The report “Assessing the Influence of ERC-funded Research on Patented Inventions” has been recently published on the European Research Council (ERC) Web site.
The report has been written by a pool of individual experts selected by the European Research Council, including our professors at the Department of Management: Federico Munari, Laura Toschi, Herica Righi, and Maurizio Sobrero.
How have ERC grantees’ scientific publications inspired new technologies protected by patent applications filed by firms and institutions all over the world?
The study shows how curiosity-driven frontier research enables technological development since more than 40% of ERC-funded projects generated research cited in patents. It is based on data from 6,671 ERC-funded projects from all scientific domains, including all projects funded from 2007 until 2016.
Patents with links to ERC-funded research are concentrated in certain technology fields. Patents in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, computer technology, organic fine chemistry, measurement, and semiconductors together accounted for 68.2% of the total patent citations received.
Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates a positive impact of ERC-funded research on technological fields whose development is crucial for tackling climate change and making the most of digital transformation.
The implications of these results for the actors of the European research and innovation system are numerous, from policymakers to industry and the academic world.
Read the ERC press release
Download the Report.
