Abstract
Our study shows that technology transfer between Slovenian universities (or public research organisations) and Slovenian automotive industry is not sufficient. On one hand, technology transfer offices offer patented inventions for which automotive industry claims they have no value for them. On the other hand, the industry is seeking the help of (university) scientists to solve specific technical problems for inventions they propose and they could successfully commercialise, but unfortunately they often encounter unresponsiveness or rejection of their invitation. By conducting a focus group method where we confronted representatives of different groups, we have tried to find mutual solutions to this challenge. We claim that technology transfer offices have to be transformed in that way to attract direct industrial funding rather than purely focusing on commercialising results of ongoing research at universities or public research organisations.
Highlights
European Commission (2020) observes that Europe is lagging behind South Korea, Japan and US in translating research and innovation results into the economy
Our study shows that technology transfer between Slovenian universities and Slovenian automotive industry is not sufficient
In 2018, there were 24 acknowledged spin-outs in Slovenia connected to Consortium of technology transfer offices (TTOs) which consists of eight Slovenian universities/public research organisations (PROs)’ (Modic et al, 2021)
Summary
European Commission (2020) observes that Europe is lagging behind South Korea, Japan and US in translating research and innovation results into the economy. Technology transfer, as defined by Association of University Technology Managers, is the process of designating the formal transfer to industry of discoveries resulting from university or private research, for marketing purposes under the form of new products and/or services (Vac and Fitiu, 2017). For the purpose of this paper we will focus on public institutions only They can be universities (or other higher educational institutions) or other public research organisations (PROs), such as research institutes. With the mission of supporting and helping professors, researchers and students to develop and commercialize their research work and inventions, technology transfer offices (TTOs) at universities and PROs were established. In Slovenia, first technology transfer office was established in 1996 at the Jožef Stefan Institute, while Slovenian government started with financial support to TTOs in 2009 (Habjanič et al, 2015)
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