Boosting the bio-economy through research
The KNOWLEDGE2INNOVATION project was established to stimulate and support information flow between researchers and industrial role players, with a focus on the bio-economy. It is currently being implemented in nine participating groups within seven EU countries. KNOWLEDGE2INNOVATION identified existing resources that support knowledge transfer as well as the issues that researchers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) commonly face. Following this, the project developed a knowledge transfer toolkit and training material. The toolkit includes a communication tool for researchers and a tool for SMEs to evaluate potentially exploitable knowledge. It also incorporates a post-knowledge transfer evaluation approach, which enables both parties to learn from each experience. KNOWLEDGE2INNOVATION also set up a database of other knowledge transfer tools. Training material covering various important aspects of the process has been presented in over 40 workshops across Europe. These efforts have already assisted several project consortia with the knowledge transfer process. KNOWLEDGE2INNOVATION has thus succeeded in promoting the exploitation of scientific research for a knowledge-based bio-economy.
