement or prepare from commercialisation, reduced by no more than 25% of the for the implementation of the research results or know- -how costs directly related to such commercialisation which were related to those results, establish only single-member capital incurred by the employee. companies (hereinafter referred to as a „special purpose Costs directly related to commercialisation shall be vehicle”). To finance the share capital of a special purpose understood as external costs, in particular the costs of legal vehicle, the higher education institution may make a protection, expert opinions, valuation of the subject of contribution in kind (in whole or in part) in the form of research commercialisation and official fees. These costs shall not results and know-how related to those results. A special purpose include the costs incurred before the decision to commercialise vehicle shall be established by the rector with the consent of the and the remuneration payable to a higher education institution senate. The university may, by way of an agreement, entrust a for the transfer of rights. special purpose vehicle with: The regulation acknowledges the role of researchers 1) the management of rights to the results or know-how in the and innovators in generating valuable ideas, inventions, or scope of direct commercialisation; discoveries that can be translated into products, services, or 2) the management of research infrastructure. `technologies. By offering employees a share of the value A special purpose vehicle may additionally conduct business obtained from commercialization, the regulation provides a activity separated in terms of organisation and finance from the direct financial incentive for researchers and innovators to activity referred above. engage in activities that could lead to valuable outcomes with The university shall allocate the dividend paid to a special commercial potential. This can motivate researchers to explore purpose vehicle to the performance of its basic statutory tasks. practical applications for their work and actively participate in Art. 150 underlines that only higher education institutions may technology transfer and commercialization efforts. be partners or shareholders of a special purpose vehicle. A special purpose vehicle may be established by several public KEY ACADEMIC UNITS INVOLVED IN THE higher education institutions. A public university may join a TRANSFER OF R&D RESULTS For obvious reasons, the process of protecting and special purpose vehicle established by another public higher commercialising knowledge cannot rest on the shoulders of education institution. academics, specialised units are established that are crucial in All the institutions indicated above may operate, but are bridging the gap between academia and industry. If these not an obligatory units within the structure of public offices are not effective, well-staffed, or properly funded, the universities. In fact, ABIs, TTCs and SPVs are the core of the commercialization process may falter. IP protection and knowledge commercialisation model. They Law on Higher Education and Science indicates work in collaboration, seeking to share experience and develop which units may be set up by public universities to support best practices. To amplify these effects the Polish Association entrepreneurship and the process of transferring R&D results of Centers for Technology Transfer (PACTT.pl) was into the economy. Art. 148 stipulates, that higher education established in 2015. It is a voluntary association of institutions may operate academic business incubators representative units of Polish universities responsible for the (hereinafter referred to as a ABI) and technology transfer protection, management and commercialization of university intellectual property. Among its objectives, it has adopted: 26 • the integration and development of the professionals capital and private investment, it can be challenging to secure dealing with the knowledge and technology transfer in the funding needed to scale up a commercial venture. academic ecosystem; Placing the burden on universities to build a model for • exchange of knowledge, experience, standards and good commercialisation of research and development results can be practices; assessed as a solution for adapting it to the specifics of each • university and a manifestation of broadening the scope of self- cooperation in the field of commercialization of research determination of scientific institutions. However, it is not results • justifiable at this stage, as shown by research carried out in joint representation of the members of PACTT.pl before individual regions. Preliminary research carried out in 2023 public administration bodies, employers' associations and under the project entitled: "Transfer of R & D results from other entities operating toward innovation and cooperation universities of Podlaskie voivodeship to the economic and between science and business. This representation applies, social environment", funded by the Ministry of Education and in particular, to such actions as: initiating pro-innovation Science., confirmed that Polish universities still avoid activities of national character, preparing and giving innovative and risky ventures in favour of safe and standard opinions on legal changes and issuing opinions on strategic activities. They have little experience in the commercialisation documents and actions taken by authorized bodies in the of research results and have not developed procedures to deal area of national innovation policy [9]. with their transfer . Universities fulfil the requirements set out A year earlier the Polish Association of University in the Act - The Law on Higher Education and Science as Knowledge Transfer Companies (PSC) was appointed. The obligations imposed by the legislator and not to achieve Association is a forum for cooperation of 34 university special developmental goals . purpose vehicles, established to commercialize scientific We are therefore still left with the conclusion that research results from universities and research institutes and addressing all the challenges requires a comprehensive carry out applied research commissioned by enterprises.Shows approach involving fostering an entrepreneurial culture, the real importance of SPVs that cooperate with investors, promoting collaboration between academia and industry, business angels, and innovative entities ready to implement simplifying regulatory processes, and improving access to science-based technologies, are vehicles supporting the creation funding and investment. of spin-off companies [10]. REFERENCES CONCLUSIONS [1] POLON system, https://polon.nauka.gov.pl/en/public-data/; The commercialization process at Polish universities, data access: 17.08.2023 like in many other countries, faces challenges despite having [2] Act of 20 July 2018 - The Law on Higher Education and laws and bylaws in place. A one-size-fits-all approach does not Science (Journal of Laws 2023, item 742, as amended) guarantee success. Different fields and research areas require [3] Hubert Izdebski, Jan M. Zieliński, 2011, Prawo o customized strategies and support. Currently, the legal and szkolnictwie wyższym. Ustawa o stopniach naukowych i tytule administrative processes is cumbersome, slow, and naukowym. Komentarz do nowelizacji, Warszawa 2011, p. 31. complicated, deterring both researchers and potential industry [4] Act of 15 September 2000 Commercial Companies Code partners from engaging in collaborative ventures. (Journal of Laws No. item, as amended) Cultural barriers exist both at the side of academia, as [5] Act of 23 August 1964 Civil Code (Journal of Laws 2023, well as at the industry. The prevailing academic culture item 1610, as amended) prioritizes traditional research and publishing over [6] Act of 30 June 2000 – Industrial Property Law (Journal of commercialization. It takes a shift in mindset to view research Laws 2023, item 1170, as amended) not just as an intellectual pursuit but also as a potential [7] Act of 4 February 1994 on copyright and related rights commercial product. Academics lack the necessary skills or (Journal of Laws 2022, item 2509, as amended) understanding of market dynamics, business planning, and [8] Statistic Poland, Average monthly gross wage and salary in entrepreneurship required to transform research into a national economy in 2022, marketable product. Research is conducted in areas that don't https://stat.gov.pl/sygnalne/komunikaty-i-obwieszczenia/lista- align with current market needs or industry interests, leading to komunikatow-i-obwieszczen/komunikat-w-sprawie- a gap between the creation of IP and its practical application. If przecietnego-wynagrodzenia-w-gospodarce-narodowej-w- universities do not provide proper incentives, recognition for 2022- commercialization efforts, researchers may see little personal roku,273,10.html?fbclid=IwAR1q1nwLHGjEJXp8DJLi6A5V benefit in pursuing these paths. WUHrGLe_uilMT1yLFvoTuXeWOPIMNzaJtXk There is also insufficient funding to support the [9] The Polish Association of Centers for Technology Transfer, development, protection, and commercialization of R&D https://pactt.pl/en/about-pactt results. Polish science is underfunded. The share of higher [10] The Polish Association of University Knowledge Transfer education and science expenditure in GDP in 2023 was only 1.1 Companies,https://psc.edu.pl/en/ per cent. Not enough money for R&D activities and lack of dedicated resources for commercialization hinder the process of technology transfer. Without a robust ecosystem of venture 27 A Comprehensive Analysis of Portuguese National and Regional Policy Instruments for Technology Transfer Offices* If Writing in Slovene: Add English Title Below Helena Rosário Da Costa† Katiuska Cruz National Innovation Agency National Innovation Agency Lisbon, Portugal Porto, Portugal helena.costa@ani.pt katiuska.cruz@ani.pt ABSTRACT / POVZETEK Historically, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) In the rapidly evolving landscape of global have continually evolved in response to changing technological advancement, the process of governmental visions and dominant socioeconomic transferring technological insights from academic influences[1]. A notable shift post-1990 was the settings to industrial and commercial areas – known intersection of education and research, highlighting as Technology Transfer (TT) – is paramount. This the importance of knowledge dissemination and research examines the national and regional technological progress [1]–[3]. mechanisms that Portugal employs in the TT domain, In today's landscape, HEIs are increasingly driven by with a specific focus on instruments targeting applied research, positioning them at the forefront of academic Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). technological innovations with marketable Particularly, the research assesses the implemented potential[4]. The modern role of HEIs integrates their policy instruments, emphasizing their respective primary educational and research missions into a significance and operational dynamics for the benefit holistic “third mission,” which envelopes technology of TTOs. This paper offers a comprehensive transfer, entrepreneurship, and industry partnerships understanding of Portugal's ambition and strategy for [5]–[9] At the heart of this value creation are translating academic knowledge into tangible technological breakthroughs, which are secured industrial benefits. The findings illuminate not only through Intellectual Property Rights (IPR), Portugal's strategic trajectory in TT but also offer positioning Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) as critical insights for policymakers, academia, and central figures[10], [11]. industry stakeholders, exploring and highlighting the TTOs serve as pivotal conduits, connecting academia instrumental role of TTOs in bridging the gap to industry. They meticulously review academic between innovation and commercialization. discoveries, guiding researchers toward identifying and presenting market-ready innovations. In defining their roles, responsibilities in patent decision-making, KEYWORDS / KLJUČNE BESEDE commercial potential assessment, and active Technology Transfer; Science, Technology and Innovation marketing of inventions. Simultaneously, TTOs have Policy; Higher Education Institutions; Technology Transfer a role in bridging information voids between industry Offices and academia, particularly in valuing inventions [12], [13]. 1 Introduction TTO efficacy hinges on available resources[13]–[15]. These resources, as highlighted vary across ∗A Comprehensive Analysis of Portuguese National and Regional Policy institutions and their effectiveness. Resources can be Instruments for Technology Transfer Offices †Author Footnote to be captured as Author Note grouped into financial, infrastructural, human, and Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or organizational capacities. Notably, seasoned TTOs classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed often excel over their newer peers due to the for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must extensive learning curve involved in mastering be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). technology transfer[16]. Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 28 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia H. Costa et al. To bolster this, HEIs have broadened their financial More recently, between 2016 and 2022, public funds, focusing on translational research and the funding (Regional Operational Programmes of emergence of academic spin-offs [17]. Current Portugal 2020) was provided for the establishment of discourse places emphasis on two mechanisms: three additional TTOs in the Lisbon Region. These Proof-of-Concept (PoC) programs[18], [19]and include a center at the NOVA University of Lisbon University Seed Funds (USFs)[14], [20]. focusing on Social Innovation, aiming to be the first Portugal's trajectory in R&D investment has national infrastructure promoting a university- historically been uneven, swayed by socio-political business-organization interface for innovative R&D dynamics and economic downturns[21]. These projects addressing diverse social issues. At the fluctuations sometimes led to inconsistent support University of Lisbon, the TTC@ULisboa acts as a for TTOs, causing variances in their efficacy. While facilitator for technology transfer and some Portuguese HEIs have blossomed into entrepreneurship, offering a strategically located innovation hubs with proficient TTOs, others, space for young entrepreneurial students, researchers, especially those distant from urban centers, grapple and businesses. Lastly, the ISCTE - University with forming industry ties and securing steady funds. Institute of Lisbon established a new TTO, Contemporary barriers, such as challenges in leveraging its existing R&D structure, advanced promoting interdisciplinary research amidst training, and innovation, creating a hub for new ideas bureaucratic limitations, funding, and capacity focusing on society and the challenges of digital building further exacerbate these historical transformation. differences. The crux of this paper is an examination of public Table 1: Portuguese Higher Education Institutions with funding's role in the evolution and sustenance of Technology Transfer Offices TTOs in Portugal, spotlighting government backing. Specifically, we delve into public financial structures Higher Education Type that have engendered “gap funding” models[17], Institution Funded Operation focusing on Portuguese HEIs deeply reliant on state Instituto Superior Técnico GAPI support. University of the Azores GAPI University of the Algarve GAPI & OTIC University of Coimbra GAPI & OTIC 2 The Role of National and Regional Policy University of Évora GAPI & OTIC Instruments in Portugal's TTO Landscape University of Beira Interior GAPI & OTIC University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto GAPI & OTIC 2.1 Direct Financial Support: A Catalytic Support for the Douro Establishment of Portuguese TTOs University of Porto GAPI & OTIC One of the pivotal strategies within the “third mission” University of Minho GAPI & OTIC of HEIs in Portugal has been the establishment of Polytechnic Institute of Setúbal OTIC TTOs, which serve to sustain the interactions Polytechnic Institute of Tomar OTIC Polytechnic Institute of Porto OTIC between HEIs, the industry, and the wider society. Polytechnic Institute of Leiria OTIC In 2001, the Intellectual Property Support Offices Polytechnic Institute of Beja OTIC (GAPI), spearheaded by the National Institute of Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco OTIC Industrial Property (INPI), was introduced. They Polytechnic Institute of Portalegre GAPI & OTIC were co-funded by public schemes such as the Polytechnic Institute of Viana do Castelo OTIC Operational Programme for the Economy and the Technical University of Lisbon OTIC Incentive Program for the Modernisation of the Portuguese Catholic University – School OTIC Economy. These GAPIs aimed to guide researchers of Biotechnology New University of Lisbon OTIC & Regional and academics regarding patentable knowledge. Operational By 2006, the Innovation Agency (ADI) launched the Programs of Technology and Knowledge Transfer Offices Portugal 2020 (OTICs), designed to streamline the transfer of Lusíada University of Vila Nova de OTIC knowledge and technology to businesses. Over time, Famalicão the roles of GAPIs and OTICs began to intertwine, University of Aveiro GAPI & OTIC leading to their eventual integration into the unified University of Lisbon GAPI & OTIC & TTOs (Table 1). Regional Operational 29 A Comprehensive Analysis of Portuguese National and Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Regional Policy Instruments for Technology Transfer Offices Slovenia Programs of methodologies, precise market analysis, industry Portugal 2020 trend discernment, and the evaluation of technologies University of Madeira OTIC with high commercial potential. Moreover, the collaboration with international experts provided ISCTE - University Institute of GAPI & Regional these TTOs with the strategic insight required to Lisbon Operational Programs of effectively manage their respective HEI's IP Portugal 2020 portfolios. Source: List of Approved QREN and Portugal 2020 For each HEI was developed a comprehensive IP Operations Portfolio, which integrates patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets, stands as a testament to an HEI's intellectual competence. 2.2 Capacity Building: Shaping TTOs Ecosystem As part of this initiative, in the first semester of 2023 2.2.1 University Technology Enterprise Network were introduced open innovation challenges. Rooted (UTEN) in the ethos of managing knowledge assets through In response to the fragmented interactions between open innovation [29], [30], these challenges Portuguese HEIs and industry, the Portuguese encouraged companies to present real-world Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) challenges they faced, incentivizing TTOs to respond collaborated with the IC2 Institute of the University with innovative technology solutions drawn from of Texas at Austin to establish the University their IP portfolios. Technology Enterprise Network (UTEN) in March 2.3 Funding instruments for technology transfer: How 2007[22]. TTOs support their activities? UTEN's primary objective was to develop a network The Portuguese government's support, although proficient in transferring and commercializing invaluable, primarily targets the creation and science and technology. This network encompassed capacity-building of TTOs without explicitly public Portuguese HEIs, an affiliated private supporting the daily operations of TT activities such institution, related TTOs, research centers, and PoCs and USFs. The primary onus, therefore, falls on occasionally, technological parks[23]. TTOs themselves. These operations, characterized UTEN offered specialized training by internationally by collaborations with companies, demand for renowned experts, emphasizing the innovative solutions, and training initiatives, are not commercialization of Portuguese academic merely cost-intensive but also necessitate continuous innovation[23]. From 2007-2010, UTEN facilitated financial inflow [14], [17], [18], [19], [20]. To international internships for technology transfer address this, and in line with their “third mission”, officers[22], [24]–[26]. Portuguese TTOs often resort to regional Operational Programmes, emphasizing the critical role such 2.2.2 TTO Network programs play in bridging the financial and Research indicates that academic TTOs evolve operational gaps (Table 2). through experimentation, failure, and the mutual exchange of experiences [27], [28]. Yet, barriers persist in sharing best practices among TTOs. Table 2: Overview of Funding Mechanisms for TT Activities Across Portuguese HEIs Initiated in 2018, the TTO Network represents National Innovation Agency’s (ANI), previously Higher Funded Total Operational Type of ADI, commitment to fostering innovation, Education Operation Eligible Program Mechani technology transfer, and knowledge Institution Expenditure sm commercialization within HEIs. In 2022, ANI (in euros) commenced a two-year initiative to enhance TTO Algarve TT 2.0 552 155,8 Algarve PoC Network capacities. University Regional In addressing the challenges Portuguese TTOs faced Operational in capitalizing on their IP assets, an initiative was set Program in motion: the implementation of specialized training. Aveiro CAMPUS 286733 Center PoC University TEC Regional and The purpose behind this specialized training was Operational USFs twofold: it was structured to empower TTOs with the Program tools for effective collaboration, technology scouting 30 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia H. Costa et al. Católica 3Boost 999960,89 Operational PoC Out of the 26 HEIs that were funded to create the University Programme TTO, only 8 displayed consistent activity in TT for funded by the Operational Programmes between Competitiven 2016 and 2022. It's evident that more established and ess and well-resourced institutions dominate TT activities, Internationaliz ation aligning with the observations from the literature. Coimbra INOV C 1627614,39 Center PoC The appearance of Coimbra University twice could University 2020 Regional be attributed to multiple funding sources or different Operational TTO initiatives undertaken at different periods. Such Program overlapping engagements aren't uncommon, Coimbra InovC+ 3393755,86 Center PoC especially in more established HEI. University Regional The significant funding allocated by Operational Operational Programmes for USFs and PoCs activities Program underscores their indispensable role. However, the Polytechnic Knowledge 477810,74 Operational PoC Institute of Circle Programme persisting challenges, primarily the “funding gap” Leira for and the operational complexities, indicate the need Competitiven for continuous adaptation and a synergistic approach ess and involving policymakers, academia, and industry Internationaliz stakeholders to continue improving the funding ation programs. Trás os INOV@UT 754145,62 North PoC This paper provides an insightful analysis of Montes and AD Regional and Portugal's approach to TT. When analyzing Alto Douro Operational USFs University Program Portugal's historical and contemporary policy instruments, we uncover the commitment to building Trás os Lab2Busine 506902,74 North PoC an ecosystem that fosters innovation, addresses Trás os ss Regional funding challenges, and bridges the gap between Montes and Operational academia and industry. The initiatives – from the Alto Douro Program establishment of TTOs, and capacity-building University networks, to funding mechanisms – demonstrate a holistic strategy. Trás os UI-Transfer 824056,95 Operational PoC As Portugal continues its journey in the global TT Montes and Programme Alto Douro for landscape, the insights from this analysis can inform University Competitiven similar ecosystems globally, emphasizing the ess and universality of the challenges and the importance of Internationaliz a coordinated approach to surmount them. ation Source: List of Approved Operations for Portugal ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / ZAHVALA 2020 as of June 30, 2023 The authors would like to acknowledge the National Innovation Agency for their unwavering support throughout this research. 3 Discussion and Conclusion REFERENCES The introduction of the GAPI in 2001 marked a significant turning point in Portugal's commitment to [1] B. Readings, “The university in ruins,” p. 238, 1996, Accessed: fostering TT. With the formation of GAPIs and later Aug. 15, 2023. [Online]. 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Sandström, “Institutionalizing the triple 10.1016/J.JOITMC.2023.100090. helix: research funding and norms in the academic system,” 32 Compulsory Licensing in Belarus Alexander Uspenskiy Aliaksei Uspenski Maksim Prybylski Republican Centre for Republican Centre for Republican Centre for Technology Transfer Technology Transfer Technology Transfer Center for System Analysis and Center for System Analysis and Center for System Analysis and Strategic Research of the National Strategic Research of the National Strategic Research of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus Academy of Sciences of Belarus Academy of Sciences of Belarus Minsk, Belarus Minsk, Belarus Minsk, Belarus uspenskiy@mail.ru auspen79@gmail.com m.pribylsky@hotmail.com ABSTRACT Article 10 "Actions not recognized as infringement of the exclusive right of the patent owner" addresses the use of The paper informs on the state of compulsory licensing in patented inventions under extraordinary circumstances (natural Belarus and recent changes restricting IP rights. disasters, catastrophes, accidents, epidemics, epizootics, etc.) with notification of the patent owner of such use as soon as KEYWORDS possible and payment of corresponding compensation. Intellectual property law, patent law, compulsory licenses. For example, based on Article 10 during epidemic any person may, without authorization organize both the production and import of generic medicines. The weakness for the person 1 INTRODUCTION is that the patent owner may at any time challenge the very The term compulsory licensing refers to a situation where a legitimacy of such use, its scope and duration, as well as court or government enforces a non-exclusive license to the disagree with the amount of compensation offered to him. protected intellectual property (IP) without the wishes and the In this case the granting of CL would be preferable, since consent of the IP owner. It can be dated back to Article 5A (2) the person in whose interests it is granted understands for what of the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property period of time, to what extent and under what conditions the (Paris, 1883), stating: "Each country of the Union shall have the patent-protected subject matter may be used. right to take legislative measures providing for the grant of Article 38 "Compulsory license" addresses the non-working compulsory licenses to prevent the abuses which might result or insufficient working (1) and dependent inventions (2) types from the exercise of the exclusive rights conferred by the of CL and describes the legal procedure for obtaining a CL by a patent, for example, failure to work" [1]. third party, which is done by filing a claim with the Judicial The world practice has developed three main types of Collegium for IP of the Supreme Court. compulsory licenses: 1) for non-working or insufficient The patent law of Belarus does not use all options in terms working of patented invention; 2) for dependent inventions; of compulsory licensing, which are implemented in other 3) in public interest, such as "national emergency" or "public countries. This concern primarily compulsory licensing in health" [2-9]. "public health" interest. The international legal basis for compulsory licensing is When opting for the issuance of a compulsory license in the found in the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of "public health" interest, it is advisable that preference be given Intellectual Property Rights (1995) (TRIPS Agreement) and the to the administrative procedure as it is much simpler and faster Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health [6, 7]. (2001). Due to the national character of intellectual property rights (IPRs) countries may implement their own systems of 3 AMENDMENTS TO THE PATENT LAW compulsory licenses (CL). Although Belarus is not a WTO member the above-mentioned gap has been closed by the law "On amendments to laws on the 2 COMPULSORY LICENSING IN BELARUS legal protection of intellectual property" dated January 9, 2023, The compulsory licensing of industrial property in Belarus has No 243-3 that introduced amendments to patent law. been regulated by Articles 10 and 38 of the patent law (the Law "On patents for inventions, utility models, and industrial designs" dated December 16, 2002, No. 160-3) [2, 10]. Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2023 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 33 Table 1: Compulsory licensing of industrial property in Belarus # Grounds for granting a CL, legislative act Procedure Conditions Invention, Utility model 1 Non-working or insufficient working by the Legal * Refusal of the patent owner to conclude a license agreement on patent owner within 3 years from the terms consistent with established practice. publication date, leading to insufficient * The interested party has the ability to use the invention. supply of relevant goods, works or services * Absence of valid reasons for non-working proven by the patent on the market (patent law, Article 38 (1)). owner. 2 A patented invention cannot be worked Legal * The invention is dependent on a patent for an invention (utility without exploiting an earlier patented model). invention (utility model) (patent law, Article * The invention is an important technical achievement. 38 (2)). * The invention has significant advantages over the original invention (utility model) patent. * Refusal of the patent owner to conclude a license agreement on terms consistent with established practice. 3 The need to ensure national security, state Admini- defence, safety and security of people's lives strative and health (patent law, Article 38 (3)). Design 4 Non-working or insufficient working by the Legal As 1. patent owner within 3 years from the publication date, leading to insufficient supply of relevant goods, works or services on the market (patent law, Article 38 (1)). 5 The need to ensure national security, state Admini- defence, safety and security of people's lives strative and health (patent law, Article 38 (3)). Plant variety 6 Non-working or insufficient working by the Legal * Refusal of the patent owner to conclude a license agreement. patent owner of a plant variety within 3 years * The interested party has the ability to use the plant variety. from the registration date in the State * Absence of valid reasons for non-working or insufficient working, Register of Protected Plant Varieties (law proven by the patent owner. "On plant varieties", Article 31). Topography 7 Non-working or insufficient working of the Legal * Refusal of the patent owner to conclude a license agreement on topography by the right owner within 3 years terms consistent with established practice. from the publication date in the official * The interested party has the ability to use the protected bulletin of information about the registration topography. of the topography, leading to an insufficient * Absence of valid reasons for non-working or insufficient working, supply of relevant products (goods) (Law proven by the rights owner. "On protection of integrated circuit topographies", Article 22 (1)). The newly added Article 38 (3) of the patent law describes 6. Amount and procedure for payment of compensation. "public health" type of CL, which is granted by the decision of the Council of Ministers. The decision specifies: Table 1 summarizes procedures for granting CL for industrial property after the amendments. 1. Last name, first name, patronymic (if any) of the individual, or the legal entity to which CL is granted. 4 RESTRICTIONS OF IP RIGHTS 2. The period for which a compulsory simple (non-exclusive) The law "On restriction of exclusive rights to intellectual license is granted. property objects" dated January 3, 2023, No. 241-3. 3. Usage rights of a person who has been granted a CL. Articles (1) and (2) of the law allow the use of software, 4. A government agency that within 30 days from the date of the decision to grant a CL must notify the patent owner audio/visual works, music and broadcasts without the consent about the decision. of the rights owner or the organization for collective 5. The procedure for notification of a government agency by management of property rights if they are from the foreign an individual or legal entity that is granted a CL about the countries committing unfriendly actions against Belarusian payment or impossibility of paying the compensation to legal entities or persons. The Council of Ministers appoints the patent owner. 34 state authorities for managing the lists of corresponding rights ACKNOWLEDGMENTS owners. We would like to thank the National Academy of Sciences of The user of above mentioned IP pays remuneration that is Belarus and the State Committee on Science and Technology of credited to the bank account of the national IP office (the the Republic of Belarus for their constant support of RCTT National Center of Intellectual Property). Together with activities and express gratitude to all our colleagues who work payment the information on IP use and calculation of in technology transfer for their help and advice. remuneration shall be provided. The amount of remuneration assigns the Council of Ministers. REFERENCES The remuneration will be kept on the bank account of [1] Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property: national IP office for three years from the moment of deposit https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/text/288514 and during that period can be claimed by the rights owner. The [2] Лосев, С.С. О необходимости развития института принудительных лицензий в патентном праве Беларуси / С.С.Лосев // Правовая national IP office can use up to 20% of the remuneration to культура в современном обществе [Электронный ресурс] : сборник cover its management expenses. научных статей / Министерство внутренних дел Республики Беларусь, учреждение образования «Могилевский институт After three years, the unclaimed remuneration will be Министерства внутренних дел Республики Беларусь» ; редкол.: И. transferred within three months to the republican budget. А. Демидова (отв. ред.) [и др.]. – Могилев : Могилев. институт МВД, 2022. Articles (3) and (4) of the law allow import from any foreign – С. 247–253. [3] Good Practice Guide: Improving Access to Treatment by Utilizing country of goods from the List of goods (group of goods) vital Public Health Flexibilities in the WTO TRIPS Agreement // UNDP. for domestic market, if there is critical shortage (i.e. parallel URL: https://www.undp.org/sites/g/files/zskgke326/files/publications/Good%2 import). The Council of Ministers appoints state authority for 0Practice%20Guide- managing the list. Improving%20access%20to%20treatment%20by%20utilizing%20public If imported goods include IP, it will be temporary excluded %20health%20flexibilities%20in%20the%20WTO%20TRIPS%20agree ment.pdf from the National customs register of IP objects. The [4] Doha Declarations. WTO: notification letter will be sent at the address of the rights owner https://www.wto.org/english/res_e/booksp_e/ddec_e.pdf [5] WIPO INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HANDBOOK: within two days of the decision to exclude the IP from the https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/intproperty/489/wipo_pub_489.p register. df [6] The Compulsory Licensing E-Guide: https://cms.law/en/media/expert- The articles of the law are valid until the end of 2024. guides/files-for-expert-guides/cms-compulsory-licensing-global-expert- guide-feb-2021 5 CONCLUSIONS [7] Eric Bondy and Kamal Saggiz Department of Economics Vanderbilt University (April 2012). Compulsory licensing, price controls, and Most countries provide for compulsory licensing to advance access to patented foreign products, 29 p. https://www.wipo.int/edocs/mdocs/mdocs/en/wipo_ip_econ_ge_4_12/wi nation's technological development by encouraging the po_ip_econ_ge_4_12_ref_saggi.pdf production and use of patented goods and increase access to [8] An International Guide to Patent Case Management for Judges. WIPO, advanced technologies [5–9]. 2023, 643 p. ISBN: 978-92-805-3515-0 (online) https://www.wipo.int/edocs/pubdocs/en/wipo-pub-1079-en-an- The compulsory licensing in Belarus before 2023 was not international-guide-to-patent-case-management-for-judges.pdf applicable to medicines (new or expensive) since grounds for [9] A Single Market for Patents: New rules on Compulsory Licensing. April 2023, European Union, 2023 ISBN 978-92-68-03176-6 compulsory licensing did not include "protection of human life doi:10.2873/83000 ET-09-23-208-EN-N https://single-market- and health". Introduction of the Law No. 243-3 on January 9, economy.ec.europa.eu/document/download/dd0384ee-1cc1-41e9-936c- 2023, updated the legislation for all options allowed by 512f2f3aaac0_en?filename=Patent%20Package_Compulsory%20Licensi ng_Final.pdf international laws. When granting compulsory licenses in [10] Закон Республики Беларусь от 16 декабря 2002 г. № 160-З «О "public health" interest an administrative procedure is applied. патентах на изобретения, полезные модели, промышленные Образцы» https://bgaa.by/sites/default/files/inline-files/zakon- Compulsory licenses in Belarus are not agreements and as respubliki-belarus-ot-16.12.2002-g.-no-160-z_0_1.pdf such should not be registered with the National Center of [11] Закон Республики Беларусь от 3 января 2023 г. № 241-З «Об ограничении исключительных прав на объекты интеллектуальной Intellectual Property. собственности» https://pravo.by/document/?guid=12551&p0=H12300241&p1=1&p5=0 35 Assessing the Contribution of Hubs to Uganda’s Innovation Ecosystem A Case Study on the Role of Innovation Hubs in Kampala Linda Amanya Science, Technology and Innovation Research and Development Division Uganda National Council for Science and Technology Kampala, Uganda lindaamanya@gmail.com / l.amanya@uncst.go.ug ABSTRACT / POVZETEK Innovation enablers in the informal pathway (i.e private-owned incubators, accelerators and technology hubs) often offer a This paper focuses on assessing the role of hubs in facilitating variety of business-related services including: office/ lab space, innovation for economic development. product development mentorship and business coaching in It analyzes the ability of innovation hubs in Kampala to provide addition to networking opportunities, industry linkages, and in three critical elements for innovation - financial support, some case, seed funding. business development services and networking opportunities. What they seldom focus on, especially in the case of Uganda, are services directed at the exploration and management of The paper also explores the development focus of these hubs, as intangible assets such as intellectual property (IP). well as the challenges they face in facilitating innovation. Based on the results of this analysis, it is recommended that Intellectual Property is a critical component of any innovation comprehensive instruments be developed to facilitate the ecosystem. IP assets can act as a safety net for innovators in integration of the different pathways for innovation, and the developing economies like Uganda where approximately 75% of collaboration of actors in the National System of Innovation start-ups fail to reach the first anniversary of their business (NSI) operations [3]. This paper emphasizes the need for innovators based outside of research and academic establishments to acquire good understanding of intellectual property assets in order to benefit from the knowledge economy, It is proposed that innovation hubs in the informal innovation pathway address not just the awareness gap that exists, but also the limited capacity in identifying, protecting and diffusing research products and Figure 1: The link between entrepreneurship, intellectual intellectual property generated. property and innovation [4] KEYWORDS / KLJUČNE BESEDE Systems required to facilitate innovation activities are complex and often call for collaboration among various stakeholders in Innovation, innovation pathway, development, Intellectual bringing together inputs such as infrastructure, finances and Property Management expertise needed for innovation processes such as prototyping and IP registration [5]. 1 INTRODUCTION While innovators in academic and research institutes may be In a metanalysis utilizing data from 115 countries, Fagerberg and privy to information on and the benefits of IP, the same cannot Srholec (2008) identified the development of an innovation be said for actors in the informal innovation pathway. system to be one of the top four out of twenty-five factors, critical for the economic development of any nation [1]. In order to facilitate consolidated development of the National System of Innovation (NSI) in Uganda, this paper assessed the National Systems of Innovation, though comprising of a role of innovation hubs in greater Kampala and her neighbouring multitude of actors, often feature two distinct pathways: the suburbs. formal innovation pathway which features state-supported activities conducted by actors in academia, research institutes Specifically, the study sought to and industry, and the informal pathway where players from civil i assess the provision of three key elements for innovation, that society and grass root organizations take on self-financed is, financial support, business development services and innovation activities [2]. networks; ii identify the development challenges addressed and the innovation focus in innovation hubs and; Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed iii provide recommendations for further development of the NSI. for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 36 2 METHODOLOGY 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 2.1 3.1 Research Design Descriptives Purposive sampling and snow balling were utilized in identifying The most commonly addressed development challenges, based and approaching participants based in innovation hubs in on the SDGs were: Decent Work and Economic Growth (8); Kampala. Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (9) and No Poverty (1) These participants, ten (10) in total, categorized their and the least addressed were: Life below Water (14) and Life on establishments as incubators, technology transfer offices, Land (15). accelerators and technology hubs based on the following The most supported themes in the innovation hubs were: descriptions: Education and Skills Development while least supported themes • were Transport and Infrastructure and Democracy and Incubator (IN) – an independent co-working innovation space that creates and develops start-up Governance. The average quantum of funding provided by hubs companies for at least 12 months. was USD $10,000 - $50,000 • Technology Transfer Office (TTO) – a facility 3.2 affiliated to a university or research institution that Provision of financial support assists researchers in IP protection, licensing and Financial support adversely influences an institution’s decisions, commercialization. • ability to engage in innovative activities and the nature of Accelerator (ACC) – an entity focused on accelerating outcomes of their innovation processes [6]. or scaling up companies for a few months through Results indicated that six of the ten innovation hubs were subject structured programmes and funding. to financial constraints as the quantum of funding required by • Science Park (SP) – an entity promoting innovation their beneficiaries was greater than the quantum of funding they and competitiveness of associated businesses and provided. knowledge-based institutions in a given community. • Technology Hub (TH) – a facility focused on generating contacts or leads and/or providing motivation, exposure and self-belief for innovators. • Co-working Space (CWS) – a facility providing only hot desking, office spaces, boardroom facilities or events to start-up companies. Depending on the nature of operations and the innovation programmes hosted in their establishments, many participants identified their spaces to fall in more than one category. Figure 2: Quantum of funding provided against requirement Table 1: Innovation hubs by year, category and beneficiaries Name of Innovation Hub Year of Category Beneficiaries 3.3 Provision of business development services Establishment Supported (24 months) StartHub Africa 2017 IN, ACC, TH, Others >200 All ten of the participating innovation hubs provided at least two NARO Incubation Centre 1992 IN, TTO, ACC, TH 51-100 Women In Technology Uganda support services required for business development as presented (WITU) 2012 IN, TTO, ACC, TH >200 MoTIV 2020 CWS, IN, ACC >200 in Figure 3. Response Innovation Lab 2018 ACC 101-200 NFT Mawazo 2005 IN, ACC, TH >200 Makerere Innovation and Incubation Center 2016 IN, ACC, TH 51-100 TechBuzz Hub 2016 CWS, IN, TH >200 KQ Hub Africa 2018 Other 101-200 Design without Borders Africa 2014 Other >200 2.2 Data collection and analysis The data collection process constituted: a physical assessment of innovation establishments in Kampala; a desk review of information on the innovation hubs identified and; designing and administering a survey tool to assess innovation support. Three elements were assessed: financial support, business development services and networking opportunities. Data analysis was then conducted in MS Excel and SPSS 26. Figure 3: Business support services supported by innovation enablers 37 Services such as training and capacity building were the most international and local communities [9]. This may be through the common - provided by nine out of ten of the hubs, followed by establishment of the International Relations Office or through the networking opportunities, and business development and Technology Transfer or IPM function. relationship management. Either way, these support structures can be a source of Intellectual Property Management (IPM)/ Advisory was the least opportunities including mobility and exchange programmes, supported service, only available at the NARO Incubation scholarship opportunities and seed funding for innovators. Centre. In turn, innovation hubs can be a source of knowledge and human capital in these relationships. While the protection of IP assets by registration can be viewed as a means to obtaining economic reward for innovation [7], Peer-to-peer engagement amongst innovation hubs especially many establishments supporting innovators, especially from the through clusters and networks can be beneficial in testing tech industry, are not keen on providing IPM support because of assumptions, combining different competences [10] and in the rapid changes in the industry [8]. With a few modifications, diffusing knowledge [8]. Particularly, the interdependence a technology that is innovated today can quickly become created by innovation clusters, especially in Science and irrelevant tomorrow. This could be a reason for no IPM services Technology Parks creates opportunities for exchange and in some of the participating hubs. collaboration and could even allow for sharing of infrastructure and services, improving production efficiency in the long run. Other possible arguments for the absence of this service could be the slow progress in developing markets for IP assets in Uganda, Links to parent companies and international collaborations are and the presence of a national IPM authority - the Uganda argued to provide access to better technology and infrastructure Registration Services Bureau (URSB) which would render in- as well as more financial and knowledge resources [10]. house IPM services redundant in many of the hubs. It was clear that providing networking and collaboration 3.4 Opportunities for collaboration and networking opportunities was essential for many of the participating innovation hubs; What could be improved is the affiliation to Findings from the component of affiliation to academic or research and academic institutions for the benefits afore research institutes, as well as networking and collaboration mentioned. opportunities supported by the ten innovation hubs are presented in Figure 4. 3.5 Limitations to innovation Innovation hubs experience diverse challenges in their work, depending on their interests and objectives, level/scale of operations and the prevailing socio-economic conditions. However, many of the factors that inhibit innovation on the African continent, in some way, relate to the economic infrastructure, local institutions, domestic capabilities and the policy context that supports the NSI [11]. Some of the challenges highlighted by the participating hubs included: Figure 4: Networking and collaboration opportunities i) Limited technical skills in product development among young innovators. ii) There is evidence that innovation hubs derive more successful Lack of early-stage investment for start-ups. iii) outcomes when they have links of any sort to larger entities Weak IP enforcement. iv) including universities, private-sector actors, branches of A small and disinterested private sector with limited (human and financial) capacity to absorb the generated government, development donors, and with other hubs [8]. technologies. v) Regardless of whether an innovation space is based at a tertiary Little to no knowledge on business development and management for incubatees. institution, access to and integration between an innovation hub vi) and a university or an academic/research institute can be Inefficient follow up with innovators after programme exit. vii) mutually beneficial to both entities, as each learns progressively Unsatisfactory sustainability plans presented by innovators. viii) from the other [8]. High risk aversion towards novel ideas in the NSI. ix) Discrepancies in appropriate technology versus advanced technology. To further explain the benefits of these affiliations, Bank et al. x) (2018) assert that academic institutions tend to form and maintain Lack of investment readiness programmes for innovators. xi) more sustainable networks and relationships with both Low quality ideas/ innovations. 38 xii) Limited research potential for some projects. While clustering is beneficial, adopting a similar decentralized xiii) Limited market potential for some innovations. approach, as in South Africa, could increase the reach and level xiv) Obstructive government regulations and taxes. of interest in innovation in the different regions in Uganda, xv) Rigidity in adaptation to changes in the ecosystem. especially outside of the capital - Kampala. xvi) A lack of understanding and appreciation for design innovations in the ecosystem. In terms of the limited absorption capacity of innovations by industry, it can be argued that the nature of investment in innovations is often long term with uncertain returns, which can repel some investors. Ayalew and Xianzhi (2019) also reason that the issue of reluctance to reveal innovative ideas could be to the detriment of many innovation firms as it reduces financers willingness to grant loans or capital [6]. Evidence from the participating hubs suggests that protection through IP registration is not a top priority. Innovators are more likely to rely on ‘secrecy’ as a protection mechanism yet investors are looking to understand where they are placing their money. As such, there is a need to bridge the gap between the expectations of investors with the liberties of innovators in Intellectual Property Management. Figure 5: The participating innovation hubs by location ‘The functioning of an innovation system depends on its 4 CONCLUSION AND components – the organizations/actors and relations among the RECOMMENDATIONS components which perform various innovation system activities [11] Innovation hubs can be viewed as conduits through which inputs System integration that allows national and regional systems of are often aggregated to create optimum conditions for the innovation to intersect with sectoral and technological innovation process [8]. The nature of interaction of the inputs innovation systems, especially through interactive learning provided by these hubs ultimately determines the outcome of the among stakeholders in different pathways should be fostered to product development chain. There is therefore a need to develop develop a NSI that is accommodative of and beneficial to and sustain mechanisms and instruments to support these Ugandans. innovation enablers for innovation-led development. The lack of financially-backed appreciation for innovation within larger societal operations is a common phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa. Better engagement with academic institutions, companies and local communities is required to influence more youth and individuals to participate in knowledge generation and more technical support along the innovation cycle, particularly in product development and intellectual property management is needed. Companies and firms can be better encouraged to absorb local innovations developed in the NSI, through subsidies and tax exemptions. Examples of successful networks and clusters of innovation hubs exist in developing nations such as South Africa [10]. The Government of South Africa has ensured that innovation hubs are far reaching in different townships, diffusing incubation services to stakeholders in all parts of the country. 39 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / ZAHVALA REFERENCES This paper is evidence of the openness and willingness of the [1] Fagerberg, J. and Srholec, M. (2008) National innovation systems, innovation hubs in Kampala to engage with other actors. capabilities and economic development. Research Policy, 37(9), 1417-1435 I am truly grateful to the teams at Design Without Borders [2] Cele, M.B.G., Luescher, T.M. and Fadiji, A.W. (2020) Innovation policy Africa, KQ Hub Africa, Makerere Innovation and Incubation at the intersection: Global debates and local experiences. Cape Town: HSRC Press Centre, MoTIV, NARO Incubation Centre, NFT Mawazo, [3] Business Focus (2023) 75% Of Ugandan Start-Ups Don’t See Their First Response Innovation Hub, StartHub Africa, TechBuzz Hub and Birthdays – Experts. Business Focus, Retrieved August 15, 2023. WITU, for sharing their stories of passion and perseverance in [4] Reis, D.A., Moura, F. R. and Aragão, I. M. (2021) Entrepreneurship, intellectual property and innovation ecosystems, International Journal for facilitating innovation. Innovation Education and Research, 9(2), 108 – 134 [5] Holloway, C., Ramirez, D. Z. M., Bhatnagar, T., Oldfrey, B., Morjaria, P., Moulic S.G., Ebuenyi, I. D., Barbareschi, G., Meeks, F., Massie, J., Special thanks also to Dr McLean Sibanda, Mr Ronald Jjagwe, Ramos-Barajas, F., McVeigh, J., Keane, K., Torrens, G., Rao, P.V.M., Ms Sakina Salem (and the Code for Africa team) and the WIPO MacLachlan, M., Austin, V., Kattel, R., Metcalf, D. C. and Sujatha, S. Professional Development Program for supporting me in (2021) A review of innovation strategies and processes to improve access to AT: Looking ahead to open innovation ecosystems, Assistive conducting the analysis and in producing this paper. Technology, 33(1), 68-86 [6] Ayalew, M. M. and Xianzhi, Z. (2019) The effect of financial constraints on innovation in developing countries: Evidence from 11 African countries, Asian Review of Accounting, 28(3), 273-308 [7] Reis, D. A., Moura, F. R. and Gomes, I. M. (2019) The linkage between Intellectual Property and Innovation in the Global Innovation Ecosystem. European Conference on Intangibles and Intellectual Capital. Kidmore End [8] Abrahams, L. (2020) Innovation Entanglement at Three South African Tech Hubs, the African Journal of Information and Communication, 26, 1-29 [9] Bank, L., Nico Cloete, N. and van Schalkwyk, F. (2018) Anchored in Place: rethinking the university and development in South Africa. Cape Town. African Minds [10] Oerlemansa, L.A.G. and Pretorius, M.W. (2006) Some views on determinants of innovative outcomes of South African firms: an exploratory analysis using firm-level data, South African Journal of Science, 102, 589 – 593 [11] Egbetokun, A., Atta-Ankomah, R., Jegedec, O. and Lorenz, E. (2016) Firm-level innovation in Africa: overcoming limits and constraints, Innovation and Development, 6(2), 161-174 40 The Importance and Benefits of the Technology Transfer Ecosystem (TTE) Matej Mrak† Office for industrial liaison (SPOG) Jožef Stefan Institute Ljubljana, Slovenia matej.mrak@ijs.si ABSTRACT small projects like: KET4CP, DIH-World, DIH4AI but through this (small) collaborations, the teams (of researchers and Creating and maintaining the technology transfer ecosystem is a companies) got to know each other and then later applied for or foundation on which many (future) technology transfers (TTs) entered into greater projects together. are built. Having a good invention/technology is usually not One of the building blocks of the TT ecosystem (TTE), that enough, if you do not have either a buyer or a partner on the other we are building at the Project and Innovation Support units side ready to assist you. It is important to establish and maintain (consisting of: Office for substantive project support, technology (strong) relationships with the industry in order for them to give transfer and innovation (CTT) – U7, Office for industrial liaison you the opportunity to present, when the opportunity presents (SPOG) – U8, Office for project informatics, organization of itself, for example in the form of tender/call, innovation, research thematic events and conferences (SPIK) – U9) at the Jožef Stefan collaboration etc. Institute, are certain thematic projects (Enterprise Europe Network, European Digital Innovation Hub – EDIH, KEYWORDS KET4CP,…) in which we are involved with precisely this Technology transfer, ecosystem, marketing channel, innovate or purpose: to help companies in other areas or rather, we are die, EU, projects, venture capital. involved in those projects precisely for the reason of helping companies with the cascade financing to cooperate with the Jožef Stefan Institute or in the area of technology transfer. This means 1 INTRODUCTION that we are actively building (or adding to) our TT ecosystem. The problem, that not so few academic researches institutions face, is the lack of collaboration with the industry. Some even believe that the TT is failing endeavor [1]. There are certain 2 THE ECOSYSTEM projects that try to stimulate this cooperation/transfer. Once ecosystem is relatively large enough, further benefits One thing, that the Office for industrial liaison (SPOG) at the arise. For example, if we successfully connect two companies, Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) observed, that might be responsible they form a partnership agreement (PA) and a stronger/bigger for relatively low number of technology transfers, is the lack of relationship develops as a result. Benefits of a PA, for the “standby” relationships with the industry. This means that it company, is an increase in sales abroad, for example, which might not be enough to seek for companies when certain strengthens the company and its ability to operate more tender/call/opportunity presents itself but the organization (or its developmentally and innovatively in the future, which then TT office; TTO) must begin with this (much) sooner. enables the company in the ecosystem to cooperate with a What SPOG at JSI identified, is that, predictably, the more research institution. If this PA was a result of certain project companies that it visits, the greater the chance for a success story (Enterprise Europe Network for example), then this same project with the benefits for all parties. For example, even if a visited allows the established partnership to be promoted (without any company might not be willing to spend the money on research additional charge for the companies) as a success story, which directly, their topics of potential cooperation are still identified then brings new recognition for all parties (the project itself, and written down. Also, their skills/areas are cataloged. Then companies, project partner) and new opportunities could arise (much) later certain funding opportunities might arise and the that could (later) involve also the project partner which made the SPOG might see the opportunity to connect certain companies PA of two companies possible. Further with the appropriate researcher or a research team. Some developments/opportunities/partnership can arise from either examples of collaborations grew (albeit slowly) from rather way. ∗Article Title Footnote needs to be captured as Title Note At the Project and Innovation Support units (at the JSI) we †Author Footnote to be captured as Author Note are constantly monitoring for new calls/tenders/projects with the Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or objective/question in mind if they can benefit the companies and classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed the researchers. Ideally, they would help with funding, but for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must sometimes they can help even better, by giving them the be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). opportunity or recognition to expand, through connecting certain Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 20 partners together. It is important to see the whole picture, all of 20 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 41 the benefits of the ecosystem, the full deck or the full checkerboard in order to be motivated to do certain things that might not give/provide/promise direct/immediate benefit(s) in the first step(s); to the Jožef Stefan Institute in our case. For 3 MULTIPLE ANGLE APPROACH example, one might ask what's in it for the Institute, to connect Transferring technology, into the industry in particular, is a certain companies together in the partnership agreement, that difficult endeavor Companies receive a lot of emails/offers daily might not include the Institute itself. The answer is in the future and it is difficult to get pass the basic filter/screening and gain (probability) of involving the researchers from the JSI in some their attention, especially for the technologies on a lower project, even much later. There are existing cases that speak technology readiness level (TRL). about this and that can show how further opportunities were It helps to try to establish the relationship with the company developed because of this ecosystem. Opportunities that one first, to know a few people, to recognize the key people, might/could not even envision so much in advance. One example decisions makers, to show them the value of such relationship of further benefits for the JSI is, since companies are aware of and then, (much) later, introduce them to new technologies that the (EU) funds, they are also monitoring certain project/funding have a potential but need funding in order to raise its’ TRL. And opportunities and since the focus of the (EU) projects is (more one way of doing exactly that is by presenting/giving the and more) on international/abroad cooperation among the company benefits of some project that is specifically designed to companies and involvement of the academia/institutes in a help them in some way. One such project is the Enterprise consortium for example, if certain companies would like to Europe Network that is founded by the European Commission either apply for certain project, they would need to involve some and its’ purpose is to connect the companies together, across the (public) research organization for example and if this is the very border. It promotes/stimulates collaboration between companies same organization that helped them (in some ways) before, then internationally. The connection can happen through connecting there is a greater chance they will contact/include it. The idea/key them on the business side; via so-called BR – Business Request is to see the potential down the road, to invest time and effort in or BO – Business Offer (one company is ordering/offering certain steps that might not yet give direct/immediate benefit. Of services to the other) or connecting them through the particular course, not every path will lead to new opportunities/partnership technology (via so-called TR – Technology Request, TO – but it is important to see it like from a venture capitalists’ point Technology offer). Once the companies see the benefit of this, of view; if few success stories outweigh the many unsuccessful through the established partnership agreements (PA), then their trials/paths, it was all worth it, in an economic and satisfactory interest increases, relationship deepens and the connector (Jožef way. Stefan Institute in particular case, that is a Hub in the Enterprise The major problem is the different focus that the parties Europe Network) has the option to promote its’s services and might have. Researchers in Academia have focus on research and technology to the companies it helped. Therefore, all the writing/publishing of scientific articles that brings them companies, its services, projects, people, become part of the credits/points that are used for promotion etc. But the industry bigger picture, so-called ecosystem. And every (good) system is has a different focus, they (usually) see things from the more than the sum of its parts or greater than the sum of its parts. perspective of ROI (Return of Investment) etc. in a certain period That might be truer in the case of the ecosystem. (within 3 years for example). In not so rare cases, both parties could benefit but they need a guidance, case studies, a different It is of most importance to see the difference between the overview, for them to see the synergies without any real (isolated) product/service and the ecosystem. One practical downsides. For example, the industry could invest (or gain funds example of this is the mobile phone analogy. There are certain for) in something that might be for rather direct application down phone brands that are of higher price and when comparing just the line, while the researcher could focus more on a their physical product alone, by specifications, with the fundamental/part of certain subject. In this way, both parties competitive products, they might seem high in price. But the gain. Scientists/researchers could still be “true to their cause” by important thing here to consider is the additional/surrounding researching in fundamental science but the company can then services that are built/integrated with the device: stores, music narrow it down to the application. As a result of this service, cloud storage, synchronization, backup, location service, collaboration, a new IP (Intellectual Property) might arise and a … With this different overview, the mobile product is not just a patent application could get filed, hoping to get to the granted (overpriced, comparing just by physical) device but it is the (part patent (up to 20 times or more research points for the of a) mobile ecosystem. Similarly, if one views technology- researchers). Based on this IP, in parallel to patent application, transfer office (TTO) just as a “forwarding service”, that the researchers can also write (scientific) article on the very same forwards certain email/inquiry and establish contact, it might be subject, what is in fact promoted (but a patent application must harder for them to justify its size/function but if one sees the full of course be filed before the publication of the scientific article). spectrum of benefits of the TTO, then they will almost not want So in the end, the researchers could get scientific/publishing to do the contact/service themselves. credits (for article(s) and patent (application(s)), industry could Sometimes researchers think that it would be better to contact get the (cutting edge) innovation (and maybe granted patent) that certain company directly and not via TTO, especially if that is could lead them to more profits and, if all goes very well, the new allowed in the organization. But this might show problems down (foreground) IP could get licensed to the third parties (plural). the road, especially if there is a higher money involved. But it all begins with the proper “selling” to all parties of why Particular field when something might get wrong is the legal they should start to collaborate in the first place and to convince field, when drafting/signing the contract of potential them that they are not on different sides but on the same plane. collaboration. If the relationship between organizations is 42 established without the contract, that has its own problems since connected with the company/Institute abroad, later came back many things are undefined (for example use of logo/brand/name, with the request for a direct research cooperation or with the background IP etc.). Also, it is important to have companies on invitation to certain tender/call. The company, although had no stand-by, for certain tenders/opportunities which are hardly direct relationship with the Jožef Stefan Institute itself, later maintained by individuals and this is where the TT ecosystem realized the value added of the Institute and reached it for another comes in play. opportunities. The important thing is to keep ecosystem alive, to circle ideas and opportunities and sooner or later, due to pure As we see, it is important to have a established (organic) statistics - if nothing else, the seed of (another) opportunity begin ecosystem of technology transfer with all the essentials, such us: to sprout in the soil of the originator. legal assistance (drafting the contracts, managing the signing procedures), intellectual property (IP) rights guidance/management, informing companies of certain funding/financing and networking opportunities, organizing 5 BEST PRACTICES brokerage events, publishing and promoting profiles (offers, One of the recent good examples or best practices, is the requests) online for the companies that are in need of successful collaboration (that is ongoing and is evolving) product/service/research/technology or are looking to sell between the researchers from JSI and Slovenian company with product/service/technology, mediating/stimulating negotiations registered research group under the Slovenian Research Agency: (which is very critical in the beginning stages), mediating or ARIS. On the other side were the researchers from JSI. The “translating” between academia/researchers and whole collaboration started when the TTO/TTE sent particular companies/industry since there is a usually a very different funding opportunity to sourced companies that they believe language/focus between the two, etc. would be suitable. Once the company expressed interest and the technology needed by the SME was defined, the TTO/TTE located the appropriate researchers at the JSI. After the meeting, they agreed to apply for particular project together. After they 4 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION won the project and completed it, they later applied for a different It appears that one of the more effective ways, for the industry project of similar size. By this time, they got to know each other and academia to meet, is building and maintaining the TT quite well and they started to think/brainstorm, during one ecosystem with promoting of value added for all parties. The particular teleconference (TTO was guiding it), that maybe they researchers might get (scientific) credits while the industry should not just be looking/applying for certain projects, now that (companies) can increase their profits, either directly (by they found they are a good research consortium, but to propose optimizing certain parameters in certain areas: production, it/them. The idea then gained track, they filed a proposal for a logistics, material use etc.) or by gaining some technological fundamental project and won it. The company got the funds, the advantage (through innovation) in the market. researchers got the funds but also, due to fundamental project, The innovation is still one of the leading forces of progress researches will have the benefit to work on the fundamental or marketing advantage. “Innovate or die” is the motto by which research, which is their main purpose at the institute, to publish, many high-tech companies are driven by. The “host” for this to get research credits etc. The company got the material/base collaboration is a so-called TT ecosystem in which the that they can upgrade to more applicable/marketable version of relationship between academia (and basic science institutes) are the subject. All parties win. All this all due to the organic formed, maintained and stimulated. It is important to have as progress of relationship between the Institute and the company. much industry and researchers identified/catalogued and With such established relationship, specially with the ongoing connected as possible. Not unusually, the collaboration starts support from the TTE, the possibilities/options increased greatly even years after the first contact, when the right opportunity and also there is a potential for the foreground Intellectual arises or something/management change. It is important to Property (IP), further commercialization of joined (secret)know- design the organization around the idea of the importance of the how or IP etc. TT ecosystem. [2]. At the Jožef Stefan Institute there is a mentioned group of support units, known as Project and Innovation Support, that help to promote the TT idea itself and 6 CONCLUSIONS that also do (bi)weekly visits to Slovenian companies, that are Benefits of the Technology transfer ecosystem are hard to pre-identified/screened as having (the research envision at first but the more one work with(in) it, the greater the department/potential) with witch the group try to identify topics benefits presented. Many ask what is the purpose for a (basic) of possible cooperation and then try to match it with the research institute to connect the companies and opportunities researches at the Jožef Stefan Institute or, if there is no match at (specially abroad) but at the end there are many. By visiting the JSI, with the potential partners abroad. Potential companies, identifying their challenges, connecting them with topics/opportunities get forwarded, with the help of Enterprise other companies/institutions (abroad), that could solve their Europe Network project, to other organization (abroad) due to challenges, every once in a while, those companies (either the lack of resources at the Jožef Stefan Institute. At the first domestic or abroad) remembers the originator (the Jožef Stefan glance, this would seem as an opportunity wasted but due to this Institute in this example) and enters into a research partnership TT ecosystem idea, not so few times, the opportunity (later) or apply together for great(er) projects in (fundamental) research comes from a different path. For example, the company that we with the potential for further direct applications. Therefore, 43 everyone gains. EU also seem to support Improved technology transfer ecosystem and networks across Europe [3]. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We acknowledge the colleagues at the Project and Innovation Support, Director's Office U1 and Information Society for all the support of contributing and organizing this event – ITTC16. REFERENCES [1] The Evolution of University Technology Transfer: By the Numbers https://ipwatchdog.com/2020/04/07/evolution-university-technology- transfer/id=120451/# (last accessed August 28, 2023) [2] The technology transfer ecosystem in academia. An organizational design perspective https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0166497217301657 (last accessed August 28, 2023) [3] Supporting Technology Transfer https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/practical-handbook-regional- authorities/ii-research-and-innovation/supporting-technology-transfer_en (last accessed August 28, 2023) 44 The Interconnection of Property Technology and Intellectual Property: Literature Review Marijana Ribičić† Innovation and Sustainable Business Management in Digital Society PhD student DOBA Business School Maribor Slovenia marijana.ribicic@net.doba.si ABSTRACT / POVZETEK integration of technology into offerings by financial services companies to improve their use and delivery to This paper presents a systematic literature review on the link consumers. ConTech is the construction technology that is between property technology and intellectual property. used for all the work that is done within the construction Property technology or PropTech is technology and industry. GreenTech was developed in response to climate innovation which improves various aspects of the real estate change and the COVID-19 pandemic. industry, etc. the optimization of the way people buy, sell and manage property. It may for example refer to property We can see, there are different areas in technology, especially management platforms, smart home technology, and data areas (niches) in PropTech. analytics for market insights, virtual property tools etc. Innovative technologies and solutions developed in the PropTech areas: PropTech sector often require legal protection through Real estate market various intellectual property mechanisms, however, our analysis shows, that there is not a single study analysing the Smart cities and building interconnection between intellectual property and PropTech Sharing economy innovation. Construction industry (ConTech) KEYWORDS / KLJUČNE BESEDE Finance (FinTech) Property technology, PropTech, patents, intellectual property, IoT, Blockchain, GreenTech, FinTech, Startups, literature review Figure 1: PropTech is currently developing in several areas (PropTech in the narrowest sense) 1 INTRODUCTION We have three generations of PropTech (Baum, 2017), while the fourth generation is already mentioned (Ascendix Tech, The aim of this study is to explore the interconnection 2023). The current generation, PropTech 3.0 includes between property technology and intellectual property. different IT solutions: AI, IoT, Cloud Computing, Blockchain. So Dirst we must explain and deDine both terms. A blockchain is a distributed database or ledger shared among a computer network’s nodes. They are best known for 1.1. Property technology (PropTech) their crucial role in cryptocurrency systems for maintaining Property Technology or PropTech refers to the use of a secure and decentralized record of transactions, but they technology to streamline and improve the processes are not limited to cryptocurrency uses. involved in the real estate industry. PropTech means any The real estate industry faces the challenges of reducing technological solution in the real estate sector, be it 3D carbon emissions (Tan, 2023). Siniak et al (2020) say that the visualization, a platform to connect buyers and sellers of real concept of "PropTech 3.0: Real Estate of the Future" was estate, crowdfunding, FinTech, GreenTech the sharing developed in 2017 at the University of Oxford. Consequently, economy, smart cities, smart homes, smart contracts or BIM PropTech has become part of the digital transformations of (building information modeling). FinTech refers to the the property industry, in terms of driving the property ∗Article Title Footnote needs to be captured as Title Note market and promoting radically new approaches to property †Author Footnote to be captured as Author Note acquisition and management. The Croatian Chamber of Architects (2023) has developed Building Information Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or Modeling, a process of creating projects in the field of distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice construction through the creation of a virtual three-and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). dimensional information model of the building, with a strong Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia emphasis on the cooperation of all participants in the design © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 45 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia M. Ribicic process and participants in construction. This can be called edge. Trade secret protection is crucial to safeguard these as innovation in PropTech (ConTech). valuable assets from being misappropriated by competitors. PropTech is a new trend set to grow over time. The purpose 1.2.4 Trademarks: PropTech companies develop brands of PropTech is to transform the built world and make it more and logos to distinguish their products and services in the digital, more climate conscious and more efficient by market. applying innovative solutions. It encompasses a wide range of technologies such as software, hardware and data 1.2.5 Industrial designs: It can be assumed that PropTech analytics that are used to improve various aspects of the real companies involved in architecture and home interior design estate sector, including property management, construction, often register industrial design as a form of intellectual investment, and sales. PropTech has experienced a huge property. expansion in the last ten years. In the last three years, as companies rapidly develop new 1.1. Intellectual property (IP) innovative, technological solutions, the question arises IP refers to any intellectual creation, such as literary works, whether such IP is worth protecting and in what way? How artistic works, inventions, designs, symbols, names, images, is PropTech and IP connected? While (material) property in computer code, etc. IP law exists in order to protect the a business sense presents a tangible asset, IP is an intangible creators and inventors and covers areas of copyrights, trade asset, the successful exploitation of which can be a valuable secrets, trademarks, industrial designs and patents. There foundation and contribution to business. The purpose of this are also other forms of IP, such as geographical indicators, paper is to provide a systematic literature review of existing but we will focus only to forms which may be relevant to research on this topic. property technology. 2 METHODOLOGY Using Google Scholar on 06/24/2023, we found 149 results Industrial design that referenced ProptTech and intellectual property (I also try to search for specific form of IL) in the same article. Copyrights The searches were determined in this way: Patents Intel ectual • “intellectual property” AND “property technology” property OR PropTech • patent OR patents AND “property technology” OR Trade PropTech secrets • copyright OR copyrights AND “property Trade technology” OR “PropTech” marks • “industrial design” OR “industrial designs” AND “property technology” OR PropTech Figure 2: PropTech and intellectual property can be complementary in several ways • “trade secret” OR “trade secrets” AND “property technology” OR PropTech 1.2.1 Patents: PropTech often involves the development of • trademark OR trademarks AND “property novel hardware or software solutions that address specific technology” OR PropTech challenges in the real estate industry. These solutions may Where the quotation marks specify that a specific include unique devices, algorithms, or methods for property phrase should be selected and not each word management, data analytics, energy efficiency, and more. individually. Companies in the PropTech space may seek patents to protect their inventions from being copied or used without Then I carefully selected 30 scientific articles that mentioned permission. Patents provide exclusive rights to the inventor Real Estate Technology and IP or IP forms more than 3 times for a specific period, allowing them to control the use and in article. Then I analyzed all of 30 scientific aricles (see commercialization of their technology. attachment: Systematic data analysis). I excluded all articles 1.2.2 Copyrights: PropTech companies develop software that unrelatedly mention IP and technology (Real Estate, applications, platforms, websites, and other digital assets to PropTech, building technology etc.) I determined the most offer services such as property searches, virtual tours, and important papers and examined them in further detail based data analysis. Copyright protection may apply to the source on the number of times a paper mentions IP (or patents, code, user interfaces, graphics, and other creative elements of these digital products. Copyrights prevent unauthorized copyrights, etc.). At the end I have selected only 9 articles that copying or distribution of these works. have a link on IP with the possibility of application in some of 1.2.3 Trade Secrets: PropTech firms often create the real estate technologies. These articles are listed in the proprietary algorithms, databases, business processes, and last column as articles of high importance. other confidential information that give them a competitive 46 The Interconnection of Property Technology and Intellectual Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Property: literature review Slovenia 3 RESULTS remains largely unexplored by the academic community Here is a summary of these 9 relevant articles: (Friedman, 2020). Moreover, most of the literature on the real estate development process explains more about the 3.1 IP as Patents, Trademarks, Industrial construction process technology and financial technology, designs, Trade Secrets and Copyright in while other proprietary technologies are rarely mentioned Technology (Maududy and Gamal, 2019) and as we have shown above, 3.1.1. Non-fungible token (NFT). NFTs provide proof of no one has investigated the impact of IP on innovation or the ownership and the corresponding asset can only have one success of PropTech companies. owner at any given time (Zhang, 2023). Today, they are As can be seen, most articles are related to decentralized widely used by artists, musicians and brands to secure their technology (Blockchain), which is also related to the concept copyrights and IP. Based on the presented data, it can be of Web 3.0. The articles define specific research niches, but concluded that blockchain-supported technologies are we can conclude that there are many challenges, and that highly represented in published articles and journals, but significant research will be needed in this area. However, lack innovation, which is reflected in the number of there is, so far, not a single study detailing the impact of IP on published patents. Mixed reality technologies show strong PropTech innovation. As can be seen in the attachment, even maturity through published articles but have limited the most significant papers only superficially consider the research and development as indicated by the small number role of IP, although they confirm that IP has a significant role. of patents. On the other hand, artificial intelligence (AI) PropTech has enormous innovation potential with the technologies show a balance between the number of arrival of the 5th industrial revolution and 4.0 PropTech published patents and articles Edge computing and smart revolutions (robotization, smart intelligence, smart contracts contracts have proven themselves great research interest with realization in the present time. .) and understanding and development due to the number of published patents. how innovative protected technological solutions can Namely, there are many published one articles on non- increase the revenue of PropTech companies is very fungible tokens, but a relatively small number of patents, important for both management researchers and managers. which may be a consequence overlapping with other NFT has significant potential in the domain of IP of PropTech technologies or due to the novelty of the technology itself. It solutions and this is the area of software protection. The is possible notice that there is a significantly higher number Office of Technology Assessment of the US Congress has of published articles on AI technologies in relation to the reported that copyright law provides unsatisfactory number of published patents. protection for computer software. A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique digital identifier that The book of Rushing & Brown (2019) analyses the is recorded on a blockchain and is used to certify ownership importance of the social rate of return on investments in new and authenticity. There is insufficient research on the use of technology and deals with a discussion of some policy issues NFTs in matters such as IP. Application for a patent and regarding IP rights. The less developed countries tend to feel trademark is not only a time-consuming process, but also that IP rights give inventors and innovators an undesirable extremely expensive (Mojtaba and others, 2022). monopoly on advanced technology that can be used to 3.1.2 Trade secrets and patents. One of the explanations extract unjustifiably high prices, as well as unwarranted is that FinTech (Imerman & Fabozzi, 2020) are used restrictions on the application of the technology. The main proprietary to generate profit, but when IP patented, it has point is that if one considers the long-run benefits for been published in the public domain and is therefore no economic growth resulting from IP protection, as well as the longer a "trade secret". Another source of risk in FinTech long-run costs in terms of economic stagnation when no stems from legal issues. Legal issues in FinTech is protection exists, the case for strengthening IP protection in particularly tricky because there is significant IP components developed and developing countries is very strong. Creating associated with these technologies, but financial services new types of output in such areas as biotechnology, companies are not known to obtain patents for their computer software, and information transmission, not technologies. considered in IP protection mechanisms, means that 3.1.3 Copyright. IP (Van Erp, 2019) law deal with maintaining a degree of protection requires flexibility in the problems, such as copyright and database law in European mechanism itself. The impact of IP protection on the firm's Union. There are several problems to solve at a more decision to allocate resources to research and development theoretical level on the way how to express such rights as (R&D) is clearly at the core of any discussion regarding an copyright. Technical developments go incredibly fast and IT optimal IP policy. From the firm's perspective, the degree of developers seem to overrun the law with their rallying cry protection afforded IP has an impact on its profits and that “computer code is law”. therefore on the amount of money that it invests in R&D. PropTech is also a collective term used to define startups that offer technologically innovative products and new business 4 DISCUSSION models for the real estate market. Proptech startups are From the systematic literature review we can conclude that important drivers of change in accelerating the digitization even scientific papers on PropTech are very new (very rare of buildings. While many researchers analyze the economic before 2018). Despite enormous potential, PropTech and environmental savings from the application of digital 47 Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia M. Ribicic technology, far less attention has been paid to the challenges REFERENCES for PropTech startups to increase profits and become [1] Baum A, Braesemann F. (2020). PropTech: Turning sustainable businesses (Tan & Miller, 2023). Lawrence real estate into a data-driven market, University of (2023) says that European Proptech startups are thriving Oxford - Said Business School because they are changing the way real estate is bought, sold [2] Baum A. (2018). PropTech 3.0: the future of real and rented. estate, University of Oxford Those 9 articles talk about the application of innovations in [3] Consiglio, M. (2019), Enabling Business technology, but specifically not in PropTech. Therefore, the Transformation through Servitization: The role of interconnection between PropTech and IP presents an Open Innovation and Collaboration Strategies in important research niche. Commercial Real Estate A multiple Swedish businesses empirical analysis, Luiss Guido Carli Financing is growing, and companies are expanding their [4] Friedman, I. (2020). Rethinking PropTech: Drawing markets and developing new, innovative products. There are insights about the real estate many types of IP recognized by law, and each type provides technology industry through technical some form of protection to a person who has made the experimentation (Doctoral dissertation, creation. The basic idea behind various types of IP is to Carnegie Mellon University). provide an incentive to the owners to disclose the idea to the [5] Imerman, M. B., & Fabozzi, F. J. (2020). A conceptual public, so that others can further develop the technology, and framework for fintech innovation. Available at SSRN therefore, it leads to an overall growth of science and 3543810. technology. As logical as this may be, it has been criticized by [6] Maududy, C. F., & Gamal, A. (2019, January). Literature many people who follow an opposing school of thought review: the impact of property technology (PropTech) in property development. In 33rd International propose that IP rights serve as a tool to provide monopoly to Business Information Management Association large corporations, and it's difficult for smaller players to Conference: Education Excellence and Innovation invest in R&D as much as bigger companies, eventually, strict Management through Vision 2020, IBIMA 2019 (pp. implementations of IP laws kill the innovation and thus it 5370-5376). International Business Information defeats the sole purpose. There are two solutions for small Management Association, IBIMA. start-up companies in the fields of Proptech, Contech or [7] Mojtaba, S., Bamakan, H., Nezhadsistani, N., Bodaghi, Fintech: O., & Qiang Qu, &. (2022). Patents and intellectual property assets as • to book a presentation space on some PropTech non-fungible tokens; key fairs and secure a presence in the central technologies and challenges. innovation area. If this business idea has the power https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05920-6 to disrupt the real estate industry, some investor [8] Rushing, F. W., & Brown, C. G. (2019). Intellectual will invest in R&D and IP proteciton and a new property rights in science, technology, and economic innovation will be born. performance: International comparisons. Intellectual Property Rights in Science, Technology, and Economic • to improve the actual situation defined by a lack of Performance: International Comparisons, 1–354. research, I recommend that academic institutions https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429044502 encourage more research on PropTech and its [9] Siniak, N., Kauko, T., Shavrov, S., & Marina, N. (2020). connection with innovation and IP. This can also be The impact of proptech on accomplished by offering relevant courses, real estate industry growth. IOP Conference Series: supporting doctoral-level research on the topic, Materials Science and and engaging industry-academy consortium Engineering, 869(6). https://doi.org/10.1088/1757- research projects. 899X/869/6/062041 [10] Sako, M., & Qian, M (2021), A taxonomy for technology • academic institutions can further encourage venture Ecosystems, University of Oxford ProptTech startups to cooperate with them to [11] Tan, Z., & Miller, N. G. (2023). Connecting improve their products and services and underpin Digitalization and Sustainability: the growth of the industry as a whole. Proptech in the Real Estate Operations and Management. Journal of Sustainable • academic institutions can support founding of spin- Real Estate, 15(1). out and spin-off PropTech enterprises. https://doi.org/10.1080/19498276.2023.2203292 [12] Trianni, A., Bennett, N., Cantley-Smith, R., Cheng, C. T., The practical application of innovations on PropTech cannot Dunstall, S., Hasan, A. M., Katic, M., Leak, J., Lindsay, D., yet be fully explored, until there will be more research papers Pears, A., Tito Whealand, F., White, S., & Zeichner, F in the field of IP and PropTech. (2022), Industry 4.0 for energy productivity Opportunity Assessment Final report for Business ACKNOWLEDGMENTS / ZAHVALA Program Industry 4.0 for energy productivity for I would like to thank Dr. Ana Hafner who has been energy productivity-Opportunity Assessment for instrumental in furthering my understanding of intellectual Research Theme B2, Final Report 2B Project team, property. Cooperative Research Centre Program Her guidance and support are invaluable to me. [13] Van Erp S. (2019). Land registration and “disruptive” (or “trustworthy”?) technologies: Tokenisation of 48 The Interconnection of Property Technology and Intellectual Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Property: literature review Slovenia immovable property Sjef van Erp. University of Maastricht (The Netherlands) [14] Zhang, S. (2023) WEB 3.0 Disruption and adoption in Real Estate, Massachusetts Institute of Technology A ATTACHED DOCUMENT A.1 Research method of articles considering, together, PropTech and intellectual property 49 An Information-Centric Perspective on Data Jože M. Rožanec† Lola Montero Santos Giacomo Delinavelli Artificial Intelligence Laboratory Department of Law Arthur's Legal Jožef Stefan Institute European University Institute Amsterdam, The Netherlands Ljubljana, Slovenia Florence, Italy delinavelli@arthurslegal.com joze.rozanec@ijs.si lola.monterosantos@eui.eu ABSTRACT conceive learning goals in different ways. Among these paradigms, we find unsupervised learning, supervised learning, While the focus of information theory, science, and technology and reinforcement learning [2]. Unsupervised learning aims to is information, most of the current legal and regulatory learn from unlabeled data for clustering, density estimation, or frameworks focus on data and portability, disregarding the dimensionality reduction. Supervised learning aims to learn the information aspect, and therefore fail to successfully achieve association between input vectors and dependent variables their goals. The paper presents an information-centric (classification or regression settings). Finally, reinforcement perspective on data. Furthermore, it argues that data ownership learning aims to find suitable actions in a particular situation that could enable additional regulatory aspects while being key to maximize a reward and help achieve a certain goal. In develop a data market and a data value chain. Moreover, some reinforcement learning the algorithm interacts with the ideas are drafted on how the value of information could be environment by trial and error, exploring actions and context to attributed across different stages of the data value chain. learn something new, and exploiting gained knowledge to attain KEYWORDS the final goal. In every case, the relevant knowledge toward the specific goal is different. Furthermore, it can be conveyed using Data, Theory of value, Data value chain, different modalities (tabular data, graph data, sequence data, or image data). 1 ECONOMIC ASPECTS OF DATA While commodities usually are subject to divisibility, appropriability, scarcity, and display decreasing returns to use, it 1.1 Who or what generates data? has been observed that information is not easily divisible, and its Data is defined by Bygrave [4] as " signs, patterns, characters or value often increases with its use [9]. While data is abundant and symbols which potentially represent some thing (a process or can be replicated arbitrarily, the scarcity could arise from the object) from the ‘real world’ and, through this representation, finite amount of means to replicate, process and store the data. may communicate information about that thing". Nevertheless, From the abovementioned observations, multiple Gellert [8] notes that the definition of data and the distinction considerations arise, which we briefly introduce in the following between information and data remain a matter of discussion. Two sections. kinds of data generation processes exist. First, we find sensors that observe certain phenomena (either physical or virtual) and 1.3 How informative is the data? quantify them. Second, we find processes that generate synthetic Many approaches and metrics have been developed to measure data based on previous knowledge about something they aim to the amount of information present in the data. Among common emulate (e.g., heuristics or machine learning models for synthetic measures we find the Shannon entropy, mutual information, and data generation). directed information. The Shannon entropy measures the degree to which the data is unexpected: the higher the unexpectedness 1.2 What makes data valuable? of the data, the higher the information value it holds. Conditional Data is not sought by the data itself, but for the information it entropy measures the degree of unexpectedness of a variable contains. While information has been defined in many ways, it is given the value of another known variable. Mutual information generally understood as the knowledge communication [5]. That assumes two random variables are given and measures how much knowledge is sought at a particular time with a particular goal in information about one variable can be drawn by observing the mind, and the value of the information is related to that goal [1]. second one. Finally, given a pair of sequences, the directed The increasing adoption and use of machine learning fosters information measure the extent to which one sequence is relevant an increasing demand for data suitable for satisfying the for causal inference on the other one. particular goals the machine learning models are trained for. In In machine learning, there is an interest in understanding what the machine learning realm, multiple paradigms exist and they is invariant and what is noise across datasets and contexts. The capacity to discriminate between information and noise is a key †Corresponding author: joze.rozanec@ijs.si aspect of learning [16]. While in this context valuable data would Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or be the one that provides information that displays little classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed correlation to already known independent variables, such for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must information could still be useful to a person for the sake of be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). context (e.g., while economic growth is usually correlated with Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). employment rates, and using both may be meaningless for a 50 machine learning algorithm in certain cases, they may still be past patterns do not provide insights into current fraud valuable to a person). strategies), some other may be lightly affected by time (e.g., prices in inflationary context), or may not be affected by time at 1.4 Do we have substitutes? all (e.g., landscape images). When the underlying semantics A key aspect that defines the economic behavior of consumers change (e.g., new types of fraud emerge and old ones disappear) with respect to a given product in the market, is whether a good there is little that can be done to avoid data depreciation. substitute product exists for it. The demand for substitute Nevertheless, when the semantics remain the same but changes products shows a negative correlation: the demand for one in the data distribution are observed, we speak about data drift. product reduces or replaces the need for the other. Substitutes of Data drift can be mitigated to a certain extent with strategies that a particular data variable would be any kind of data that displays learn how to align past and current data distributions (e.g., a high enough degree of mutual information. through Monge mapping). While not always feasible, such alignment could extend the lifecycle for certain data if required. 1.5 Data enrichment Anyway, the existence of different data lifecycles requires When considering learning goals for a specific machine learning different depreciation strategies to be considered in each case. algorithm, we may find that a single data variable will unlikely be able to describe complex relations observed in the real world. 2 DATA: ITS VALUE AND PRICING Therefore, data enrichment is required to join multiple data variables describing the different aspects of the real world, and 2.1 Theories of value therefore providing new information to the machine learning A key question in economic theory regards the value of goods model or the person consuming it. and their price. In his work " An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations" [13], Adam Smith presented 1.6 Data elasticity the water-diamond paradox: water, which is required for life, is The demand for a certain product is considered elastic when the far less expensive than diamonds, which have very limited use. demanded quantity of a product changes more than The subjective theory of value solved the paradox by claiming proportionally when its price increases or decreases. While that the value of the asset is determined by the consumer, based product elasticity is usually considered in the realm of physical on the marginal utility. The theory explains that while water, in products, intangible assets could also display elastic behavior. total, is more valuable than the diamonds, water is plentiful, and E.g., people would be more or less likely to disclose some diamonds are scarce. Therefore, an additional unit of diamonds sensitive information based on the perceived benefit. The exceeds the value of an additional unit of water. Nevertheless, perceived benefit could be considered the price of that piece of does the paradox hold in the realm of data? The paradox supposes data, paid either in kind (e.g., access to a product feature), money four key properties are observed in most assets: appropriability, (either selling or renting the data), or both. A particular example divisibility, scarcity, and the display of decreasing returns to use. could be access to data describing typing patterns. Such data Appropriability relates to the ownership of data. While data is could be used for continuous authentication of a person using a not divisible per se, divisibility could be derived from ownership: particular hardware (e.g., ensuring only the owner uses a access to data could be granted by extending ownership, through particular device) [7, 15], or for early disease diagnosis [10]. In a lease, or as a donation. While data is abundant and can be each case, the person could grant access to the data in exchange replicated arbitrarily, the scarcity could arise from the finite for (a) a digital good (e.g., a typing profile), (b) some service amount of means to replicate, process and store the data, and (e.g., authentication, (continuous) identity verification, or from the fact that ownership should be respected. Finally, the disease diagnostics, or (c) money obtained from data leased or decreasing returns in the realm of data could be associated to the sold at an aggregate level (e.g., for analytic purposes, such as its degree of information that each new piece of data provides. This use within the scope of the research of a given disease, public is likely to diminish over time. Nevertheless, a fifth factor must health policy planning, or market research). While in (b) the be considered: the malleability of the asset under consideration, person would benefit from the service and eventually pay an defined as how a certain asset can be used. The higher the additional fee for it, in (c) the person could perceive a fraction of malleability, the greater the market potential and its potential the money paid to access some of the data he owns. We devote demand. While physical assets have a limited range of uses, each part of Section 2.3 to weight the benefits and drawbacks of piece of data can be used for a virtually infinite amount of granting access to data permanently, and the benefits and applications, and therefore directly impacting its value. drawbacks of selling or leasing data. Nevertheless, the subjective value assigned to data in each case may not directly correlate to its pricing. Data can be used in 1.7 Data amortization applications that have different value regimes, centered on Amortization refers to the accounting method used to expense different value forms (e.g., economic or aesthetic), each of them the cost of intangible assets over their expected lifetime for tax subject to different internal dynamics [3]. or accounting purposes. Amortization is analogous to the Bolin [3] considers that the following aspects are relevant to depreciation of physical assets. The costs are expensed to reflect data valuation: (a) data is transient (the value of data diminishes the asset's loss of value over time (e.g., in physical assets this over time), (b) it requires human involvement to be generated could be due to the wearing out with their use over time). Without and processed, (c) data will never be exhausted as long as there delving into the details of data amortization, it can be observed is human activity, (d) and it is a non-rivalrous good. We agree that not all data was created equal: while certain data wears out with the author that data requires human involvement to be with time (e.g., fraud patterns change over time, and, therefore, generated and processed. Furthermore, we consider both 51 properties as the foundation of data ownership. Nevertheless, we be used, the privacy implications, and the estimated price a piece consider that while (a) is true for certain cases, many phenomena of data has on the market. The dashboard should also display described by data remains invariant through time (e.g., images which websites /applications/legal entities are accessing the data describing a landscape). Moreover, technological degradation or have accessed it in the past, the time span for which they stored could impact the ability to produce data. Finally, we agree that the data, the purpose for which they use it, and their price data is a non-rivalrous good (the use of data by a company does offerings. Finally, it should provide data administration tools to not infringe upon others' use of it). Jones [11] considers this has operate with the data supporting e.g., the deletion of certain data at least two consequences: (a) it cannot be priced if not legally to anyone who acquired it in the past, disable its further use, or restricted (ownership attributed to it), and (b) there may be grant it to some particular entity or anyone interested in it. potentially large gains by using it broadly. Furthermore, it Such a dashboard could be a product created and marketed by considers that giving data property rights could generate nearly any company interested in providing such oversight. The optimal allocations. While we agree that data should be given companies would not store the data: the dashboard would just property rights, we consider that two dimensions of data value issue API calls to any third parties and keep track of what data must be considered: the ownership of data and the information was given or not to particular websites/applications/legal entities. contained in the data. While the data ownership enables selling Furthermore, such implementation would provide a default and or renting a particular piece of data, the information contained in full GDPR-compliant interface e.g., ensuring the right to data a piece of data may be shared by a wide range of data. We deletion, which under existing implementations is hard to realize. elaborate further on this concept in Section 2.3, linking this We consider key to data privacy that such dashboards are property to data pricing. associated with distributed identities [6]. Furthermore, such a distributed identity could be associated with multiple virtual 2.2 Owning data wallets to preserve data owners anonymity and enable the trading Ownership is considered a key aspect of pricing. While some of data. authors argue that data exhibits traits of a public good (public Data intermediaries. To increase data marketing power and goods are non-excludable (it is costly or impossible to exclude in the interest of privacy, persons could provide some of their someone from using the asset) and non-rivalrous) data is not non- data to data intermediaries who would market the data or excludable per se. Therefore, while some data could be legally aggregated data to interested parties under particular terms of turned into non-excludable (e.g., due to public interest or the use. This would help such parties to acquire a critical mass of owners' will), by default, it should be considered private property data of interest while also increase price negotiation power on under the scheme of data markets. We ground this claim in the behalf of the data producers. The Data Governance Act has fact that all data is collected as a result of human intervention and already established a legal framework and certain governance certain investments, and therefore fulfilling the criteria that standards for data intermediation services [12]. ownership is gained by doing some work. Nevertheless, data has Pricing data. When pricing data, we consider that for each the particular characteristic that its value relates to the piece of data two things must be considered: (i) the (ownership information it holds, which (i) by the definition of information of the) data itself, and (ii) the information contained by the data. relates to a certain goal, and (ii) can be found in other pieces of While the data is owned by someone, the information cannot be data that may be owned by other people. Therefore, while data is owned exclusively and is shared across many pieces of data. owned by the person or entity producing it, the ownership over Therefore, data pricing should consider (i) the compensation paid the information cannot be enforced and could be shared based on to the owner for the right to exploit the piece of data with a data ownership attribution. particular goal, which accounts for the information value of the data in that particular case, and (ii) the compensation paid to 2.3 Pricing data anyone who has a piece of data that shares some amount of the Usually, consumers are willing to pay a higher price for products information extracted from the piece of data mentioned above. they consider to be of higher value. Therefore, how should data The second compensation is rooted in the fact that given the data be priced? Spiekermann et al. [14] explored a user-centered value is a non-rivalrous good, a single piece of data could be arbitrarily theory for personal data. Based on experimental research, the selected and exploited without limit, inducing a certain loss to authors concluded that (a) most people are not aware that their the rest of the owners of pieces of data that contains similar data may have a market potential, (b) awareness that there is a information. The compensation should alleviate that loss. This market for data influences the perceived value of data, (c) the second component could be fixed, the amount established by a value of data correlates with engagement and psychological regulatory entity and paid to a third party, in a similar manner as ownership (e.g., in a certain application or platform), and (d) lack public performance royalties are managed, collected and of control over how data is used likely leads people to abandon distributed by performance rights organizations in the music the data market. industry. The royalties would be distributed based on the fraction Data ownership and administration. To solve issues related of information shared by a particular piece of data for which the to peoples' ignorance about data market potential, ensure their royalty was paid, and the data owned by a particular person or psychological ownership and grant them control on how the data legal entity. We consider that such an information-sharing-based is used, we propose regulation should mandate that browsers and compensation schema would help to solve attribution issues that devices must have a data management dashboard linked to a arise from generative artificial intelligence models, where no digital profile. Such a dashboard could display what data is being direct attribution to a digital work exists. Furthermore, it would collected and provide a typified description on how this data can solve issues that arise from competing interests between open- 52 sourced datasets and private datasets that could contain similar data owners renting or selling their data, (iii) data owners information, compensating for the loss caused to owners of compensated (given data shared by third parties contains certain private datasets due to the adoption of opensource (free) ones. degree of the information contained by their data), (iv) some This is particularly relevant given the non-rivalrous nature of regulatory entity ensuring such compensations take place, and data. (v) a person or company that owns and develops the product. Renting data. While data could be sold, we consider data renting to provide a more appropriate framework. By renting 3 CONCLUSIONS data, the data producers retain the rights to the data and therefore In this paper we have briefly described some considerations can decide at any moment to stop sharing it, relocate it, or delete regarding the value of data. We consider data ownership is key it, among other choices. Data rental could provide a solution to to realizing data markets, where data rental would provide means the data portability issue: since the company would not own the to not only pay data owners for their data, but also provide a data, the data generator retains the right to move the data technical solution that enables the realization of privacy rights. somewhere else. Therefore, it could be considered that Furthermore, we propose the compensation of data owners based companies take the cost of hosting data as part of the exchange on the information contained within their data and the data shared price for data. Nevertheless, they could be mandated to offer a by third parties. Finally, we propose a data value chain portability service (export some or all of the data producer data on request, for a given fee), to honor the ability to relocate the ACKNOWLEDGMENTS data. Furthermore, such a service should guarantee that exported data can be understood (e.g., by providing a minimal amount of This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency, the metadata, with a good-enough semantic description). Specialized European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program project Graph-Massivizer under grant agreement HE- companies could provide hosting services for exported data if a 101093202 and EU H2020 project STAR under grant agreement person just wants to move the data from some company to avoid H2020-956573. losing it when denying further use of it. Furthermore, competing companies could assume the costs of porting data between REFERENCES platforms as a means to lure new consumers to start using their [1] Bedford, Norton M., and Mohamed Onsi. 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Rožanec Law PhD Researcher Artificial Intelligence Laboratory European University Institute Jožef Stefan Institute Florence, Italy Ljubljana, Slovenia lola.monterosantos@eui.eu joze.rozanec@ijs.si ABSTRACT This paper advocates for the establishment of AI regulatory 2 KEY ASPECTS OF THE AI ACT sandboxes in the European Union to enable responsible testing To understand the content of this paper, some concepts contained of AI systems in real-life conditions. By aligning the sandbox in the AI Act need to be introduced and clarified. modalities with the risk tiers of the AI Act, a smooth transition from research to testing of AI systems is ensured. The framework 2.1 A Tiered Approach Towards Risk emphasizes the oversight and compliance obligations needed for the desired outcomes to be realised. This will foster AI Research The Proposed AI Act regulates AI systems based on a tiered & Innovation in the European Union, delivering benefits for approach towards risk. It differentiates between (i) unacceptable society and ethical legally conforming AI technologies. risk AI systems, to be outlawed; (ii) high risk AI systems; and (iii) low or minimal risk AI systems. Moreover, the Proposed AI KEYWORDS Act sets two categories of high risk AI systems: those characterized by their use as safety components of specific AI systems, knowledge transfers, EU regulation products, and those with implications for fundamental rights. Thus, both the purpose of the AI system and the technologies it 1 INTRODUCTION utilizes will be key factors in determining the risk category of the AI system. The Final AI Act is expected to follow this structure. The European Union (EU) is currently deploying or getting ready However, the specific traits defining what makes the AI systems to deploy several regulatory instruments to deliver a Union “fit fall within each category of risk have still not been set. The Final for the digital age”[1]. The not-yet adopted Artificial Intelligence AI Act will likely follow the Proposed AI Act in providing (AI) Act, is one of them. It imposes obligations on providers, flexibility for the expansion or modification in the future of the makers, and facilitators of AI systems, as well as on users of AI traits of AI systems that define them as high risk. systems or their outputs. The specifics of what constitutes an AI Moreover, the Council and the EP agree with the Proposed AI system, the obliged parties, and the conditions these must abide Act that high risk AI systems will need to be assessed before by are still being discussed. The European Commission (EC) being put on the market and throughout their lifecycle, while released its Proposed AI Act in 2021 [2]. The Council [3] and the limited-risk AI systems will only need to comply with European Parliament (EP) [4], have both released their amended transparency requirements, enabling users to make informed versions of the text. These bodies are now engaged in decisions as to engaging with them. To ease the transition of AI interinstitutional negotiations, which will deliver the Final AI systems from the inception stage to the market stage, the Act, expected by the end of 2023. regulation puts forth the creation of AI regulatory sandboxes The operational functioning of the AI Act will be set at a later (sandboxes). stage through implementing acts. However, the content of these documents indicates that regulatory sandboxes will be the chosen 2.2 AI Regulatory Sandboxes environments for the development of safe AI Research & The Proposed AI Act envisions controlled environments for the Innovation (R&I). This paper argues that AI regulatory testing and refinement of AI models, named AI regulatory sandboxes should be structured following the tiered approach sandboxes. These are intended to allow obliged parties to ensure towards risk that characterises the AI Act, as the space where that the AI systems comply with the AI Act obligations and to certain AI systems can be tested before being placed in the provide feedback on potential risks before such risks can be market. This framework for AI regulatory sandboxes will favour realized in society. This includes instances of substantial the growth of AI technologies in the EU and bring about benefits modifications of the AI system which motivates the need for a to society. new conformity assessment. Sandboxes are also intended to enhance legal certainty for AI system innovators. The concept of regulatory sandboxes is not new. They have Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or been analysed in the literature as experimental regulatory classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full instruments “offer[ing] the flexibility, adaptability, room for citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must compromise, and innovation-friendliness required by novel be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). technological developments” [5]. Regulatory sandboxes have Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). already been implemented across jurisdictions, especially in the 54 financial sector. They serve companies to test the potential framework can enjoy a presumption of legal conformity and will compliance of new business models [6]; and regulators to not be subjected to administrative fines for eventual understand the evolution of new technologies [7] and develop infringements of AI systems legislation, even if they remain “evidence-based lawmaking” [8]. liable for the damages they may cause. The Council and EP agree on the creation of AI regulatory In terms of the appropriateness of mainlining the sandboxes. Both bodies consider that the specific conditions for responsibility for potential liability damages during the duration the establishment of these environments need to be developed of the sandboxes, the question remains open in the academic through later delegated implementing acts. Thus, the actual sphere. One side agrees with maintaining liability, as the EC and functioning and structure of AI regulatory sandboxes will depend Council defend, arguing that this is necessary for consumer on the implementing acts to be developed and adopted after the protection and the keeping of trust. However, others consider this Final Text of the AI Act becomes law. The current vision approach too onerous, warning that it may disincentivise regarding regulatory sandboxes described in the Proposed AI Act innovation, and harm smaller players in the market who could be and the amendments adopted by the Council and EP burdened by extensive legal obligations even before fully contemplates the following stages: operating in the market. [9] 2.2.1 Establishing AI regulatory sandboxes. Specific competent authorities at the Member State(s) and (or) the EU will 2.3 Research Activities & the AI Act oversee the accreditation and auditing of these spaces, following The Proposed AI Act did not include a provision excluding AI given rules and principles. The competent authorities have research activities from its scope of application. However, both discretionary powers to adapt their tasks to specific AI sandbox the Council and the EP have brought forth this exemption in their projects. adopted amendments. This suggests that the Final AI Act will set 2.2.2 Conditions of operation of the AI regulatory sandbox. a different framework for such activities. The operation of the AI regulatory sandbox, including the The Council desires to amend Article 2 of the AI Act to procedure to apply for its utilization, the eligibility criteria, the explicitly exclude its application to AI systems “specifically rights and obligations of participants, duration, and other aspects developed and put into service for the sole purpose of scientific of operating the AI regulatory sandbox will be set in research and development”, as well as “any research and implementing acts. These sandboxes will be under the direct development activity” [3]. Meanwhile, the EP would amend supervision, guidance, and support of the national competent Article 2 to exclude AI systems research, testing and authority. These are key aspects for the proper functioning and development activities “prior to this system being placed on the the effectiveness of regulatory sandboxes, as explained by market or put into service” [4]. Neither of these suggested Ranchordas [5]. exclusions, however, sufficiently pre-empt potential risks. 2.2.3 Modalities of AI regulatory sandboxes. Possibly, This paper argues that for this exemption to operate, the different modalities of AI regulatory sandboxes should exist. All research activity must be performed ensuring the absence of sandboxes are intended to deliver controlled environments, harm to people. Otherwise, research activities that require permitting the assessment of AI systems before facing full-scale interaction with people (e.g., to gather behavioural insights, regulatory requirements in real life. The specific requirements people-facing testing, etc.) could be wrongfully placed outside and scenarios of different sandboxes are likely to depend on the the scope of the regulation. This could lead to the same societal individual function, technology, or purpose of the given AI harms that the AI Act is explicitly tasked to avoid. Thus, this systems they are envisioned to assess. latter type of research activities should also be conducted within 2.2.4 Testing and assessment of AI systems. The sandbox is the scheme of AI regulatory sandboxes, and their appropriate designed to identify the risks of the AI system, with the purpose controlled environment. of both classifying the AI system accordingly and assuring that the AI system complies with the corresponding rules and obligations. The methods utilized in the AI regulatory sandbox 3 AI REGULATORY SANDBOXES THAT must be geared towards the identification of risks and their FOSTER SAFE AI RESEARCH AND mitigation to ensure legal compliance with the AI systems. The INNOVATION AI regulatory sandboxes should focus on dangers to fundamental This section argues for the incorporation of three key traits into rights, democracy, the rule of law, health, and the environment. the framework of AI regulatory sandboxes, either within the AI These are, especially, distinguishing traits of high risk AI itself or its delegated implementing acts, for the sandboxes to systems. This way, AI sandboxes can enable truly responsible serve as effective environments for the development of innovation. transparent and responsible AI innovation and safe AI systems: 2.2.5 Cooperation among AI Regulatory Sandboxes. The (1) making AI regulatory sandboxes the environment for the competent authorities should cooperate and coordinate their controlled testing of AI systems in real-life scenarios, (2) activities. When possible, cross-border cooperation should be creating different modalities of sandboxes following the tiered facilitated. This is essential to prevent differences across risk approach of the AI Act and (3) outlining some common Member States, and to assure the maintenance of the free requirements for all types of regulatory sandboxes. They also movement of products and services in the Union's internal recognize the varying complexities and potential impacts of market. different AI technologies, ensuring that regulatory oversight is 2.2.6 Exclusion of administrative fines by using AI regulatory proportionate and targeted to foster the transfer of AI knowledge sandboxes. The sandbox participants that have respected the to society. rules and procedures set within the AI regulatory sandbox 55 3.1 The Shaping of the AI Act Regulatory modality are to enable entities to (1) test their AI system, to Sandboxes as the Environment for Real-Life assess whether it is high risk, and (2) if the AI system is high risk, Testing to determine what mitigating factors can be implemented, and if the implemented mitigated factors are sufficient. The utilisation The Council and EP agree that the ‘placing in the market’ of the of this type of sandbox could be voluntary or compulsory. The AI system should be the moment when the AI Act is triggered, choice depends on the ability of certification bodies to establish and the AI system needs to fully comply with the legal sufficient high risk AI systems regulatory sandboxes, and the obligations within the AI Act. This circumstance is understood associated benefits the entities utilising them could enjoy. as the moment in time in which “[a product] is first supplied for Making the utilisation of this sandbox compulsory is the most distribution, consumption or use on the market in the course of a effective way of assuring that high risk AI systems conform to commercial activity, whether in return for payment or free of the law before being placed in the market. If the utilisation of this charge” [10]. However, research activities that interact with sandbox is made voluntary, its use could provide the entity with people in the real world should be covered by AI safeguards, and a fast-tracking process in the third-party conformity assessment regulatory sandboxes could provide the entities with means for a procedure all high risk AI systems must undergo. progressive transition towards the full applicability of the AI Act. Moreover, certain entities utilising this type of sandbox could Currently, the Council and the EP diverge on whether entities be given access to a ‘nursery status’, a concept developed in other should be given the possibility to test AI systems in real-life jurisdictions. This status acts as a transitional phase where settings. The Council considers that this should be enabled, under companies, especially startups, can continue to receive targeted specific conditions and safeguards, within AI regulatory support even after exiting the sandbox environment. This sandboxes. The EP, however, would not exempt the testing of the responds to the fact that startups often rely heavily on the AI system in real-world conditions from the full application of guidance provided during the sandbox period, unlike established the AI Act. This paper argues that enabling real-life testing in companies that are more experienced in the field of regulatory regulatory sandboxes is the safest and most significant manner in compliance. The nursery status recognizes that, mitigating the which the AI Act can foster AI R&I while preserving the trust risks of no longer being exempt from regulatory consequences, and safety of the people. Real-life testing is necessary. This is in and facing real-world responsibilities (including potential fines), line with the ordinary operation of entities in the market. For by offering increased support. This continued assistance helps example, companies incrementally test whether the changes they organizations meet regulatory requirements and build the implement are successful and behave as expected. If so, they necessary experience in a more controlled setting, serving as a propagate the changes to the rest of their goods or services, while period of growth. [11] if issues are identified, they revert to the previous version and resolve them. 3.3 Common requirements for all Regulatory Carrying out this process for the real-life testing of AI Sandboxes systems within AI regulatory sandboxes, where approval of the AI system is needed before it can be fully released to the market, Regulatory sandboxes must adhere to certain common enables the avoidance of misconduct or abuse. It also ensures that requirements to ensure that AI systems and other innovative risks are properly identified and mitigated and that by the end of technologies go through real-life testing within controlled and the sandbox period, the outcomes are fully compliant with legally compliant environments. These minimum terms and existing regulations. conditions must be explicitly defined, as part of the procedure to establish the regulatory sandbox. The requirements for limited- 3.2 Regulatory Sandboxes Based on the AI’s minimal risk AI sandboxes can be adjusted, reflecting the lower Tiered Approach Towards Risk danger posed by such AI systems. This section argues that all AI regulatory sandboxes must meet the following criteria: This paper argues that AI regulatory sandboxes should be 3.3.1 The identification of the AI system features that are structured following the tiered approach towards risk that being tested. This encompasses understanding not only what characterises the AI Act. Two modalities of regulatory functionalities are being tested but also why and how they are sandboxes can be created according to the potential risk the being assessed. The supervisory authority will not have direct tested AI systems can generate. These modalities would be access to the code itself and must safeguard sensitive and(or) foundational, but not exhaustive; others can be created based on proprietary information, allowing innovation to flourish without criteria such as the sector where the AI system would be undue risk of exposure. deployed. 3.3.2 The proportion, composition, and selection of users 3.2.1 Regulatory sandboxes for limited-risk AI systems. This subjected to testing. Users should be made aware that they are sandbox would serve to test new limited-risk AI systems, or those engaging with an AI system that is being tested, and must provide which are already in the market, but are being applied to an their consent. For instance, if a financial institution is offering a additional or different purpose. Access to such a sandbox should new credit product based on an experimental algorithm, be voluntary, and legal requirements less strict. customers must be informed that this offering is not part of the 3.2.2 Regulatory sandboxes for (potentially) high risk AI financial institution’s regular operation. systems. This sandbox would test new high risk applications, or 3.3.3 The time frame for testing, with provisions to interrupt existing high risk AI systems for a new purpose. This sandbox it. The complexity of the technology and the nature of the testing should also be utilised if the entity is unsure about the risk environment should justify the start and end dates of the classification of the AI system. The main purposes of this 56 regulatory sandbox. Crucially, provisions must be made to allow thereby minimizing early-stage abandonment and enhancing the for an immediate interruption of the testing if insurmountable flow of innovative solutions into the marketplace. risks arise, with an identification of the measures set to identify such a situation. 3.3.4. Documentation and timestamping. Entities benefiting 5 CONCLUSION from regulatory sandboxes must develop rigorous This paper contends that AI regulatory sandboxes must be documentation. This may include timestamps indicating when established as the natural environment for the controlled testing specific documents, descriptions, or test plans were submitted. of AI systems within the EU. By aligning sandboxes with the As a counterpart, entities could utilise this document to undergo tiered risk approach of the AI Act, two main modalities of AI or strengthen their claims over intellectual property rights. Regulatory Sandboxes can be created, tailored to the potential limited-minimal risk, or high-level risk of the AI system. This structure not only facilitates a seamless transition from research 4 BENEFITS OF REGULATORY to testing but also ensures strict, transparent oversight of AI SANDBOXES technologies. By integrating provisions for user consent, Regulatory sandboxes can be constituted as the best environment intellectual property protection, defined time frames, and to achieve legally conforming AI systems being released to the safeguards against risks, these measures will propel the growth market. They entail benefits for the various stakeholders: of AI technologies in the Union, while allowing the systematic and informed integration of AI technologies into broader societal 4.1 AI System Innovator contexts and applications. The AI regulatory sandbox enables the testing of new technologies that do not yet exist in the market and may therefore ACKNOWLEDGMENTS still not be subjected to a given classification, or which need to This work was supported by the Slovenian Research Agency and be modified to mitigate risks. In cases where the use of the AI the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation regulatory sandbox has not served to prevent the materialisation program project Graph-Massivizer under grant agreement HE- of risk, the company utilizing the AI system may still be 101093202. considered liable for the harms incurred, but the companies will not be fined for unexpected harms of the AI system. REFERENCES The UK experience with regulatory sandboxes reveals other [1] von der Leyen U, ‘Political Guidelines for the next European Commission 2019-2024’ (2019) 13. associated benefits. Among them, sandboxes have been found to [2] European Commission, Proposal for a Regulation of the European improve access to capital, as firms operating within these Parliament and of the Council laying down harmonised rules on artificial controlled environments often find it easier to secure investment. intelligence (Artificial Intelligence Act) and amending certain Union legislative acts 2021 [COM(2021) 206 final]. Released on 21 April 2021. These firms are also more likely to remain in operation and even [3] Amendments of the Council of the European Union on the Proposed AI secure a patent. Sandboxes also significantly reduce the time and Act. Interinstitutional File: 2021/0106(COD) 14954/22. Adopted on 25 November 2022. cost of getting products to market, a factor that is particularly [4] Amendments of the European Parliament on the Proposed AI Act. File: beneficial for first-time innovators. [12] P9_TA(2023)0236. Adopted on 14 June 2023. 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Through the sandbox framework, these products can be guided and supported, 57 New Initiatives for Knowledge Transfer between Industry and Academia: The INDUSAC Project Dusko Odic Urska Mrgole Marjeta Trobec Office for project informatics, Office for project informatics, Office for project informatics, organization of thematic events organization of thematic events organization of thematic events and conferences (SPIK) and conferences (SPIK) and conferences (SPIK) Jozef Stefan Institute Jozef Stefan Institute Jozef Stefan Institute Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia Ljubljana, Slovenia dusko.odic@ijs.si urska.mrgole@ijs.si marjeta.trobec@ijs.si ABSTRACT / POVZETEK KEYWORDS / KLJUČNE BESEDE At the Jožef Stefan Institute most current practices of knowledge INDUSAC project, international cooperation, student-industry transfer involve licensing and contract and/or collaborative cooperation, upskilling research between researchers and industry, whereas student- industry relations are less explored, often do not regard geographical or gender balance, and rarely involve upskilling in 1 INTRODUCTION entrepreneurship. In the Horizon Europe INDUSAC project, the Knowledge transfer may involve different types of collaboration; main objective is to develop and validate a simple and user- in most often listed examples, it takes place between knowledge- friendly industry-academia collaboration mechanism for short- rich entities (such as universities and research institutes) and term (4-8 weeks), challenge-driven co-creation. Knowledge industry. The Jožef Stefan Institute (JSI) is the largest Slovenian transfer is importantly extended from researchers to also involve public research organisation and hosts working units that carry students, who are in turn financially supported. Gender balance out activities connecting research and industry. While current is ensured by the conditions set out in the project’s calls for practices at JSI involve licensing and contract and/or applications. Emphasis is put on upskilling, achieved through collaborative research between researchers and industry, student- looking for solutions to real-life challenges faced by industry. industry relations are less explored, or they are explored The workflow involves registering on the INDUSAC online indirectly, involving students in cooperation with departments platform, issuing a Challenge by companies, assembly of that may cooperate with industry, and mostly without particular student/researcher co-creation teams, and submitting Motivation regard to geographical or gender balance. Furthermore, Letters to apply to solve a Challenge. Once Motivation Letters researcher-industry collaboration takes place mostly as licensing are evaluated and approved, selected co-creation teams proceed or contract / collaborative research but rarely as upskilling in the with solving the Challenge with assistance from the company. fields of entrepreneurial skills such as marketing, product Once completed, companies and co-creation teams submit development, or business modelling. Lastly, knowledge transfer reports and feedback on the process in terms of experience with is not inherently financially supported; therefore, funding the project, and upskilling and familiarity in regards to selected schemes and mechanisms that encourage collaboration by, for entrepreneurial areas. The workflow will be carried out three example, cascade funding (such as the calls for third parties times during the project, so as to allow for dynamic Challenge within running Horizon Europe projects) are constantly sought in solving and feedback-based improvements on the process itself. order to boost small-scale short-term R&D projects. By solving companies’ Challenges, students are expected to Enter the INDUSAC project. The on-going Horizon Europe acquire international collaborative experiences as well as Quick Challenge-driven, Human-centred Co-Creation transversal and entrepreneurial skills, access to companies from mechanism for INDUStry-Academia Collaborations (acronym the EU and associated countries, and references for future INDUSAC) project (www.indusac.eu) started in September 2022 networking. Through supporting at least 300 transnational co- (EU project number 101070297) with the main objective to creation teams and creating a dynamic community of industry- develop and validate a simple and user-friendly industry- academia stakeholders, the INDUSAC mechanism will establish academia collaboration mechanism for quick, challenge-driven the co-creation system as a catalyst for integration of academia co-creation. The process allows to develop solutions that address in business practices and technical solutions in the future. the needs and interests of companies, students, and researchers in the EU, with special attention to widening1 and associated2 Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed countries. In the project, knowledge transfer is extended from for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full researchers to also involve students, who are in turn financially citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). rewarded for successfully completing the project, and gender Information Society 2023, 9–13 October 2023, Ljubljana, Slovenia balance is ensured by the conditions set out in the project’s calls © 2020 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). 1 Widening countries: Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Estonia, Greece, 2 Associated countries: Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, Morocco, UK 58 for applications. Emphasis is put on upskilling, achieved through universities during the entire duration of the activity whereas looking for solutions to real-life challenges faced by industry. researchers must be employed at a public research organisation during the entire duration of the activity. An individual student or researcher will be able to participate in more than one co- 2 METHODOLOGY AND OUTPUTS creation team but in no more than three different applications of a Motivation Letter. The co-creation team must have at least The INDUSAC platform. To enable the workflow of the three and up to six members. Team members must be from at project described below, an online platform has been set up as a least three different EU member states or associated countries user-friendly and intuitive tool for posting industrial challenges, and at least 60% members of the co-creation team must be from assembling co-creation teams, applying for calls to solve the widening countries. The co-creation team has to be gender challenges, and submitting reports. balanced, including at least two out of the [Male], [Female], and General workflow of the project. The workflow (Figure 1) [Would rather not say] gender options. A co-creation team must starts with a company registering on the INDUSAC platform and include at least one student, ie. no co-creation team may issuing a Challenge (eg. a particular problem that needs to be comprise exclusively researchers. solved). Students and researchers likewise register on the Evaluation of Motivation Letters. As noted above, a platform, select a Challenge to solve, assemble an international company may select more than one co-creation team to solve a team, and submit a Motivation Letter to the company. If selected, Challenge. Motivation Letters are evaluated by a company the student/researcher teams proceed to solve the Challenge, and representative, on a number of criteria - team’s motivation and submit appropriate reports for evaluation, as well as responses to enthusiasm, excellence, market impact, team quality, resource upskilling questionnaires. allocation, and transversal criteria. Registering on the INDUSAC platform. Before co- Signing the FSTP Declaration. If a Motivation Letter has creation projects can take place, companies, students, and been approved, the co-creation team signs the Declaration on researchers need to register on the platform. Registration allows Financial Support to Third Parties. FSTP, in the amount of up to a company to create a profile and publish a Challenge, and 1,000 EUR gross per student and up to 3,000 EUR gross per co- students/researchers to submit Motivation Letters. creation team, is given solely to student members of the co- Issuing of industrial Challenges. In October 2023, creation teams, after the finalisation of the project. companies will be invited to issue a Challenge by selecting one The co-creation process. INDUSAC will provide the co- of nine different predefined Challenge type templates, covering creation teams with a list of deliverables, methods and tools for mainly entrepreneurial skills, and ranging from developing a solving the Challenge. Throughout the process, the company will product, market analysis and strategy, and developing have an introductory meeting, and subsequent milestone service/product ideas, to developing a business plan and a meetings as needed, with the co-creation team. The co-creation business model. There is no limitation regarding the area of process will also be monitored by the INDUSAC consortium so industry – Challenges may, for example, be from the area of as to enable smooth progress. Should the co-creation process sustainable biotechnology seeking product development, give rise to any form of intellectual property (IP; for example, a automotive industry seeking business plans, or textile industry patent application), division of ownership of IP rights, the type seeking assistance with marketing. The Challenge, apart from of IP and its management will be arranged with appropriate describing the problem (excluding confidential information), agreements. will also list the companies’ expectations in terms of solutions, Reporting by co-creation teams. After completion of the and in terms of the co-creation team’s skills. Eligible companies co-creation project (ie. solving the Challenge), co-creation teams shall comprise companies established in the EU or associated submit implementation reports including a summary / countries, but there are no restrictions on the sector, type, or size description of results (ie. solutions to Challenges), deliverables of a company to issue a Challenge, or the number of Challenges as defined in the Challenges, filled-in upskilling and familiarity issued per company. The company defines the maximum number questionnaires (one before the project and one after the project), of teams that may be accepted to solve the issued Challenge. and testimonials about the experience. Solutions to Challenges Submitting Motivation Letters. As part of an ongoing are evaluated by the Evaluation Board and companies, and campaign, students and researchers from public universities and include scores on deliverable quality, business performance public research institutions are made aware of the INDUSAC indicators, technical performance indicators, and deadline project by promotion by the INDUSAC Consortium and by the compliance. The co-creation process ends when the Evaluation academic institutions themselves, as well as by non-academic Board and the company evaluate and approve the institutions such as clusters and chambers of commerce, through implementation report and students receive funding. social media and physical leaflets. In November 2023, students Reporting by companies. In addition to co-creation teams, and researchers will be able to apply to a Call, which entails the company also provides feedback in form of a quality putting together an international and gender balanced assessment of the solution to the Challenge, including student/researcher (ie. co-creation) team and filling out a joint deliverable quality, business performance, technical Motivation Letter. The Motivation Letter includes a description performance, and deadline compliance. The company also fills of the applicant’s motivation and skills. out the questionnaire indicating their experience during the Eligibility of co-creation teams and team members. project. Students and researchers in each co-creation team must come Time dynamics of the project. Industrial Challenges will be from EU member states or associated countries, as indicated by posted continuously. Motivation Letters will also be able to be their citizenship or residency. Students must attend public 59 Figure 1: Simplified general workflow of the INDUSAC project. submitted continuously, but they will be evaluated following assisted by publishing a wide range of different types of three cut-off dates (in January 2024, May 2024, and October Challenges, which enables diversity in content and field of work, 2024). Four weeks after the call opening, applicants receive a and the possibility for individuals to participate in more than one decision on their applications. If approved, one week later, co-creation team expands their opportunities as well. solving of the Challenge may begin. Individual co-creation The co-creation team also has to be gender balanced and the projects will be given 4-8 weeks to complete. Three months after expected outcome is at least 50 % female representation in the the first cut-off date, co-creation teams will be asked to submit co-creation projects overall, which will aid in changing the final reports for revision; two weeks later, the Evaluation Board current trend of representation of women in entrepreneurship confirms the list of students from the co-creation teams to be trailing behind that of men [4,5]. Finally, the project is strongly funded; a month later, provided that administrative procedures oriented towards students, as every co-creation team must from the students' side have been finalized, all students from the include at least one student. The student status, as attested for by list receive funding. the registration process, is of particular importance as the INDUSAC mechanism puts emphasis on supporting the younger generations in acquiring experience in working with industry. 3 DISCUSSION This is further supported by the fact that only student members of co-creation teams receive financial support, which is a The INDUSAC approach brings several advantages to the welcome mechanism for facilitating student-industry existing landscape of knowledge transfer practices. First of all, collaboration usually hindered by the lack of financial support the calls for solving Challenges within the project are prepared [6,7]. The combination of geographical balance and the with particular attention to geographical and gender balance in requirement for student participation also represents a unique order to maximise inclusiveness. Including gender balance and opportunity for students to get a head start in creating an international dimension in a project have been shown to result international networks on their career paths. in increased returns-on-assets and financial performances of Importantly, the major output of the project, which is the companies, acquisition of new skills and knowledge, and INDUSAC platform, enables most of the activities to take place increase in regional competitiveness (eg. [1-3]). Making sure the conveniently and user-friendly at one place. co-creation team members must be from at least three different Rather than putting emphasis on particular technological countries not only increases geographical balance but also achievements and inventions, the INDUSAC project makes importantly provides the team members with experience in upskilling the central knowledge transfer theme. Co-creation working in international teams. Thus it enables exchange in teams are given upskilling and familiarity questionnaires before knowledge and experience between individuals from different the start of the co-creation project and after its end. It is the co- backgrounds that come together to collaboratively create and creation project’s ambition to increase the students’ and innovate. This collaboration is further strengthened by the researchers’ skills / experiences in working in an international process that includes several checkpoints and feedback meetings team, working with companies, solving concrete tasks, assisting between the co-creation team and the company. This encourages a group to agree on a mutually acceptable solution, working participants to provide constructive criticism, suggestions, and within a group to identify common goals, and listening to insights at various stages. Iterations and refinement of ideas suggestions. Communication and negotiation skills, results based on the feedback received ensure continuous improvement oriented thinking, creativity, critical and analytical thinking, time and successful outcomes. The condition that at least 60% management and effective planning, and leadership are among members of the co-creation team must be from widening the skills mostly encouraged in the INDUSAC project. These countries further emphasises the support given to areas that do types of skills have been shown to be important both in employer not reach 70% of the average research excellence index3. This is selection as well as for increased productivity in industry 4.0 and 3 Widening countries, as defined by the European Commission, are countries where of this indicator for all EU countries (modified after https://quantera.eu/spreading-the Composite Index of Research Excellence is less than 70% of the average value excellence/). 60 digital transformation of manufacturing [8]. In particular, the the project is expected, allowing them to rapidly expand their project aims to improve familiarity of students and researchers skill set in a short period of time and to find themselves more with methods such as SWOT analysis, utility analysis, trend prepared for the business environment. Provided the project is analysis, cost-benefit analyses, product portfolio analysis / BCG successful, it represents an encouraging inspiration for similar Matrix, creating marketing strategies, value proposition analysis, industry-academia knowledge transfer practices, and the lessons developing a business plan, preparation of business model learned will provide a basis for policy recommendations for canvas, and target group analysis. The concept, ie. the short-term similar EU and national initiatives in the future. nature of the co-creation projects and three separate opportunities (cut-off dates), encourage looking for quick and dynamic solutions with possibilities of advanced problem solving by ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS extending the primary Challenge through the next cut-off date. Specific control steps (evaluations), as defined in the Work described in this manuscript has received funding from INDUSAC project’s methodology, ensure that the co-creation the European Union’s Horizon Europe Programme under grant process is not only inclusive but also of high quality: the review agreement No 101070297. process ensures a high-quality cooperation arrangement, and specific requirements for the reports (i.e. pre-set structure and REFERENCES content of the work) ensure high-quality performed tasks. [1] Cavero-Rubio JA, A Collazo-Mazón, A Amorós-Martinez. 2019. 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An improved set of skills in students and Market_Soft_Skills_Io_1_A_3 researchers by at least 30% compared to before the beginning of 61 62 Indeks avtorjev / Author index Amanya Linda .............................................................................................................................................................................. 36 Arbeiter Jana ................................................................................................................................................................................ 11 Brečko Barbara ............................................................................................................................................................................. 11 Bučar Maja ................................................................................................................................................................................... 11 Cruz Katiuska ............................................................................................................................................................................... 28 Da Costa Helena Rosário ............................................................................................................................................................. 28 Delinavelli Giacomo .................................................................................................................................................................... 50 Filipič Bogdan .............................................................................................................................................................................. 14 Fric Urška ..................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Krumina Justine ........................................................................................................................................................................... 22 Lutman Tomaž ............................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Mlinar Tinkara ............................................................................................................................................................................. 18 Montero Santos Lola .............................................................................................................................................................. 50, 54 Mrak Matej ................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 Mrgole Urška ............................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Odić Duško ................................................................................................................................................................................... 58 Prybylski Maksim ........................................................................................................................................................................ 33 Ribičić Marijana ........................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Rožanec Jože M. .................................................................................................................................................................... 50, 54 Rutkowska-Sowa Magdalena ....................................................................................................................................................... 24 Trobec Marjeta ............................................................................................................................................................................. 58 Uspenski Aliaksei ......................................................................................................................................................................... 33 Uspenskiy Alexander ................................................................................................................................................................... 33 63 64 16. Mednarodna konferenca o prenosu tehnologij 16th International Technology Transfer Conference Urednici • Editors: Tinkara Mlinar, Spela Stres Document Outline 02 - Naslovnica - notranja - E - DRAFT 03 - Kolofon - E - DRAFT 04 - IS2023 - Predgovor 05 - IS2023 - Konferencni odbori 07 - Kazalo - X 09 - Predgovor podkonference - E 10 - Programski odbor podkonference - E 11 - Prispevki - E 01 Bučar et al 02 Filipic Abstract 1 Introduction 2 Algorithmic Studies 3 Engineering Design Optimization 4 Production Process Optimization 5 Conclusion Acknowledgements 03 Fric et al 04 Krumina 05 Rutkowska-Sowa 06 Da Costa et al 07 Uspenskiy et al 08 Amanya 09 Mrak 10 Ribicic_no appendix 11 Rožanec et al 12 Santos et al 13 Odic et al 12 - Kazalo - X Blank Page Blank Page Blank Page Blank Page Blank Page