News

Charles University’s Centre for Knowledge and Technology Transfer was delighted to host colleagues from partner universities in the 4EU+ Alliance: Lise Tourneux-Ravel (Sorbonne University), Susanne Geiselhart (Heidelberg University) and Niels Lysholm Engelhard (University of Copenhagen).

During this introductory meeting we got to present how our organisations work, what is their structure and position within the university. We got to discuss similarities and differences. We agreed that in most aspects there are no significant differences in the structure, however, we identified certain variations in particular processes.

In the course of the debate we learned some inspiring ways our colleagues keep in touch with the rest of the university. Niels Lysholm Engelhard from University of Copenhagen explained that every now and then he or his colleagues spend a day at different faculties, working at their offices, just to be physically present and share the news. At Sorbonne they organise internal thematic breakfasts for employees who could join forces in specific areas. Thought-provoking was the way Proof of Concept projects get cut in smaller segments or milestones at Copenhagen University.

We also noticed some dissimilarities in the way universities and scientists share profits from exploitation of inventions.

Some concrete outcomes to mention:

1) We agreed to make the first step towards a comparison study by filling in a table prepared by Lise Tourneux-Ravel (Sorbonne).

2) We agreed to share documents on a joint platform.

3) We agreed to meet regularly twice a year and also invite representatives from our subsidiary companies.

To conclude, it was a wonderful opportunity to exchange viewpoints and share inspiring ideas for future cooperation and projects.