Dear Reader,
We are approaching you with the final of the seven newsletters developed dating the three and a half years of KnowING IPR. It was a long and interesting journey offering numerous partners and stakeholders a possibility to discover new knowledge, share the knowledge and develop plans for further strengthening the processes of technology transfer, innovation management and overall raising awareness on the importance of proper IP management for the development of small and medium enterprises.
We look at the past with satisfaction oven the job well done and at the same time, we are looking forward to the future, with new collaboration opportunities and ideas for further strengthening the framework conditions for innovation in the Danube region.
But at this specific moment, we wish you Merry Christmas and a Happy, prosperous and most of all healthy New Year 2022!
KnowING IPR team
FINAL CONFERENCE
The final conference of the KnowING IPR project took place in a virtual environment, where we managed to host numerous experts from a wide range of countries. We tackled the question of the future of DTP, where Mr. Stephen Jonathan Halligan, PO of JS. Dr. Judit Schrick-Szenczi presented the activities of Priority Area 8 in the past years and their plans for the future. About transnational cooperation and support for SMEs in Serbia Mr. Mihajlo Dasic and Mr Ivan Rakovnjac contributed interesting presentations and Dr. Tamara Besednjak Valič presented the three and a half years of project implementation.
Two interesting round table discussions followed the break. With Mrs. Danijela Šutic, Mrs Liliana Vieru and Mr Mladen Vukmir, the discussion was conducted over a topic of future policy endeavours concerning IP and IP management in SMEs.
Dr. Dolores Modic contributed a speech on IP data usage and ways to deliver more democratic access to patent data.
The next panel discussion was dealing with the role of Technology Transfer Offices for strengthening the competitiveness of companies and Dr. Giovanni Cristiano Piani, offered experiences from Italy, Dr. Tanja Sovic offered experience from Austria, dr. Andrei Craicun shared experiences from Romania, and Dr. James O'Sullivan shared experiences from Ireland.
The last presentation of the day was delivered by Mrs. Tina Osojnik, on the IP as tool for growth for SMEs.
Closing remarks were delivered by the moderator of the event Dr. Alenka Pandiloska Jurak.
7th SCOM MEETING
The 7th SCOM meeting took place virtually, on 14th of December. The SCOM members gathered together for the final time, officially before the end of the project. The main topic discussed were the topics of the project closure, including the finalisation of the due deliverables and outputs. The consortium concluded, all activities were undertaken, only the reports were missing. The LP answered several questions on how to properly conduct the reporting procedure and elaborated the timeline of funds transfer.
CONCLUSION OF MENTORSHIP PROGRAMME
The Mentorship programme, which was being concluded on 10th of December offered tailored personal consultation on the topics of technology transfer, IP and IP management to a total of 23 SMEs who responded to the Open call for applicants published in Autumn. The mentees had the possibility to get in contact with experts from the whole region confirming again the usability and replicability of the services developed by the KnowING IPR project and known under the name of KnowING HUB.
The final meeting, organised virtually on 10th of December offered another possibility for SMEs to openly discuss issues and topics and share with the KnowING IPR consortium and others their experience of the mentoring session.
WORK DONE IN THE PAST 6 MONTHS
In the past 6 months, the KnowING IPR project provided additional work and tasks confirmed by the JS as tasks undertaken in the official extension phase. The workflow, joined together under an additional Work package was divided into three parts:
Firstly, the consortium updated and further elaborated the training materials, covering additionally the topics of Software patenting and Innovation management. Those new materials were used and presented within the TechTransfer Summer Schools. Two of such summer schools were organised and offered the trainees the combination of synchronous and asynchronous learning models.
Secondly, the Mentorship programme was implemented, where a total of 23 SMEs got engaged in a series of one-on-one mentoring sessions with experts.
Thirdly the policy endeavours were brought down from the Policy recommendations of the WP6 to three specific countries: Slovakia, Moldova, and Slovenia.
Alongside the activities, the IPR roadshow was organised covering dissemination activities in 5 countries – Romania, Moldova, Hungary, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia.
KNOWING IPR IN FIGURES
We conclude the newsletter with some interesting figures pertaining to the three and a half years of KnowING IPR project implementation:
We reached a total of 141 SMEs
We reached 24 enterprises
We reached 23 policymakers
We reached 42 business support organisations, and
We reached 100 higher education institutions and research institutions.
Following the figures above, we conclude the project activities with joyful awareness the topics of technology transfer and innovation management are the future topics to be further addressed in the Danube region. We are confident to know how to approach to gain success and this is one of the major lessons learned by the KnowING IPR project implementation.
