NEXT

Research question

How can experimental approaches be used to increase the success of science commercialisation initiatives such as ATTRACT?

Project at a glance

• NEXT aims to use experimental methods to evaluate and improve science commercialisation initiatives, addressing the lack of experimentation in this area of innovation policy.
• It will showcase how experimental approaches can be used to increase the success of science commercialisation initiatives through an ideas bank. It will also collaborate with ATTRACT and policy partners to identify testable interventions with the potential to accelerate science commercialisation.
• The study’s findings will provide actionable insights for innovators, policymakers, and technology transfer actors to enhance the impact of their commercialization efforts and promote experimental approaches in science commercialization.

Public summary

Scientists use the scientific method to advance society’s knowledge, but this approach is rarely used to test ways to accelerate the progress and commercialisation of science. Due to the lack of experimentation in this area, innovators and policymakers still lack a solid understanding of the best support mechanisms to accelerate research commercialisation. To ensure that public investments in funding initiatives like ATTRACT are put to best use, our study proposes to use experimental methods to evaluate commercialisation initiatives and test ways to improve their impact.

Experimental approaches have been underutilised in the domain of innovation policy, so this project aims to contribute to fill this gap by showcasing how experimental approaches can be used to increase the success of science commercialisation initiatives. To do so, we will collaborate with ATTRACT partners to identify testable interventions with the potential to accelerate science commercialisation, focusing on the following three areas:

(a) engaging researchers and businesses in tech transfer activities, (b) ideation to identify potential uses for new technologies, and (c) product development / customer validation activities to commercialise the solutions. After analysing the potential impact and feasibility of the different interventions proposed, we will select the most promising one and set up an experiment to test it.

The findings of our study will have important implications for innovators, policymakers and technology transfer actors. Specifically, we will provide actionable insights on how ATTRACT partners, other research infrastructures and policymakers can improve the impact of their commercialisation activities, contributing to maximising the societal returns from public investments in scientific research.

In addition, this study will also increase awareness and understanding on how experimental approaches can be used to accelerate the commercialisation of science. Becoming more experimental in the design and implementation of tech transfer interventions could unlock new applications and help accelerate the commercialisation of scientific research. By demonstrating the feasibility and value of experimentation in this field, this project will contribute to increased experimentation in technology transfer activities, resulting in better evidence, more effective interventions and faster science commercialisation.