02 May 2024
A recent conference co-hosted by Knowledge Transfer Ireland highlighted the importance of boosting research partnerships between industry and academia.
Ireland needs to lower the barriers for enterprises to engage in knowledge transfer and innovation as the EU pushes for greater collaboration between research and industry, according to Minister of State for Business, Employment and Retail Emer Higgins, TD.
Speaking at a conference in Dublin recently, Higgins welcomed four new codes of practice for knowledge valorisation – the application of research for practical purposes – revealed by the European Commission as part of its Tour des Capitales programme.
“The four new codes of practice place a key emphasis on innovation management, standardisation, industry-academic collaboration and societal engagement,” she said at the one-day conference hosted by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment and Knowledge Transfer Ireland (KTI).
“Today’s event fundamentally is about lowering the barriers to encourage engagement by enterprise in the innovation ecosystem and I would like to thank KTI and Enterprise Ireland for facilitating today’s forum, in what promises to be an engaging and informative knowledge sharing session with our EU counterparts.”
Published by the European Commission’s Directorate General for Research and Innovation, these guiding principles for knowledge valorisation aim to increase awareness of the need for greater research and industry collaboration across EU member states.
The conference was part of a wider series of Tour des Capitales events that have taken place across European capital cities, including Athens, Brussels, The Hague, Lisbon, Ljubljana, Madrid, Prague and Vilnius.
“The Commission together with stakeholders from across the EU has developed Codes of Practice to foster more efficient use of intellectual assets, better linkages between research and standardisation, enhanced industry-academia co-creation and improved societal uptake through citizen engagement,” said Kirsi Haavisto of the European Commission.
According to Christian Stafford, head of KTI, there is a need to “maximise” the impact of public research investment in society and the economy.
“From a KTI perspective, what we do is create the conditions to close the gap. So, we’ve got academic research here, we’ve got business over here, and it’s fostering the opportunities for them to work together,” he told SiliconRepublic.com.
“It’s really just about creating an environment where all the stakeholders are aligned, can collaborate effectively, and we can really see that impact from the state investment research for the whole country.”
Source:Silicon Republic