Successful European IP Helpdesk Annual Event 2019 on “Go-To-Market Strategies”
As of the beginning of this year EURICE coordinates the European IP Helpdesk, a major innovation support service managed by the Executive Agency for SMEs (EASME) on behalf of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG Grow). The initiative aims to support cross-border SME and research activities to manage, disseminate and valorise technologies and Intellectual Property (IP) assets at an EU level.
Every year the European IP Helpdesk invites different stakeholders from the European research and innovation landscape to come together in Brussels for a themed event addressing on of the “hot (IP) topics” of the year. This year’s event put a spotlight on the role of IP when it comes to successful “Go-to-Market” strategies. Around 80 stakeholders including members of the European Commission (EC) next to business advisors, representatives from research and university networks, IP authorities, Horizon 2020 liaison offices as well as National Contact Points gathered at the EASME premises in Brussels on 26 November 2019.
In his opening words, Jörg Scherer, Chief Executive Officer of EURICE and European IP Helpdesk contract manager, pointed out that this year’s theme was very much reflecting one of the key fields of engagement of the European IP Helpdesk in 2019. Reinforcing collaboration with different Directorates and units of the EC, Executive Agencies, the European Institute of Technology or Digital Innovation Hubs the question of effective IP management in relation to “Go-to-Market” and business growth strategies had been constantly at the centre of discussion, resulting in concrete service offers and activities such as the development of specific training and pitching formats or the review of exploitation/business plans within European Innovation Council projects.
During the event participants learnt about the results of a needs analysis recently carried out by the European IP Helpdesk team among their user community and heard first-hand about two support initiatives of the European Commission, the Horizon Results platform and the Joinup initiative. Furthermore, participants benefitted from valuable experiences shared by two Horizon 2020 research teams with regard to effective valorisation of project results.
“The event has offered an excellent opportunity to look at different aspects of ‘Go-to-Market’ strategies from various perspectives and to gain new insights”, Amaryillis Verhoeven, Head of the Intellectual Property Unit at the European Commission, concluded. “Moreover, it has become very clear once more that IP is not meant to sit on the shelves, but needs to be brought to the market and society in order to unleash its full economic and societal impact.”
The event was rounded off with an informal exchange of ideas and discussion on future topics and activities in 2020.
