Training for representatives of project partners within the CROWN project was held in the premises of IEC Tehnopolis from November 22 to 26.
Nedeljko and Tamara Milosavljevic from the Center for Technology Transfer of the University of Belgrade conducted training for five days to build the capacity of employees in Intera TP, IEC Tehnopolis, and SIMORA, to be able to manage entrepreneurial departments in their institutions, whose formation is planned in the future.
The training included a theoretical and practical part on topics related to technology transfer, intellectual property management, the importance of protecting intellectual property rights, and startup and spinoff projects. The complete process that is required for a person who applies a certain innovation, from the idea to patenting and entering the market, i.e. the commercialization of the idea, is also presented. This process is very demanding and depending on the idea, the degree of its development, and the level of innovation, it can take up to several years.
As part of the training, participants had the opportunity, among other things, to hear what it means to be a technology transfer officer and what their responsibilities are, and to get to know the processes that are detailed and comprehensive.
Vedran Simunovic, director of TP INTERA, states that the training is of exceptional importance for their institution because, thanks to the detailed acquaintance with the procedures, they acquired relevant knowledge for managing the planned department, which they will apply in support of their companies.
Djordjije Brkuljan, the coordinator of the Center for Program Activities of IEC Tehnopolis, also commented on the importance of the conducted training: “Let’s go back a few steps and go through the evaluation of the idea together and define whether it is valid for the next steps in the patenting process.” He emphasized that we will be a link between innovators and institutions such as the Intellectual Property Office hopes that by the end of next year, Tehnopolis will have the opportunity to provide more comprehensive support to innovators, which, in addition to protection of rights, will also refer to certain funds where they can apply to further develop their product.
Tijana Sapna from SIMORA sees the greatest value of this training in connecting and networking. Since the users of their incubator are mostly gamers, networking with industry, university research units and other relevant institutions are most relevant to them.
During the training, the lecturers presented several tools used to implement these processes in the best possible way, including the Boss platform created by the University of Belgrade, META Group, and the University of Liege. It is an open, multilingual web platform, which contains tools for self-assessment of business opportunities, tools for planning business opportunities, and numerous videos available in PDF and video format.
In the following period, a study trip to Germany will be organized for the participants of the training to visit examples of best practices when it comes to this area.
The training was organized through the #CROWN project co-financed by the ERDF and IPA II funds of the European Union.
