Successfully completed project DIFUSE

Driving innovation from universities into scientific enterprises

Customer: Project funded by the European Commission FP6-INNOVATION – Research and innovation in the specific programme for research, technological development and demonstration

DIFUSE aimed to develop a model for close (integrated) transnational cooperation between university knowledge transfer support functions set up to facilitate industrial and commercial exploitation of university research results. The specific goal of the project was to explore new ways for the joint exploitation of university knowledge in targeted domains using best practice and individual experiences from members already engaged in an established pan-European university network, the European Consortium of Innovative Universities (ECIU), and to use this to develop models and pilot actions to show how a group of universities might share resources to make exploitation of research results and transfer to the private sector more effective at a European level.

TUTECH was instigator and coordinated the DIFUSE partnership comprising Aalborg Univeristy, Universität Dortmund, Universiteit Twente, University of Strathclyde, Université de Technologie de Compiègne, Consorzio per la Ricerca e l’Educazione Permanente, University of Warwick.

Legacy

The DIFUSE project ran from 1 July 2006 – 30 June 2008. The work has led to some specific recommendations to the ECIU Executive Board. A handbook prepared by the project team had the purpose of disseminating findings that might be of wider interest and could act as a good-practice guide.