DEC ISSUE

----------------------------------mIII~----------WELCOME TO THE ULAB NEWSLETTER

- Ulab works as a University Laboratory carrying out experimental best practices in

order to demonstrate how networking and open innovation between universities can

increase the quality of research and innovation in the quest for excellence.

HOD EllING THE TECHNICAl RES EAR CH UN IVERSITY OF TO"ORROW

Ulab and CESAER collaborate for the modernisation of Universities

On 19th of October 2011 took place the first meeting between the Ulab and CESAER SMART projects with the aim of establishing a framework for joint action to improve research management

The Ulab project, funded by the European Commission under the Science and Society program of the 7th Framework Programme, and the SMART project, led by the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research (CESAER) met in a workshop hosted by the Politecnico di Torino to prepare a common strategy for the implementation of more efficient processes and innovative strategies to foster excellence in research and innovation at European universities.

The CESAER SMART initiative was set up with the aim of identifying, developing and spreading good practices on the key issues of the modernisation of the agenda for research oriented universities. The initiative is aimed in particular at the strategic orientation and management of university based research, financing of research, and the integration of the knowledge triangle at engineering and technology universities. This vision links with Ulab's main goal: to tune the agendas of Universities to take advantage

of the strengths and experiences of each institution. To reach this objective, Ulab will also formalize the interconnections between different Universities through pilot projects to ensure a true partnership between all units that are responsible for managing research. During the meeting, atlended by a large number of representatives of both initiatives, Javier Lopez, Ulab Project Manager, presented the first results obtained in phase 1 of the project in the areas of Research Management, Valorization, Entrepreneurship and Outreach. Further on, the results of the SMART initiative were presented:

o University research strategy & management: Jorgen Sjoberg, Chalmers University of

Technology (SE). o Financial sustainability for university research: Christian Spranger, Vienna University of Technology (AT). o Making the Knowledge triangle to reality: Markku Markkula, Aalto University FI

Among the conclusions of the meeting, desire of collaboration for parts of both projects should be highlighted. A strategy for the future taking advantage of the existing synergies has also been outlined.

European experts converge visions for the University of Tomorrow The Advisory Panel of Ulab project brings together European experts to debate about the areas of Research, Management, Valorization, Entrepreneurship and Outreach at European research-based universities.

The first meeting of Ulab Advisory Panel, a commitlee supporting the Ulab Steering Board in the definition of the project strategy and the monitoring

of project's results, too k place on November 2, at UPM premises in Madrid. The panel brought together seven experts from different European countries who offered their suggestions and recommendations concerning the progress of the project with the aim of improving its impact among European universities community. After an introduction by Gonzalo León, Project Coordinator, and a brief overview about project status by Javier López, Project Manager, the Ulab partners in charge of each of the four themes (Research Management, Valorization, Entrepreneurship and Outreach) initiated the discussion with short presentations about the work done in each theme. The members of the Advisory Panel congratulated the Ulab project for the much appreciated work done so far, especially for communicating results via examples and pilots

They encouraged the five partner universities

The Universities are located in the heart of the "knowledge triangle" of research, innovation and education and constitute the key junction between the European Research Area and the European Higher Education Area. Moreover, Universities are major players in the process of growth and improvement of competitiveness of Europe, which are ones of the goals set in the Europe 2020 strategy. Ulab positions in this new stage of evolution of European research-based Universities through the implementation of more efficient processes and innovative strategies designed to foster excellence in research and innovation. Ulab will serve as a Laboratory where new collaboration schemes can be proved as a way to contribute to the design of the University of Tomorrow.

! invite you to trave! with us in this exciting trip!

Prof. Gonzalo León

Vice-Rector for Research Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

Coordinator of Ulab Project

to keep on with their current efforts and practices. In addition, the members of the Advisory Panel commitled themselves to find synergies with other National or European initiatives related to research and innovation management at universities and to support the dissemination of project results using their

~~~~ NEXTEVENTS

PARTNERS

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ParisTech GRA~DES ECO LES O' IJ<lGENI EURS DE PARIS PARIS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGV

January 16th 2012 - Launch Outreach Competition January - June 2012 - National Dissemination Days March 2012 (tentative) - U/ab-EUA International Event (Brussels) June 1st 2012 - 2nd Advisory Panel Meeting (Brussels) June 2012 - Close Outreach Competition June 2012 - Awards Ceremony Outreach Competition (Oxford) December 2012 - Final U/ab Conference (Brussels)

Ulab is funded by the European Commission under the Science in Society program of the 7th Framework Programo Contract number: 262075

SEVENTH FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME

DEC ISSUE

----------~DIII----------------------------------IJ=U:i Phase I complete d: Exchange of current

best practices Ulab partners have identified, analyzed and reported their current best practices in the four themes of the project:

research management, valorization and commercialization, entrepreneurship and outreach

WP2 "Research" aims at

increasing the quality of university research activities by identifying, analyzing and sharing best practices in the research management processes in three selected fields: Research Strategy (e.g. identification, alignment, finding synergies and complementarities, structures, quality control and impact assessment), Research Support Services (structures to support the researchers in their participation in R&D funding programmes, e.g. EU & National Project Offices) and Human Resources for R&D (e.g. career management, incentives and reward system, mobility and internationalization). During the development of the first phase of the WP2, Ulab partners have exchanged their current practices on research strategy, structures to support the researchers in their participation in R&D funding programmes, collaborating and integrating with industry; promoting research excellence; scouting new funding opportunities; quality research assessment and human resources management. A joint workshop too k placed in Torino in May 2011 to discuss, analyse and review current practices

Research management: optimizing processes and practices to reach greater impact The first phase has highlighted that some political decisions and methodological choices have common characteristics in all Ulab countries and are closely interconnected. They can be proposed as guidelines for the development of the European Technical Universities: • Definition of strategic priorities identified at the institutionallevel to integrate research with all university activities and structures; • Reduction of the internal fragmentation, implementation of a multi-disciplinary approach and the valorization of excellence. • Development of joint initiatives and models of relations between the university and external organizations, particularly businesses These goals cannot be reached if the European Technical Universities do not pay due attention to some horizontal aspects, such as Human Resource Management, Support Services and IT Infrastructures._

ULAB NEWSLETTER

T he WP3 of the Ulab project is about technology valorisation at universities. The objective is to innovate in the areas of the management of intellectual property. During the first phase, Ulab members were able to identify and analyse the different best practices with respect to valorisation at the different partner universities This has been mainly achieved through the use of a predefined template and a one-day workshop, which was held in Munich in May 2011.As a result, a report compiles the best practices identifies in each step of the transfer process: technologies identification, management of protection results, methodologies for commercial and economic valorisation of results, planning for exploitation and commercialization of results and support for the negotiation of licensing contracts. During this phase of the project, it has been showed that Europe envisions universities with an ever growing responsibility to make their knowledge contribute to society. The universities fund these efforts by diversifying their streams of income. The commercialisation of intellectual property may contribute to this visiono As a consequence, universities put an ever increasing emphasis on their Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) to strengthen their performance in the commercialisation of their intellectual property.

New approaches protection, licensing commercialisation technologies

for and

of

In addition, it has beco me clear that the key to success in valorisation and licensing is an economic approach with clear structures, modern marketing means and intensive internal as well as external collaborations. As such, in phase 2, which has started at the beginning of October 2011, Ulab partners will translate the findings of phase 1 into a pilot project that will propose to collectively develop and commercialise an international, topical patent catalogue. Ulab will pass from theory to action bringing together real work teams from five leading Universities who will share knowledge, methodologies and infrastructures to reach the objective._

T raining and research institutions meet a social and economic obligation to keep pace with society, with new technological developments, with evolving innovation environment, keeping up also with rapid market changes. Such a move to bring conditions more into line with economic reality and competitive constraints require to rethink the universities or laboratories organizational and management model, to invent short circuits for innovation: shortening the chain from research to market and, anticipating changes coming from the "outside world" in order to integrate

them into initial and continuing training, or into research programs and management. Entrepreneurship has emerged as a primary and suitable solution: young firms and start-ups as a vehicle for delivering new products and services, from basic research to advanced development, then to precompetitive market introduction.

Empowering young people to become entrepreneurs of their own individual future A first step assigned to Entrepreneurship working group was to exchange support practices for entrepreneurship education, start-up creation and mentoring. To this end, a workshop in Paris too k place in July to discuss current methodologies and procedures among all Ulab members. They identified nine main "practices" as the most important and productive, linked with the overall theme of universities playing a major role as models or sources of creativity, inventiveness and audacity. These are: Engaging students in real entrepreneurial settings; organlzlng business plans competitions; encouraging the launch of spinoffs of research laboratories, and organize the process to do so; enhancing tea m building to conduct successful startups: establishing a business incubator where many new firms live together; building bridges between research labs and innovative start-ups; entrepreneurship as a full-fledged research field; communicating on entrepreneurship and providing the students, the professors, the researchers and the industrialists with more information.

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o utreach report highlights key findings from the first phase of the study that focused on exploring outreach and public engagement activities in each of the partner universities. In June 2011, the University of Oxford hosted a one day workshop for experts in outreach from each of the five partner institutions. The report combines insights from these expert discussions with a detailed survey completed by each partner and extensive review of literature related to outreach and higher education. A main finding emerging from discussions with experts is that while outreach and public engagement are high on the agenda of many European universities, in times of reductions in funding for the sector, ensuring cost effective outreach activities are important. The research identified a range of strategies to optimise and "future proof' outreach and public engagement activities, such as Know your objectives, Know your (international) audience, Develop a strong institutional brand, Find the appropriate balance of top-down and bottom-up initiatives, Overcome resource constraints, Consider collaboration both within and outside the institution, Provide incentives to academics, and Measure impact.

Outreach and public engagement: current practices and future challenges A secondary finding is that partner institutions engage a range of outreach activities involving varied audiences and encouraging public engagement with research, knowledge exchange, social responsibility and learning in various forms. These range from online citizen science initiatives such as Galaxy Zoo at Oxford University, research carried out in public places such as the live TUM laboratory at the Deutsches Museum, science & technology fairs such as Come to share the science at UPM, the innovative use of social media to engage young people at TORINO and ParisTech's use of open educational resources.

In the second phase of the research, the project tea m will be running a competition gathering outreach practices from universities in all five partner countries in order to develop and share good practice in outreach and public engagement more widely._

~~~~ NEXT STEPS

In phase 2, real pi/ot experiments and joint actions among all U/ab members will execute the transfer and demonstrate the value of these best practices as well as the advantages of networking activities and the integration of resources and infrastructures.