Europe seems to be better at producing high-level knowledge than at converting it into socio-economic benefits. In addition to the classical modes of transfer and dissemination of knowledge, such as research publications and exchanges of researchers, Public Research Organisations and Universities performing research need to more actively engage in the exploitation of publicly-funded research results, for instance through academia-industry collaborations, licensing and spin-offs.

In April 2008, the European Commission adopted a Recommendation on the management of intellectual property in knowledge transfer activities and Code of Practice for universities and other public research organisations. The aim was to offer a coherent framework for the management of intellectual property by the public research sector, to promote knowledge transfer between the public and private sectors, both within and between Member States.

The objective of the European KT Policy Surveys in 2010 and 2012 was monitoring the status of implementation of the European Commission’s Recommendation from 2008. 

Member States and Associated States were thus requested to fill in a questionnaire. Taking all countries, all Recommendation themes and all related survey questions together, and considering also plans for future KT policies, the overall level of implementation in 2012 was found to be on average 53%. This means that the Recommendation’s targets are currently reached approximately by half.

The final report can be downloaded at the bottom of the page, Interim findings are as following: