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Transfer for NRW: From Research Results to Value Creation

To turn strong ideas into tangible impact, effective bridges between science, business and society are essential. Transfer makes research results usable at regional, national and international level, strengthens NRW’s capacity for innovation and creates new opportunities for sustainable value creation.

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Transfer for Innovation Capacity

Transfer is a key component of North Rhine-Westphalia’s capacity for innovation
For research knowledge to generate social and economic impact, science, business and society must work closely together. Knowledge and technology transfer creates this connection and helps turn research results into new products, services, processes and social innovations.

Expanding Transfer Activities
The state government aims to further expand the transfer activities of universities and non-university research institutions and to strengthen North Rhine-Westphalia as a leading innovation hub in Europe. The focus is on intensifying cooperation between science and business, making better use of innovation potential, and integrating European funding instruments more closely into transfer and innovation processes.

Event Information
Information on specialist events, innovation forums, matchmaking and brokerage events, as well as European networking formats, also enables the development of new partnerships and joint innovation and transfer projects. In this way, these formats make an important contribution to transferring research results more quickly into economic and social value creation.

Guidance on Funding Opportunities
This focus topic draws on NRW.Europa and provides guidance on funding opportunities and support services along the entire transfer chain – from research and development through to application and market launch. Particular attention is given to European research and innovation funding, technology-oriented cooperation, and funding opportunities for spin-offs and start-ups from universities and research institutions. Securing EU funding for transfer and innovation projects on the one hand, and access to international transfer networks on the other, play an important role in this context.

Transfer Structures 
In addition, as part of this focus topic, NRW.Europa supports important transfer structures in North Rhine-Westphalia, including cooperation platforms of the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia (MKW NRW), state-wide transfer networks, regional programmes such as Start-up Transfer.NRW, and national programmes such as VIP+ or EXIST. These initiatives support exchange between science and practice, promote the development of market-ready innovations and strengthen the international competitiveness of North Rhine-Westphalia as an innovation hub.

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