On 28 September, YERUN Secretary General, Silvia Gomez Recio, participated as a panellist in the expert workshop “Improving knowledge valorisation by facilitating access, sharing and use of intellectual assets” organised by the European Commission.
The workshop was divided in three sessions: “Addressing global challenges through intellectual assets management: new and evolving models”, “Increasing societal benefit of results: different perspectives” and “When traditional meets novel: potent pools, open access and AI to facilitate intellectual assets access , use and sharing”, aimed at showcase new approaches and inspiring practices to improve the use of research results and intellectual assets to address current and future challenges and to enable sustainable impact and value creation.
YERUN Secretary General actively participated as an expert in the second session, shining a spotlight on the importance of the subject for young research universities. Indeed, a significant portion of young institutions is strategically located in regions where their presence and research activities serve as powerful catalysts to shape a more equitable society.
During the discussion, she pointed the attention on actions that could be undertaken to enhance the terms and conditions governing public research funding. The overarching goal should be to facilitate greater accessibility, sharing, and practical utilisation of intellectual assets for the broader benefit of the society as a whole.
YERUN members have numerous examples on how they are fostering their work on knowledge valorisation, including the societal impact of the contribution their universities make in their ecosystems. Specific examples of initiatives taken can be found in this newsletter dedicated to the topic and here and here in the various interventions that YERUN members provided at the latest EU Knowledge Valorisation Week 2023.
To conclude, YERUN Secretary General highlighted that universities possess the preconditions for both knowledge generation and knowledge valorisation but lack the enabling framework conditions (including dedicated funding) for the latter. Enabling and investing in generating interactions at the earlier stages of the creation of research among different sectors are a precondition for the valorisation of knowledge.
This event was a step forward in elucidating the need for the EU, national governments and funding organisations to step up and do their part in enabling universities to fulfil their unique potential in enhancing the social benefits of novel knowledge created by societies’ best research talent.
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Photocredit: © European Commission
