Innovation Insider: An interview with Lourdes Jané, Director of the Technology Transfer and Innovation Center at URV Foundation

In line with our mission to track down Innoget users in the world's most amazing organizations to discover their thoughts on open innovation and technology transfer, where they see is headed, and learn more about how is the innovation culture within their organization, this month we interviewed Ms Lourdes Jané, Director of the Technology Transfer and Innovation Center at URV Foundationto know more about the future of technology transfer and key elements for successful implementation.

URV Foundation was created in 1999 by the Universitat Rovira i Virgili to promote the relationship between the university and society, in order to identify and meet the needs of socio-economic environment through the transfer of knowledge, lifelong learning and innovation. To develop these activities, the URV Foundation, has two centers:

• The Technology Transfer and Innovation Center
• The Lifelong Learning Center

The URV Foundation offers individuals and organizations the innovative potential of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili, resulted in more than a hundred research groups consisting of more than 900 people and extensive educational community with a broad scientific-technological offer and training to meet the needs of R+D+i and training.

Lourdes, can you briefly describe your role within the URV Foundation and how do you define technology transfer?

I am Director of the Technology Transfer and Innovation Center. My main tasks within the organisation are to manage the Transfer of Technology and Knowledge, Intellectual Property, Entrepreneurship, and the Business Incubator.

My idea of technology transfer is the promotion of the relationship between university and society, in order to identify and meet the needs of socio-economic environment through the transfer of knowledge, lifelong learning and innovation.

Lourdes Jané, Director of the Technology Transfer and Innovation Center at URV Foundation / Innoget, URV Foundation

Where do you see technology headed and how do you think Universities can prepare for where it is going?

Technology transfer is consolidating over the last years and more companies are using this path to innovate and improve, but also more centers are being created in order to offer it. It is becoming more and more professional and needs well-trained staff.

This sector depends heavily on government policy support and is therefore interested in staying close to the government and lobbying for future strategies.

Based on your expertise, what are the key elements to implement a successful technology transfer strategy?

In my opinion some key elements are the following:

• To promote the valorization of the university technologies in order to approach them to the market
• To be close to the companies and industries
• To foster activities and networking to stimulate collaborations and relations between university and industry

What is the open innovation culture like in your University?

The open innovation concept has been a challenge within the university in the last years, in which we are working on. We have promoted some open innovation projects. Although some of them were successful, we are aware that we need more development in order to achieve better results.

Can you share anything about how Innoget helps technology transfer activities?

We use Innoget as a window display of all the technologies the university offers. It allows us to know which companies are interested in innovation and research, and which are their requirements.