Code of Practice on the Management of Intellectual Assets for Knowledge Valorisation
The Council of the EU has published a recommendation for a new set of guidelines for Intellectual assets management.
This new and revised guidance is set to reflect the changes in today’s research and innovation landscape and is broadening the scope of the existing code of practice to focus on maximising the value of all knowledge assets generated in a dynamic R&I ecosystem. The ultimate outcome should be a code of practice that provides recommendations to foster an improved understanding of strategic management, control, dissemination, transfer/licensing and exploitations of R&I results and has been expanded to concern all R&I actors. Not only universities and public research organisations.
So what are we talking about here? Intellectual assets are considered to cover any results, services or products that are generated by R&I activities. Knowledge valorisation, on the other hand, is a process of creating social and economic value from knowledge by linking different areas and sectors and by transforming data, know-how and research results into sustainable products, services, solutions and knowledge-based policies that benefit society. With this new code of practise, the European Commission is presenting guidelines for the efficient management of intellectual assets, which is crucial for knowledge valorisation.
3 keys are the backbone of this initiative :
• Strategy
• Management
• Inclusiveness
The recommendation acknowledges that maximising knowledge valorisation should now include new aspects, such as tacit knowledge that is only effectively transferred among individuals, and emphasises the importance of use, re-use and cross-fertilisation of knowledge, the sensible use of research results and intellectual asset management, considering the needs of and the benefits for society.
The code of practice for the smart use of intellectual property is a bottom-up initiative. The objective of this code of practice is to provide support to stakeholders through recommendations and practical examples on how to handle challenges related to intellectual assets in the current research and innovation context (e.g. results co-ownership, skills development, valuation, international projects etc.).
