Technology transfer towards Horizon 2020

European research projects produce many excellent results, and the quality of research papers at DATE and other major European conferences is often outstanding. But how many academic research results in computing technologies and EDA actually make it into industrial practice? In the context of the transition into the Horizon 2020 framework program, the European research community is currently investigating novel ways of stimulating additional academia-industry technology transfer. This special session contributes by discussing concrete transfer experiences and new concepts. Furthermore it will exemplify several success stories from both academic and industrial perspectives. We believe that two major issues currently prevent a wider industrial adoption of research results at European scale: • While most FP7 research projects do provide ambitious exploitation plans, these are rarely implemented to a full extent, because the effort for productization is underestimated and insufficient resources and incentives are available when projects fade out. • There is a lot of emphasis on start-up companies as a primary vehicle for technology transfer. However, the effort of start-up foundation is very high and might not be justified in many cases due to limited market volume. Instead, more focus should be on industrial take-up of specific new technologies or IP generated by research, which does not require large amounts of venture capital. As a consequence, European research needs better mechanisms to provide incentives for technology transfer at small to medium scale. The speakers of this session are experienced actors in this domain. They will point out in a pragmatic way, and using concrete examples, how technology transfer can be initiated and implemented in practice and what are the associated pitfalls and innovation opportunities. The mix of presentations ensures that both academic and industrial viewpoints and concerns are properly addressed. Thus, the session will be of interest to a large audience. Amongst others, it is intended to stimulate more players to engage in international technology transfer. For this purpose, the session will be initiated by a brief presentation of a specific new pilot project (TETRACOM) focused on structured small to medium scale technology transfer. TETRACOM is open to the entire European computing research community and provides both funding and services for bilateral academia-industry collaborations.