ASTP merges with Proton

The Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP) and Public Research Organization Transfer Offices Network – Europe (Proton) have merged.

The new organisation, ASTP-Proton, will be based in the Netherlands and with a satellite office in Brussels, Belgium, and have a combined membership of 1000 individuals from 450 institutions.

Separately, the Science|Business Innovation Board, a not-for-profit scientific association that performs original research on EU innovation policy, has published two studies covering success factors for university spin-outs and recommending a European grace period for patents.

A Grace Period for Patents:  Could it Help European Universities Innovate? found European technology transfer managers by two-to-one favoured a European Union grace period for patents – time to file a patent after discussing an invention in public. Those in favour said it would “remove a significant disadvantage for university inventors, increase patent activity on campus and support innovation”.

In the US, the grace period is 12 months, while, last year, South Korea extended its grace period from six to 12 months.

The drive to harmonise international patent systems has prompted the world’s five largest patent offices, representing Europe (EPO), the US (USPTO), Japan (JPO), South Korea (KIPO) and China (SIPO), to add a grace period study to their a 2012 programme of joint research, according to Science|Business.

Its other study – Inside the Mind of European Academic Entrepreneurs: Perceptions of ACES finalists about the process of science entrepreneurship – was carried out in collaboration with France-based business school Insead’s Science Entrepreneurship Initiative.

The study found differences in the motivations of science entrepreneurs, who were driven to advance science, and business entrepreneurs, whose primary motivation was economic success.

Business entrepreneurs interviewed did not consider that universities play any significant long-term role in helping start-ups to flourish, whereas academic entrepreneurs viewed the university as important in multiple ways, including for the development of proofs of concept.

Rolf Hoefer, Bill Magill and Filipe Santos led the Insead team that interviewed the founders or chief executives of 28 European science start-ups from the Science Business Academic Enterprise Awards (ACES) programme.