A consortium of seven entities, including the University of Gdańsk and Univentum Labs, has been qualified as a partner of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education in the implementation of the ‘Development Incubator’ task, as part of the ‘Science4Business’ project funded by the European Funds for the Modern Economy (FENG).
The main objective of the partnership with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education is to increase the effectiveness of research organisations in terms of cooperation with businesses and commercialisation of R&D results.
The University of Gdańsk's partners in the consortium are Gdańsk University of Technology - the leader, Medical University of Gdańsk, and Poznan University of Technology together with the universities' special purpose vehicles: Univentum Labs (UG), Excento (GdańskTech) and Politechnika Innowacje (PP). The amount of funding obtained by the consortium is more than PLN 19 million and is the second highest on the nationwide ranking list.
The unit responsible for implementing the task on the part of the University of Gdańsk is the Technology Transfer Office UG, which will cooperate closely with Univentum Labs. The cooperation will also include analysis of the potential of research organisations, identification of innovative projects and assessment of their implementation potential. Univentum Labs will support work in, inter alia, social innovation and IT, while the Technology Transfer Office will subsidise pre-implementation work related to, inter alia, invention development or laboratory certification.
‘We will be able to allocate the funds granted by the Ministry both for innovative research of scientific teams and for activities aimed at commercialisation of the results of such research,' says Technology Transfer Office Director Katarzyna Gronowska. ‘I also hope that the project formula will foster the development of cooperation between universities and companies. We want companies to cooperate more closely with our research teams. Companies will then gain access to the latest technologies, while scientists will have a chance to implement their innovative solutions on the market.’
‘Univentum Labs' planned activities will focus on supporting academic entrepreneurship, the development of social innovation and the circulation of talent. We are particularly keen to support research teams that are at the very beginning of their path to commercialisation,' says Univentum Labs President dr hab. Sylwia Mrozowska, prof. UG.
Ongoing consortium activity
Work is currently underway to conclude an agreement for the task with the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. ‘At the moment, each of the consortium members is recruiting potential members of the Investment Committee, reports Katarzyna Gronowska. ‘The Committee will evaluate applications for funding innovative projects to select those that have the greatest chance of commercialisation and at the same time have a high innovative potential. It will be composed of representatives of both business and academia, which will allow the project to be assessed from the point of view of both scientific significance and chances of implementation on the market.’
The next step will be to announce a competition at universities and invite researchers to prepare and submit project applications for pre-implementation work.