Looking Back: The European IPR Helpdesk Spanish Tour
Paving the route to the successful exploitation of research results, Intellectual Property (IP) takes an essential role in the entire life cycle of R&D projects funded through Horizon 2020. Proper IP management should therefore be carefully considered from the very beginning of a project and is subject to evaluation criteria in the selection of proposals to receive EU funding.
In order to support researchers and SMEs in increasing the impact of their innovation activities, The European IPR Helpdesk and its Spanish ambassadors have decided to celebrate the Intellectual Property Day on April 26 by getting in direct contact with SMEs and researcher looking for answers to their IP questions in project proposals - in their home country and, where possible, in their own language.
Eurice contributed to the IPR Helpdesk’s Spanish Tour by providing the two main speakers of the events, our CEO Jörg Scherer and Michele Dubbini, IP & Innovation Advisor at Eurice.
The event series received a very positive response and great feedback from researchers and SMEs joining the four informative days with an average participation of 50 units and saw their questions answered while being guided through expectations and requirements for proposals of the European Commission.
Central questions of the participants focused on how to deal with IP issues during the whole project lifecycle, from the drafting and evaluation of proposals through the implementation phase to disseminating, communicating and exploiting the results. Here, the question of open access was of particular importance to the audience.
Our special thanks go to the Enterprise Europe Network and ambassador organisations that made the event series possible from Andalusia to Asturias, the Valencian Community and Navarra. As valuable partners of the European IPR Helpdesk, they provide SMEs and researchers with first-hand information fostering new commercial partnerships within the EEN community and offering practical support such as IP screening or patent searches.
The "tour dates":
17.04.2018: GIJÓN, Host: Instituto de Desarrollo Económico del Principado de Asturias (IDEPA)
19.04.2018: PAMPLONA, Host: University of Navarra (UNAV)
24.04.2018: VALENCIA, Host: Instituto Valenciano de Competitividad Empresarial (IVACE)
26.04.2018: SEVILLE, Host: Agencia de Innovación y Desarrollo de Andalucía (IDEA)