ENTREPRENEURSHIP @ RTOS:

A STUDY OF BEST PRACTICES

Sanne Kosterman and Hans Boumans

June 2017

INTRODUCTION: FROM TECHNOLOGY TO SPIN-OFF

RTOs develop technologies that can be transferred to

society by creating spin-offs

Four ingredients to create a successful spin-off:

1. Technology: product idea

2. Market: business case

3. Team: entrepreneurs

4. Investment: seed capital

To find these four ingredients, stimulation of

entrepreneurship within the RTOs is needed

Goal of study: Share best practices among RTOs on how to stimulate entrepreneurship

within the organisation

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CENTRAL QUESTION

How do European RTOs stimulate entrepreneurship within their organization?

Underlying questions:

Strategy

- How is technology transfer and entrepreneurship embedded in the strategy of the

organisation?

- What are the (financial) incentives to stimulate entrepreneurship?

- Are there any collaborations with external parties (government, universities, business

schools) to stimulate entrepreneurship?

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UNDERLYNG QUESTIONS (2)

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Underlying questions:

Entrepreneurial Mindset

- How is entrepreneurship embedded in the mindset of all employees?

- Is intrapreneurship also embedded in the mindset of employees, and if yes: how?

- Who are the entrepreneurial “heroes” of the organisation and which of their activities lead

to successful new spin-offs?

Human Resources

- How are entrepreneurs found (internally/externally)?

- Is there an expert team (venture managers, IP scouts) to offer support?

- Is there a talent development or training program available for education in

entrepreneurship?

7 participating RTOs:

METHODS

Data gathering:

9 interviews

16 interviewees

4 working visits

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WHAT IS TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER?

The scope of technology transfer activities is not the same for all RTOs

All RTOs consider spin-off creation and licensing activities as technology

transfer

Some RTOs also consider contract research and the establishment of spin-outs

(privatizing mature RTO work) as technology transfer activities

Many have the term “venture” in their name, suggesting that spin-off creation is

the primary focus

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IMPACT

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Rule of thumb

1-2 spin-off’s

per 1000 employees

per year

• # of spin-off’s/y

• Jobs created

• External funding

• Annual turn over

7 RTO’s

~ 50 spin-offs

per year

INCENTIVES FOR SPIN-OFF CREATION

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organization

level

department

level

researcher

level

KPI for the number of spin-off’s per year

Income generated from licensing and/or sale of shares

Research budget to work on the business case

Shares in the company

BOTTLENECKS AND CHALLENGES

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Entrepreneurial

teams Awareness Funding Internal

process

Different

sectors

TAKE-HOME MESSAGES

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Face-to-face

Visiting other RTO’s

Sharing best practices

THE PART-TIME ENTREPRENEUR

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• Part-time working for TNO and for company

• Max period of 2 years

• Either leave completely or return to TNO

the researcher the investor the manager shareholding

THANK YOU FOR YOUR

PARTICIPATION

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

RTOs envision several possibilities for intensifying the European collaboration on venturing:

1. International entrepreneur teams

• We need to create international teams to compete with companies outside of Europe. For a global company an international

mindset is needed, so we need international teams. We could for example start a Founders Erasmus program.

2. Online platform

• We can establish a platform to exchange experiences among RTOs, some kind of market place, where we can ask for each

others competences.

• We can build a shared IP platform, which can be used as one central access point to IP for entrepreneurs. A requirement

would be that each RTO separately remains the owner of the IP that it offers on the platform.

3. Joint European incubation program

• We can share (technological) capabilities in joint EU incubation programs for supporting new businesses (like Robott-NET).

4. Share portfolio

• Technology-push: we can share our portfolio with each other and together present these cases to a big range of international

companies. Sharing portfolio can be done for spin-off cases, but also for potential license agreements.

• Technology-pull: we can come up with solutions for the challenges multinationals are facing, by creating new ventures

together. First the actual challenge of the corporates (or industrial sector) needs to be clearly defined. Secondly new spin-offs

can be created that provide solutions to these challenges.

5. Central network of experts

• We can build a central network of external entrepreneurs, to whom we can offer our IP.

• We can build a central network of mentors with different backgrounds, that all entrepreneur teams of the involved RTOs can

make use of.

6. Funding

• We can start an international investment fund, which can be used for preseed funding across borders (maybe for some

specific sector, technology or research area). Shared pitching sessions on international level can be part of this.

• Together we can approach external investors to search for seed capital for spin-offs.

• Together we can approach the European Commission (with help from e.g. EARTO) for asking financial support on spin-off

activities. 13