6th ASTP-EU Forum: another success story

On 20th November ASTP hosted the sixth edition of the ASTP-EU Forum, which saw the participation of 100+ professionals across Europe to discuss the latest developments in policies that affect knowledge and technology transfer community. 

From Stijn Delaure from DG R&I we learnt what the European Commission is doing to strengthen the capacity of public research organizations in four areas related to: recognition of the profession, upskilling, networking and capacity building. Several challenges have been identified, namely the lack of a definition and of a competence framework for the research management profession but also the need to provide more training and to collect data in order to better understand the role of research managers in supporting the impact of research. 

Dario Capezzuto from DG R&I guided us through the brand new ResearchComp, the European Competence Framework for Researchers. This new tool has been designed to help researchers assess and develop their transversal skills but also support HEIs and training providers to adapt their training offer to researchers and employers to be aware of the wide set of competences that are more and more requested from researchers. Researchers are recognized as a fundamental resource for innovation and for society and it is important that they are equipped with competences in seven identified areas, including “making an impact”. Besides teaching, publishing and disseminating to the research community, “making an impact” includes communicating to the broad public, put research to use for policy and society as well as promote open innovation and knowledge transfer. 

Finally, Claudia Martinex Felix and Jonas Hein from DG GROW presented the Patent Package, which includes three relevant initiatives which are mostly targeted to business but also relevant for our community and, in particular, Supplementary Protection Certificates, Compulsory Licensing in crisis management and Standard-Essential Patents. These initiatives complement the recent Unitary Patent system and aim at achieving a further step in completing the single market for patents. 

If you have missed the event, you can watch it here.