Ural Federal University: The Founding Meeting of the Technology Transfer Consortium was held at Ural Federal University

The founding meeting of the members of the consortium of organizations involved in technology transfer was held yesterday in online and offline format. The meeting was attended by representatives of 16 universities and the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

There was a very interesting agenda – the chairman of the meeting, the first pro-rector of Ural Federal University Sergey Kortov informed the audience about the program of creation and development of the Ural Interregional Technology Transfer Center. In addition, a number of normative documents concerning the consortium’s organizational structure were approved, and the chairman of the governing board was chosen (those present unanimously voted for Viktor Koksharov, Ural Federal University Rector, with Anton Korzhov, pro-rector for scientific work at South Ural State University, as his deputy) and the chairman of the expert council (the participants supported Sergey Kortov’s candidacy).

“We have to look at the university’s products with different eyes. Traditionally, these are educational programs and research works. Meanwhile, the state policy in the innovation and industrial spheres assumes that the universities have one more product, which they should produce. These are the objects of intellectual property, which are the results of the intellectual activity of the university, which it is expedient to put into economic turnover. This demand requires universities and scientific organizations to transform both the internal environment and work with external customers. At the same time we will finally be able to assess the real potential and demand of universities in the field of intellectual property”, said Sergey Kortov.

According to him, as a result the universities will move to a new level of integration into the market economy.

“The main task of the Consortium is to unite Ural Federal University for the development of relations in the sphere of intellectual rights and elaboration of mechanisms for their commercialization. A key task for this year is the audit of normative documentation and existing models within the consortium member organizations. We also plan to hold a number of training events for managers and staff of participating organizations. The members of the consortium have shown an interest in its work, and I am sure that we will succeed,” Kirill Melnikov, the head of the Urals Interregional Technology Transfer Center, noted.

In November, a seminar “Commercialization of Rights to R&D created in scientific organizations and educational institutions of higher education” is planned for consortium participants.