HSE University to Develop Network Centre for Technology Transfer
The Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation has announced the results of a competition to support the creation and development of centres for technology transfer. A total of 58 applications from universities and research institutes were submitted to the contest. Twenty winning projects have received support, including the HSE University Centre for Technology Transfer. The university plans to become a leader in implementing a cooperative technology transfer model.
The HSE Centre for Technology Transfer will be a kind of ‘sales office’ for promoting the university's scientific competencies and results to companies. At the same time, it will serve as a guide for researchers looking for applied problems that need to be solved for industrial partners and high-tech companies. The centre plans to expand the best practices in development commercialisation and technology transfer created at HSE’s scientific departments to the activities of the entire university. This will develop horizontal ties and make the departments that work with external customers more independent.
Leonid Gokhberg, HSE University First Vice Rector
‘Every year, the university carries out more than 300 scientific projects, including projects for large industrial partners. We have accumulated considerable experience and competencies, a portfolio of intellectual activity results that we are ready to implement and develop. The Centre for Technology Transfer represents the university’s plan to become a leader in implementing a cooperative technology transfer model. In this model, close cooperation between the university, companies, industry experts and consumers take place at all stages of projects to create sought-after products and services in the market.’
Unique features of the centre's development programme include the creation of a special mechanism for supporting technology transfer projects—the implementation of pre-projects to customise the results of research to the needs of prospective customers. It will include a special project evaluation system based on six dimensions of technology or product readiness, and will be combined with a new motivational mechanism of ‘entrepreneurial privilege’, which increases the interest of researchers in proactively concluding licensing deals.
The centre’s programme is based on the concept of a network model. It does not involve the creation of a new administrative division at the university, but requires the development of interaction between existing structures that help HSE researchers to cooperate more actively with industrial partners. These divisions primarily include:
The Centre for R&D Commercialisation and Technology Transfer
The Legal Support Centre for Research Activities, Intellectual Property and Data Protection
The Office for Research and Development
The Research Projects Office
Faculties, research institutes and campuses of HSE University in St Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod and Perm will also be actively involved in the work of the Centre for Technology Transfer.
Priority technological areas of the HSE Centre for Technology Transfer include:
artificial intelligence
cyberphysical systems and the internet of things
cognitive neuroscience
bioinformatics
foresight
quantum technologies and advanced wireless communication systems
promising transport systems
The list of fields will be supplemented according to the Strategy for Science and Technology Development of the Russian Federation, taking into account promising areas for the development of high-tech business as determined by HSE foresight research. HSE University also plans to actively use the results of research and development in the field of socio-economic sciences and humanities carried out at the university to reduce barriers to the introduction of new technologies and technological solutions.