Warwick Ventures’ Business Development Manager Dr Sam Gallagher delivered a workshop on Open Innovation to European business advisers at the European Patent Office (EPO) in the Hague.

The session was part of the EPO’s training programme on Technology Transfer and Patent Information, designed to equip business advisers and other intermediaries with an understanding of intellectual property issues and how they affect SMEs and new businesses.

Dr Gallagher’s training session focused on the opportunities presented by the Open Innovation model, where a network of organisations needs to be successfully co-ordinated to work effectively on a project. The network could include large corporates and SMEs, public sector organisations or higher education institutions. Managing the different expectations, motivations and demands of all these different players requires special skills.

“Open innovation is a way of addressing the technical complexity of modern innovations,” says Dr Gallagher. “It can be a great way to help developers find the best potential partners and sources of technology. In the university sector, technology development is often very early stage and relies on Open Innovation models to take it forwards; OI agreements are structured in ways that provide the right balance between opportunity and protection.”

For more information about the EPO’s training workshops, go to: http://www.ip4inno.eu/