CEBBIS Prague 2010
It has been a busy few weeks for conferences but it was a pleasure to contribute to the recent CEBBIS conference in Prague, which drew together representatives interested in university technology transfer from around the region together with some overseas speakers. I particulary enjoyed hearing about the different support that different science parks can offer as it is clear that start ups that are housed on a park even if only virtually do find success easier to come by.
Generally it seems that most of the problems people face are pretty universal and not geographically specific and I do feel the Czechs in particular are selling themselves short in holding back as there is such fantastic science available to commercialise, and the country has a great reputation for quality science so they will find a willingness to listen to what they have to offer. The government too seems very supportive. I think sometimes people are so anxious to achieve perfection that they are reluctant just to get the ideas out there and see what happens.
I gave a paper on how to ensure that your contracts actually deliver what you need and also ran a workshop on building a network to help you license your technologies. I concentrated on things that could be done easily without any special resources and in particular where there was a very limited budget as few universities have much funding for this sort of thing. I think a few people were surprised – and possibly a little disappointed – to see how much could be done in a very simple manner.