People expect science to be a driving force that will support the transition towards a greener and fairer society.

Research and innovation will play a crucial role in this transition if excellent research results and data are quickly made available and put to practical use across Europe.

The Council has asked the Commission to develop a strategy to accelerate the potential uptake of research and innovation results and data.

This is why we need a new EU valorisation policy that involves all players.

Factsheet9 March 2020

Valorisation - making results work for society

Valorisation policy is promoting knowledge and technology use, intellectual property management and the involvement of the citizens, academia and industry.

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What does the policy aim to do?

Its goal is to increase the impact of research and innovation investment.

The policy involves all players and aims to ensure that data, research results and innovation are transformed into sustainable products, processes and services that bring economic value and benefit society.

Guiding principles for knowledge valorisation

On 9 August 2022 the European Commission adopted a proposal for a Council Recommendation on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation (COM(2022)391 final). The aim of the Recommendation is to adopt a common line on policy principles and measures for national, regional and local policy makers to maximize the transformation of research and innovation results into solutions that benefit society. The Council of the EU adopted a Recommendation on the guiding principles for knowledge valorisation on 2 December 2022.

A Code of Practice on intellectual assets management and a Code of Practice on standardisation have been adopted as Commission Recommendations on 1 March 2023 to support the implementation of the guiding principles by providing more detailed guidance on these areas of knowledge valorisation.

Factsheet: Guiding principles for knowledge valorisation

Factsheet: Code of Practice on intellectual assets management for knowledge valorisation

Factsheet: Code of Practice on standardisation

How to ensure we fully exploit research results? 

This policy review is the first milestone in the definition of a European knowledge valorisation strategy. It describes the different means at our disposal to

• improve how we transform research results into new sustainable solutions
• identify and analyse the main channels for the uptake of research and innovation results
• get better at spreading excellent national practices
• highlight best practices from Europe and beyond

Sharing knowledge and the uptake of research and innovation results by society is a key part of the Commission’s proposal to revitalise the European Research Area.

The survey report ‘Towards a Policy Dialogue and Exchange of Best Practices on Knowledge Valorisation' summarises feedback and comments from EU Member States and interested EEA countries on concrete areas for a policy dialogue and exchange of best practices. It also contains a collection of best practices by drawing on the expertise of the participating countries.

We have a created a platform for players across the EU to share their best practices in making the most of research results.

Watch the video

Go to the knowledge valorisation platform

Exchange between industry and academia helps academic knowledge and results flow into industry. Likewise, it gives researchers the opportunity to increase their skills and gain a better knowledge of industry needs.

Although many policy instruments are in place to promote long-term science-industry collaborations in Europe – such as grants for collaborative research and public-private partnerships – stronger interaction is needed.

To remain attractive partners in a global context, EU universities and research institutes need to facilitate and improve interaction with industry.

The new report on Testing the feasibility of a new industry-academia knowledge exchange concept focusing on companies’ needs discusses the adaptability of an explorative co-creation method in an industry–academia knowledge exchange context. Based on the empirical evidence of the co-creation experience of five European companies and cross-border student teams, it clearly shows that the co-creation experience is relevant and adds value for all parties.

What the EU is doing

• Contractual public-private partnerships (cPPPs) align public and private investments to speed up the process ‘from Lab to the Fab’
• Future and Emerging Technology – FET Flagships are large-scale research initiatives addressing grand scientific and technological challenges. They aim to turn scientific advances into concrete innovation opportunities, growth and jobs by bringing together academia, industry and SMEs
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions – Innovative Training Networks (ITN); Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE); Individual fellowships ‘Society & Enterprise’ Panel - actions supporting mobility and joint research programmes
• Factsheet: Industry-academia collaboration

Research-driven spin-offs and startups

Spin-offs and startups are of key importance, as they offer students or academics an entrepreneurial route to commercialising the knowledge they have developed. Structured access to finance is crucial for these early stage companies.

What the EU is doing

• European Innovation Council (EIC) pilot: identifies next generation technologies from Europe’s strong research base and accelerates their scale-up and market deployment, also through a new form of blended finance combining grants and equity
• European Research Council – Proof of Concept (ERC-POC): funding to cover activities at the very early stage of turning research outputs into a commercial or socially valuable proposition
• Factsheet: The bridging role of academic startups

Intermediaries and knowledge transfer

Intermediary organisations – such as knowledge transfer offices, technology transfer offices, business incubators and science parks –  help researchers and innovators commercialise their solutions, products and services.

They are the first contact point for researchers and industry looking for new opportunities. They also promote additional instruments and services to boost the innovation potential of research through networking, mentoring activities, coaching and exchange of best practices.

What the EU is doing

• EIT - Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) are partnerships that bring together businesses, research centres and universities, creating favourable environments for creative thought processes and innovations to flourish
• Horizon 2020 D&E booster is a service providing tailor-made support to disseminate research results and increase exploitation potential and access to market

• TTO circle brings together major public research organisations to share best practices, knowledge and expertise, and foster international standards for the professionalization of technology transfer

Citizens and public bodies

Engaging with citizens ensures that new knowledge leads to innovative solutions, and ones that matter to people. Citizen-led solutions have higher societal acceptance and are therefore more effective.

Citizens-led demand for science-based solutions have been a driving force for policymaking – the European Green Deal is a case in point: the Commission pledged “to involve local communities in working towards a more sustainable future, in initiatives that seek to combine societal pull and technology push”.

In order to showcase the ways in which societal actors are engaged to valorise knowledge, the European Commission published a study mapping programmes and initiatives in Research and Innovation valorisation in EU Member States and associated countries.

In Horizon Europe, citizen involvement is expected to intensify.

What the EU is doing

• European Capital of Innovation (iCapital) Award: annual prize awarded to the European city that is best able to demonstrate its ability to harness innovation to improve the lives of its citizens
• Horizon Impact Award: recognises and celebrates societal advancements through research and innovation
• Factsheet: Engaging citizens to accelerate use of research results to benefit all

Intellectual assets and standards

Efficient intellectual assets management fosters innovation, creativity and knowledge sharing, and improves the chances of knowledge reaching the market and benefiting society.

The valorisation of the intellectual assets (including IP) generated by the European research framework programme enables fair and transparent access to well-being as well as ecological and digital solutions.

The report on The management and commercialisation of intellectual property in European universities explores intellectual property (IP) management practices among universities in the European Union. Based on the empirical evidence gathered, the report presents models and processes of IP management and research commercialisation in universities and their interdependencies.

Standards form a common language that allows researchers, people and industry to communicate, produce and commercialise products and services. This is especially important in the European single market.

Standards are a crucial tool to get the most out of research results. This is because they

• help researchers to bring their innovation to the market by making their results transparent and ensuring high quality
• build consumer trust in innovative technology because they guarantee safety and quality
• codify the technologies requirements and inform both manufacturers and consumers on what to expect
• allow technologies and materials to be interoperable: because a standard provides details on the use and content of a technology or a material, it is much easier to know when and how it can be used in combination with other technologies

What the EU is doing

• The Standardisation Strategy includes research and innovation as a key element reflecting on the untapped potential in EU funded pre-normative research in supporting future trends in standardisation. The role of Horizon Europe is underlined from the point of view of standardisation, as it entails a strong anticipation of standardisation needs and strong linkages between strategic priorities and pre-normative research
• Code of practice on standardisation in the European Research Area: adopted by the Commission to propose a set of recommendations on how to best identify opportunities and techniques to increase the uptake of research and innovation results through standardisation. The code of practice is based on a scoping study, integrating the underlying evidence  on how beneficiaries of public research and innovation funds can best valorise projects results through standardisation.
• The Commission runs a Standardisation Booster to support researchers under Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe to test the relevance of their results for standardisation. The booster is open for on-going and closed Horizon 2020 and Horizon Europe projects.
• Code of practice for the management of intellectual assets for knowledge valorisation in the European Research Area: adopted by the Commission to provide concrete advice to research and innovation stakeholders on effective management of intellectual assets
• European IPR Helpdesk: Commission service supporting cross-border SME and research activities to manage, disseminate and valorise technologies and other IPRs
• IP Booster: specialised professional IP service for public research organisations to get value from their research results, supported by the Commission
• Factsheet: Intellectual Property fosters innovation and societal impact
• Factsheet: From research to standards 

More information on the latest initiatives on standardisation

Knowledge dissemination and policy uptake

Ensuring that advances in science and technology are as open as possible is vital in our knowledge-driven world, where data are increasingly valuable and access to data considered a competitive advantage.

Research results such as studies, data, models, experiments and theoretical analyses greatly benefit data-informed policy making. They can help decision-makers better understand the nature of the challenges they face and the possible implications of the decisions they may take.

Factsheet: Sharing knowledge and informing policy

What the EU is doing

• Horizon Results Platform: platform presenting results of Horizon 2020 projects; it allows stakeholders to reach innovators and industry and potentially form fruitful partnerships
• JRC Policy Lab: space designed to foster creativity and engagement, and to develop interactions, processes and tools able to bring innovation into European policymaking
• Scientific Advice Mechanism (SAM): mechanism that supports the Commission with high quality and independent scientific advice for its policy-making activities.
• Projects for Policy: an initiative aiming to use research and innovation project results to shape policymaking. Results are used for economic and social activities, as a basis for further research, or to develop new and better products and services
• Knowledge4Policy (K4P): EU Commission’s platform for evidence-based policymaking. Its goal: to bridge the science-policy gap by bringing together evidence for policy from scientists across Europe, to policymakers across Europe. In one single place, you can find up-to-date scientific knowledge developed and curated by European Commission Knowledge Services to inform key EU policies.