The outcomes of the European Commission’s survey on research and innovation actors’ awareness and uptake of the Codes of Practice for Knowledge Valorisation confirm the relevance and great potential of the Codes being used in day-to-day research and innovation activities.
The survey, which closed on 16 June 2025, aimed at gathering feedback from research and innovation stakeholders on their use of the Commission’s Codes of Practice for Knowledge Valorisation. The purpose is also to inform future policies and initiatives that support more effective knowledge valorisation.
In the last two years (2023, 2024) the Commission adopted four Codes of Practice on Knowledge Valorisation, providing practical guidance to research and innovation actors in making research results work for market and society. The Codes support the implementation of the Council Recommendation on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation (December 2022), which aims to establish a common line on measures and policy initiatives in the EU.
They cover:
- Management of intellectual assets
- Standardisation in the European Research Area
- Citizen engagement
- Industry-academia co-creation
In total, 336 respondents from 25 EU Member States and 19 non-EU countries took part in the survey.
The survey engaged a broad spectrum of individuals and organisations: technology and knowledge transfer professionals, researchers and scientists, research and innovation managers, public administrators, businesses, universities and higher education institutions, research performing organisations, knowledge and technology transfer offices, research funding organisations, standardisation bodies, startups/spinoffs, and more.
Background
The survey’s main findings can be summarised as follows:
- The Codes are considered helpful by the majority of respondents: they are considered helpful by more than 3/4 of respondents, both for their own work and to raise the need for policy reforms and support.
- Most respondents have already used or plan to use the Codes in the future: 61% have used or plan to use the Codes. R&I actors participating in the survey predominantly use or plan to use the Codes in the development of strategies in their own organisations, as well as for awareness raising. Other major uses are for developing methods and tools, and in research and innovation activities and collaborative projects, for assessing related outcomes, performance and impact.
- More than half of the participants to the survey were previously unaware of the Codes: 56% were unfamiliar with the Codes before participating in the survey. However, once these respondents familiarised themselves with the Codes through the survey, the large majority considered them helpful for their own work or to raise the need for support, and 48% are already planning to use them in the future. While this suggests that stronger efforts are needed to raise awareness of the Codes in the research and innovation community, it also shows a high level of interest among actors who are “new” to the Codes and their potential for future applications.
- Strong interest in providing further input: 72% of participants expressed their interest in further engaging and providing additional feedback on one or more of the Codes.
See the results of the survey in detail
Next steps
The survey will be followed by a second phase to collect concrete examples of how the Codes of Practice are used in practice. Selected stories are expected to be shared through the Knowledge Valorisation Platform and future Knowledge Valorisation Talks, to inspire more practices across the research and innovation community.
Organisations or individuals having real-life use cases of how the recommendations of the Codes of Practice are helpful for them or their organisation are invited to share their experience of using one or more of the Codes by sending an email to RTD-VALORISATION-POLICIES-IPR
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (RTD-VALORISATION-POLICIES-IPR[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu) by 15 October 2025.
More information
Knowledge Valorisation Platform
EU valorisation policy: making research results work for society
Details
- Publication date
- 19 September 2025
- Author
- Directorate-General for Research and Innovation