Boosting market uptake of transportation projects

Transportation is vital for Europe's economy and society, and Europe funds such programmes to a very high level. Yet the support does not guarantee that results will become marketable products and services.

To improve the situation, the EU-funded TIPS (Enhancing the capacity of EU transport projects to transform research results into innovative products and services) project set out to enhance the capacity of transportation projects to make results more marketable.

The research group identified 450 finished and ongoing transport research and development (R&D) European and national projects. About one third participated in a survey that led to best practice guidelines.

To promote the exploitation of R&D results and connect research and industrial transport stakeholders, a series of networking and awareness raising events were organised across Europe. Seven workshops, two info stands and three brokerage events were aimed at small and medium-sized enterprises, large companies, and public and research organisations participating in transport-related projects under different Seventh Framework Programme (FP7) themes.

Two training academies on topics such as intellectual property rights management, business plan development, technology transfer and standardisation were held to support 64 participants from 54 EU-funded transport projects.

Individual support on creating exploitation plans was provided to over 50 European organisations through a toolbox developed for this purpose.

Lastly, a best practice guide targeting policymakers, project partners and consortiums was delivered.

TIPS strengthened and enhanced the positive impact of R&D outcomes of EU and national transport projects. Project participants will ultimately be able to bridge the gap between research and innovation in the transport domain.