New European Union Initiatives Connects Europe's Public Research Organizations

The European Union (EU) launched the Technology Transfer Offices — Connecting Innovation and Research Centers and Laboratories in Europe (European TTO CIRCLE ), a network of tech transfer offices at Europe's 25 largest public research organizations. With the goal of increasing the market and societal impacts of publicly-funded research, the European TTO CIRCLE members already have adopted a set of several initiatives including:

• Fostering the use of their knowledge portfolio;
• Sharing best practices, knowledge and expertise;
• Performing joint activities;
• Establishing informal channels of communication with policymakers;
• Organizing training programs; and, Developing a common approach towards international standards for the profession of technology transfer.

By adopting these initiatives, the EU hopes the major European public research organizations can play a role in collectively driving changes to the technology transfer landscape in Europe and across the world. The main emphasis of the European TTO CIRLCE will be to spur job creation by supporting the transfer of new technologies from member organizations to European firms, in particular to small- and medium-sized business. The initiative also is intended to contribute to future EU economic development goals through raising the culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among the partners and the cultivation of researchers skills and competences.