Results >
Press Release
ProRETT technology transfer project 10x more successful
than industry average
On 29 January, EUREC
Agency and Greenovate presented the
results of the technology transfer promotion project ProRETT
at the Committee of the Regions during the European Sustainable
Energy Week.
Over 150 participants had registered for the workshop on "Policy
recommendations and good practice for effective support to
the innovation process from research to market – Lessons
learnt from 63 real-life cases."
During the past 24 months, the ProRETT project had developed
and tested an innovative and structured methodology for quicker
and broader commercial exploitation of existing scientific
research results in the fields of renewable energy and energy
efficiency resulting in licensing deals and spin-off creation
in Europe.
At the project outset, the main objectives were to address
the technical barriers for transforming scientific research
results into viable innovations, to unite all stakeholders
relevant for technology transfer, to promote the market uptake
of renewable electricity and renewable heating and cooling
technologies by European companies or start-ups, and to distil
good practices and policy recommendations.
Results, impact, and reasons for the success
All publicly (co-)funded research results in the fields of
renewable energy and energy efficiency coming out of European
research centres were eligible for support through ProRETT.
- 63 technologies proposed for commercialisation by technology
developers were evaluated.
- 31 technologies were considered a priori as business
opportunities and were further assessed.
- 26 technologies seemed to have substantive business potential
and received individual support.
- 22 technologies proved to be “truly commercially promising”.
ProRETT helped the teams behind the technologies develop
business plans and concepts and prepared them for contacts
with investors
- 10 spin-offs were created with the help of private investors;
2 licensing deals are still pending.
With the support from ProRETT, the percentage of successfully
commercialised technologies was ten times higher than the
industry average: 16% of the technology proposals could be
developed into start-ups, while venture capital funds typically
invest in only 1-2 proposals out of every 100 proposals they
receive.
ProRETT raised about five times its own Commission funding
contribution in the form of private investments in R&D
results, thus demonstrating a strong leverage effect.
The 16% commercialisation rate, the 10 start-ups created,
as well as the 5-fold return on the Commission’s financial
contribution in form of private follow-up investments make
ProRETT a very successful project.
The lessons learnt, the recommendations for optimised technology
and knowledge transfer, as well as some case studies will
be available in form of a publication at the end of February.
ProRETT–type innovation support services are based
on a structured and innovative methodology that can be applied
to other sectors beyond renewable energy and energy efficiency,
and especially to those sectors with a highly decentralised
R&D base, a relatively high importance of public research
funding, and a high SME penetration. This definition typically
applies to all environmental technologies.
Continuation of ProRETT-services
In order to continue what has been successfully tested under
ProRETT, some of the innovation professionals from the ProRETT
team have created a joint organisation: Greenovate! Europe
has its own legal entity and will continue the ProRETT-type
innovation support services at EU level, with a sole focus
on environmental technologies.
Technology developers, investors and policy makers are invited
to contact
Greenovate to discuss their ideas with our innovation
experts.
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