Article: Transferring and applying the findings of public research: An international perspective

by Mario CERVANTES, Dominique GUELLEC and Daniel KUPKA

Dominique Guellec and Daniel Kupka, who work for the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)

Abstract

The commercial exploitation of the findings made by public research is now a practice adopted by most countries. It is a key theme in national policies about research and innovation. Although significant progress was initially made once these policies were adopted, the results seem to have stagnated in recent years. This can be set down to several characteristics of these policies, which some countries are now trying to change. For one thing, these policies focused too narrowly on patents, but filing a patent or, for that matter, creating a company are administrative actions whereas creating value from these assets is an economic action. For another, there has been a tendency to overlook the potential of students as entrepreneurs; their strategies do not adequately take into account the means for commercially exploiting the findings of R&D: intellectual property rights, research under contract and setting up a business.