INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER 2010 EPFL s VPIV Activity Report The Vice-Presidency for (VPIV) is responsible for EPFL s interactions with the economy, from small and medium size enterprises to large international corporations.
2010 A C T I V I T Y R E P O R T WHAT IS INNOVATION? Innovation is often mentioned as a critical tool for the future of our economies, but what is innovation? Wikipedia defines it as A NEW WAY OF DOING SOMETHING OR NEW STUFF THAT IS MADE USEFUL. IT MAY REFER TO AN INCREMENTAL EMERGENT OR RADICAL AND REVOLUTIONARY CHANGES IN THINKING, PRODUCTS, PROCESSES, OR ORGANIZATIONS. It can also be viewed as the commercialization or social use of inventions. An indication of the importance of innovation is the increasing number of reports which analyze innovation. Examples include the Global Innovation Index (www.globalinnovationindex.org) or the European Innovation Scoreboard (www.proinno-europe.eu). Such reports make a distinction between enablers and outputs while measuring innovation in an organization. Enablers are aspects that help an entity to stimulate innovation and outputs are the results of innovative activities. Innovation Enablers and Ouputs There are many enablers and outputs that can be described or measured. The fundamental enablers of an economy are its human capacities (the level of education and skills) and its general infrastructures (services, information technologies, finance). Enablers also include the more specific government support to innovation through public research and development (R&D) or the protection of intellectual property (IP), the market sophistication such as the financing of innovation by the private sector or the business sophistication such as the level of private R&D, the level of interaction between universities and the industry for example; a less tangible, but critical enabler is the innovation culture, i.e. how deep and accepted is the desire and interest in developing new things. INNOVATION CAN BE SIMPLY VIEWED AS THE COMMERCIALIZATION OR SOCIAL USE OF INVENTIONS Outputs provide evidence of the results of innovation within the economy: they include the dynamics of an economy such is its firm density and firm creation, innovation outcome such as [co-]publications between companies and academic institutions, patent applications, licenses between organizations as well as creative outputs such as new products and services. Academic Innovation Universities become obvious places of innovation from the previous definitions. They are a locus of research and creativity through the enablers provided by government and private support. Academic innovation deals in most cases with technology and its innovation impact is mostly about what goes out of universities. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 1
The main output of universities is and will remain its graduate students. It is rarely mentioned that the main university innovations are the skills and knowledge provided by education. Academic innovation is also the transfer of know-how and intellectual property generated by its researchers also called technology transfer. The transition of knowledge into practice takes place through a variety of mechanisms, including but not limited to: 1. movement of highly skilled students (with technical and business skills) from training to private and public employment; 2. publication of research results in the open academic literature that is read by scientists, engineers, and researchers in all sectors; 3. personal interaction between creators and users of new knowledge (e.g., through professional meetings, conferences, seminars, industrial liaison programs, and other venues); 4. firm-sponsored (contract) research projects involving firm-institution agreements; 5. multi-firm arrangements such as university-industry cooperative research centers; 6. personal individual faculty and student consulting arrangements with individual private firms; 7. entrepreneurial activity of faculty and students occurring outside of the university without involving university-owned IP; and 8. licensing of IP to established firms or to new start-up companies. All eight mechanisms, often operating in a complementary fashion, offer significant contributions to the economy. The licensing of IP, although not the most important of these mechanisms, is more often discussed, measured, quantified, and debated than all other mechanisms combined, and is the subject of our findings and recommendations. Source: Managing University Intellectual Property in the Public Interest. National Research Council 2010 have also been defined as mission of the Swiss EPFL and ETHZ as it is stated Swiss Federal Law on the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology: Art. 2 Purpose 1 The role of the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology (ETHs) and the Research Institutes shall be: a. to educate students and specialists in scientific and technical fields and ensure continuing education; b. to expand scientific knowledge through research; c. to foster junior scientific staff; d. to provide scientific and technical services; e. to ensure a dialogue with the public; f. to exploit their research findings. Academic Innovation is measured through enablers and outputs http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 2
Funding of research (external, private) Invention disclosures Patenting Licensing income Start-up creation Of course, such innovation outputs are related to the size of the universities and ratios linked to its size (number of researchers, level of research funding) are necessary for make such measures valuable. Innovation should not be measured only. Innovation is made of intangible assets such as the innovation culture, the innovation history which, if not described, would make innovation look like a dead ecosystem. The remaining of this activity report will first describe EPFL s innovation support system and then will give EPFL s main numbers in innovation and technology transfer as well as some 2010 highlights. EPFL S INNOVATION ECOSYSTEM EPFL s has been supportive of relations with corporations for more than 25 years. Table 1 describes EPFL efforts since 1986. Since 2008, EPFL s Innovation and Technology Transfer is headed by Dr. Adrienne Corboud Fumagalli. The vicepresidency is formed of 4 units: TTO is EPFL s Technology Transfer Office and handles research contracts as well as the evaluation, protection, management and licensing of EPFL s intellectual property. Alliance is the Industry Liaison Program for French-speaking academic institutions and is hosted at EPFL. It is financially supported by the Swiss Innovation Promotion Agency (CTI), Cantons of western Switzerland, State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO), the association of companies Alliance and EPFL. Support to Start-up creation is provided through the Innogrants. The unit handles the links with PSE, the close-by Science Park and FIT, a seed-funding foundation. Partnerships deal with large international companies which are interested in strategic collaborations with EPFL including the installation of corporate R&D activities on the EPFL campus. EPFL s VPIV also manages Centers which complement the schools expertise through trans-disciplinary research and the high-visibility Projects such as Solar Impulse, the Hydroptere or Alinghi. A BOTTOM-UP APPROACH FITTING THE NEEDS OF EPFL RESEARCHERS AND ECONOMIC PARTNERS http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 3
1986 : industrial liaison program : Cast / association APLE 1986 : two first major strategic industrial partnerships 1988 : policy for research contracts & partnerships 1991 : science park created : foundation PSE 1993 : IP strategy / licensing 1995 : pre-seed money for start-up projects : foundation FIT 1997 : coaching for early stage start-up projects 1998 : technology transfer : creation of the TT office (SRI at the time) 1999 : entrepreneurship courses 1999 : rules for remuneration of inventors and labs 2000 : first equity deals 2003 : legal framework adapted for efficient TT 2004 : vice-presidency for innovation and tech. transfer (VPIV) 2005 : centers, programs, Innogrants, TT Alliance 2006 : new partnerships : endowed chairs, indus. incubators 2007 : revised TT regulations & overhead policy 2008 : Polytech seed fund 2009 : the Garage 2010: EPFL Innovation Square Table 1: development of innovation support at EPFL EPFL s close innovation ecosystem includes its Science Park (PSE) established in 1991 and the Foundation for Innovation and Technology (FIT) both headed by Vice-President Corboud Fumagalli. The year 2010 was a new milestone for EPFL with the opening of its Innovation Square, a 30 000m2 office space for companies collaborating with EPFL. EPFL S VPIV IS PART OF A DENSE ECOSYSTEM ASSISTING LARGE MULTINATIONAL COMPANIES, SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZE COMPANIES AND START-UPS Figure 1: EPFL s Vice-Presidency for http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 4
Switzerland is known for its federal political structure and this decentralized structure is also visible in innovation structure. What could appear as a weak, fragmented organization is also a strength. Most organizations have discovered the value of open innovation because no structure is powerful enough to develop its new products and services alone. EPFL is also part of a rich and dense network of actors who support innovation at its different levels. Table 2 describes this complex environment. From left to right, the ideas are generated, developed, launched and grown. From bottom-up appear the funding of research, its transfer to the economy; then poles of excellence at the Swiss level include EPFL through federal programs. Education of innovation, technology management and entrepreneurship, are additional components. Finally the incubation and financing of the ideas outside of universities are the ingredients which come the latest in the innovation process. Generate Develop Launch Grow Financiers Incubators & coaching Training Poles of excellence SRI Funding of research VPIV S 2010 HIGHLIGHTS PARTNERSHIPS Table 2: EPFL s innovation system EPFL proposes to corporations a variety of collaborations agreements, from research-specific contracts to general frameworks, up to the association of R&D teams on the EPFL campus, in its newly formed Innovation Square. Companies http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 5
can therefore benefit from the proximity of EPFL researchers and infrastructure to explore new fields and topics. The Innovation Square should enable further strengthening of the EPFL-industry links as well as more training opportunities for its students and closer relations with its start-ups. THE INNOVATION SQUARE WILL BECOME A CRITICAL ASSET FOR EPFL S PARTNERS Logitech, Nestlé, Credit Suisse, Cisco, Debiopharm, Alcan have opened or will open activities in the Innovation Square in late 2010. Other corporations are discussing their installation in fields as broad as biotechnology, automotive and communications. The VPIV meets more than sixty companies per year in a prospective manner in order to identify the needs of and synergies between EPFL and the industry. EPFL will further increase its network and contacts with existing and future partners, thanks in part to the support of the Canton Economic Development, the Greater Geneva Berne Area association as well as the Swissnex organization. ALLIANCE Logitech and Nestlé at the Innovation Square The consortium of knowledge and technology transfer, Alliance, coordinated by EPFL, has the mission of linking higher education schools (universities, universities of applied science, university hospitals), research centers (CSEM, IDIAP) and enterprises. The funding of Alliance is provided by CTI (37%), SECO together with Cantons from Western Switzerland (36%) and EPFL and the Alliance Association (27%). EPFL further adds in-kind contribution. In the last 5 years, Alliance enabled the visit of nearly 700 companies, the last majority of which were small and medium size enterprises (SMEs). It gave to Alliance Technology Advisors the opportunity to detect their needs and to encourage the use of the expertise of the academic researchers of the highereducation schools. Almost 200 projects of technology collaboration were launched, in majority with the five institutions of the HES-SO (59%) and with EPFL (28%). In 2010, Alliance celebrated its 5 th anniversary. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 6
Celebration of Alliance 5 th Anniversary START-UPS AND INNOGRANTS A number of events related to Web start-ups is worth mentioning in 2010. Scala Solutions has been launched by Prof. Martin Odersky following the huge success of the open source software that is used for web development by tenths of thousands of developers. Jochen Mundinger, founder of RouteRank has been nominated in the TR35, the most promising innovators under 35 by MIT. Siri, a Silicon-Valley start-up, which had licensed an EPFL technology and co-founded by an EPFL alumnus has been acquired by Apple in April 2010. The Innogrants program was launched in 2005. Since its inception, more than 250 ideas were submitted and 41 were funded in the form of a one-year salary to a EPFL project owner who had the objective of launching the commercial development of his technology. STI and IC schools have been the main candidates and receivers of the Innogrants. One important feature of the Innogrants is the origin of the entrepreneurs, 75% of whom being non-swiss citizens. This is consistent with the statistics of technology clusters such as Silicon Valley where a large proportion of entrepreneurs are immigrants. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 7
The Innogrants were funded by Geneva-based Lombard Odier bank until 2008. In 2010, the program will benefit from the KPMG s Inspiration grants (celebrating the audit firm 100 th anniversary in Switzerland). The Innogrants have also been marketed in other European universities through the Cluster consortium (www.cluster.org) showing the early interest and success generated by the concept of pre-seed funding of technology projects. More than CHF4M was invested since 2005 about 20 companies were created. These projects further received CHF6M in external grants (CTI, Gebert Ruf foundation) and CHF8M in equity from private investors. The program however remains fragile because of its dependency on private funding. As it could be noticed earlier, EPFL had record years in 2008 with 18 start-ups and 20 start-ups in 2009. 15 out of these 38 companies were supported by Innogrants, showing if necessary the critical role of the program. Figure 2: EPFL Innogrants It is also known that entrepreneurs need personal support. For many years, EPFL has been supportive of coaching activities at PSE, which come earlier than CTI startup coaching and labeling. More recently EPFL is adding new mentoring support through its alumni association, the A3. The A3 mentoring and angel group (www.a3angels.ch) will hopefully further support EPFL entrepreneurs. EPFL is also aware of the difficulty of entrepreneurs in their early business development activities and is therefore supportive of new activities towards sales and http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 8
identification of opportunities such as FFC and STEP. More information can be found on the Innogrant page of the VPIV web site (vpiv.epfl.ch) Support to entrepreneurship requires as much sensitization as funding. The Innovation culture which is mentioned in the introduction of this report as a key innovation enabler needs support. EPFL provides training through its college of management of technology (CDM) and VPIV contributes to this important topic through the co-organization of the venture ideas @ EPFL cycle of conferences in partnership with the CDM and venturelab (www.venturelab.ch). In 2010, the EPFL organized its 11 th and 12 th editions (see Figure 3). ENTREPRENEURSHIP IS STIMULATED BY ROLE MODELS Figure 3: EPFL venture ideas conferences in 2010 CENTERS AND PROJECTS The Strategic Initiatives of EPFL enable the exploration of emerging fields. They include programs, centers and trans-disciplinary research, which help bridging established academic boundaries. EPFL is also the scientific advisor to outstanding technology adventures. TRANSDISCIPLINARY CENTERS http://energy.epfl.ch http://space.epfl.ch http://transport.epfl.ch http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 9
CENTERS AND PROJECTS ENABLE THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMBITIOUS RESEARCH PROJECTS BEYOND THE TRADITIONAL FRONTIERS OF LABORATORIES AND DISCIPLINES DISCOVERY PROJECTS EPFL has always nurtured a spirit of adventure and elected to commit to innovative projects combining fundamental and applied research, which truly drive innovation and technology transfer. EPFL is the Official Scientific Advisor to Alinghi, SolarImpulse l Hydroptère and starting 2009 the Rivages project (Bernard Stamm team for the next Vendée Globe challenge). http://alinghi.epfl.ch http://solar-impulse.epfl.ch http://hydroptere.epfl.ch http://rivages.epfl.ch The Hydroptere landed on Geneva Lake in St Sulpice in October 2010 whereas SolarImpulse had its first flight over the lake and landed in Geneva on October 25 th. EPFL also supports the development of ambitious support project through its centers which enable transdisciplinary research, together with industrial partners beyond the traditional frontiers of laboratories and disciplines. In this respect, the involved EPFL laboratories collaborate with members of the project Design Team and the partner companies bring their specific competences to the edifice. A coordination of the EPFL activities is ensured through the VPIV to maximize the output for EPFL and the partners. These technological adventures represent a unique chance to co-develop with external experts EPFL technologies and knowledge for a targeted application in a limited time frame. Thanks to their complex nature, they allow several laboratories to work together on a common goal, hence reinforcing collaboration between laboratories and potential for transdisciplinary innovation. These projects reinforce successfully the core missions of EPFL: http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 10
Education: These projects are a source of motivation for the EPFL community and especially its students. It is also a powerful way to communicate to young students the role of an engineer and to motivate them to embrace studies in a technological field. Research: The projects are highly demanding technological challenges and they require the latest scientific knowledge to achieve their goals. The EPFL professors, researchers, engineers and students are in direct contact with external experts to push the current limits and apply their development on a full scale demonstrator. Technological transfer: The co-development carried-out between EPFL and the external engineers allows the refinement and validation of the technologies allowing a reliable use on the field. These projects benefits also from the project visibility. Companies awareness about EPFL know-how is strengthened and the transfer to industry is eased. Since the beginning of these projects, EPFL has been associated to the Alinghi s victory in the 2003 and 2007 America s Cup (and unfortunately also its defeat in 2010 ), the new sailing world record established by l Hydroptère and the first successful flight of the SolarImpulse. So far 18 laboratories belonging to 4 different faculties have been involved. TTO Most TTO s activity is described in the next section on innovation metrics. TTO also contributes to the negotiation and signature of strategic partnerships with large national and international corporations, in particular the creation of endowed chairs as well as the multi-year research frameworks. In 2010, such a framework was signed with Credit Suisse, following the company s decision to open offices in the Innovation Square. New ideas and inventions are often very nascent when they are the results of research and therefore not directly usable by the industry and in particular SMEs. In order to increase the likeliness of transfer of the most promising inventions, the TTO is supporting specific studies (proof of concepts through demonstrators, prototyping) through a new program which has be progressively launched in 2010 and then in2011. This new initiative will complement the Innogrants which are more focused on startup creation. In 2010, EPFL celebrated its 1000 th invention whereas one of EPFL early inventions (Prof. Graetzel s solar cells) received the Millenium Technology Prize. This technology was licensed to a new partner Dongjin Semichem from Korea. EPFL S TTO will continue its training activity through MINTT, the course of management of innovation and technology transfer in the doctoral school. An exposure to the topic will be given to bachelor and master students in 2011. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 11
EPFL s 1000 th invention, by Harm Cronie and Amin Shokrollahi of the Laboratoire d algorithme: How mathematics come to the rescue of electronics, enabling processors that are smaller, faster and more energysaving. Professor Michael Graetzel received the 2010 Millenium Technology prize and his solar cells (one of EPFL s early inventions) were licensed to a new industry partner Dongjin Semichem From Korea. EPFL S INNOVATION METRICS Academic Innovation has been measured for many years at the international level by a number of standard criteria. The Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP) and the association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in the USA provide yearly reports of innovation and technology transfer activities on both continents. These measures include the funding of research through collaborations with industry and other third parties as well as the more specific technology transfer activities such invention disclosures, patent applications, licenses and start-up creation. Research collaborations The EPFL resources allocated by the confederation are one key component of its budget. Meanwhile, third party funding has steadily grown over years. It includes funding from public institutions such as the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), the European Union (EU), the Swiss Commission for Technology and Innovation (CTI) as well as industry funding and other non-profit entities (foundations, local governments). Figure 4 illustrates the evolution of third party funding of research in the recent years http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 12
200 180 160 140 120 Industry Public EU CTI FNS 100 80 60 40 20 0 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Figure 4: third-party funding of EPFL research (in CHF M) In 2009, EPFL spent CHF 205M from external funding, including CHF 49M from the industry (not only research funding, but also support to teaching and technology transfer licensing). Its research budget (based on an assumption of 64% of the overall EPFL budget) was CHF 471M, so that the industry funding (using the same ratio) represents ca 6.7% of the overall research funding. The increase in 2009 and 2010 is due in part to the integration of IMT (Institute of Micro Technologies Neuchâtel) and in part to an increase in life science funding. As a comparison, the AUTM has shown a constant ratio of about 5-7% of industry funding to research in US universities including leading institutions such as MIT or Stanford University. Nb or research contracts - 2010 Amount of research contracts - 2010 30% 405 341 8% 10% Start-up PME Corp. P. EU Inst. publ. / fond. 27% 2% 4% CHF68.9M 27% Start-up PME Corp. P. EU Inst. publ. / fond. 18% 34% 40% Figure 5: number and amount in CHFM of research collaborations handled by TTO EPFL s TTO is active in the negotiation and approval of such cooperation agreements. Figure 5 shows the number and amount of contracts which have been handled in 2010. Start-ups and SMEs represent more than 15% of the http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 13
contracts, but because of their limited resources a smaller ratio of about 6% of the total amount. Many research projects with SMEs and start-ups are financed through CTI grants. Large corporations represented 34% of the contracts and 27% of the amounts. More than 48% of the contracts and about 67% of the amounts came from public or non-profit institutions. Since the inception of the EPFL Grant Office, TTO focuses on collaborations or service agreements with for profit institutions, with the required expertise to address IP questions. The focus changes the counting of contracts number and the comparison is not the same. 35000 100% 30000 Others UK 90% Germany 80% 25000 USA France 70% 20000 Switzerland 60% Others UK 50% Germany 15000 40% USA France 10000 30% Switzerland 20% 5000 10% 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 0% 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2010 - research agreements through EPFL-SRI with direct industry funding (contractual amounts, MCHF) 12.0 10.0 Tot. 2009 : 19.6 MCHF / 146 contracts Tot. 2010 : 22.7 MCHF / 147 contracts 10.4 8.0 8.1 6.0 2009 4.0 2.0 2.1 3.5 2.6 2.5 2.7 2.5 2.1 1.8 3.1 2010 0.9 0.0 ENAC IC SB STI SV Autres Figure 6: origin of industrial mandates handled by EPFL s TTO w/o CTI projects w/o endowment agreements http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 14
Figures 6 and 7 show from which geographies and schools were these contracts generated over years. Switzerland comes first followed by Germany and France. With a tradition in engineering, the STI faculty represents the larger part whereas the more recent life science (SV) school shows a steady increase in its activity. Basic Sciences (SB), Environment and Architecture (ENAC) and Informatics and Communications (IC) are EPFL three other science and technology schools whereas others include the College of Management of Technology as well as contracts from the central services including the VPIV. A STEADY INCREASE IN RESEARCH COLLABORATIONS AND TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER ACTIVITY 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 Others SV STI SB IC ENAC Research contracts amounts 2.5 8.4 9.2 4.6 17.9 ENAC IC SB STI SV Others 100 36.8 50 0 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Figure 7: number and amounts of research agreements by schools handled by TTO Technology Transfer TTO also manages EPFL s intellectual property from the disclosure of new technologies (mainly inventions and software) by the researchers to the licensing or transfer of IP such as patents, software copyrights and material. TTO counts about six full-time equivalent (FTEs) TT professionals, about 40 to 50% of which is active in IP management, technology transfer and licensing (the remaining 60 to 50% is for the handling of research contracts for the EPFL laboratories). EPFL also follows the number of start-ups founded thanks to the licensing of IP generated at EPFL or created by EPFL researchers thanks to critical know-how generated in the school. Figure 8 shows a very positive trend in invention disclosure and licenses whereas the start-up creation has followed the cycles of the internet development. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 15
120 100 Invention & technology disclosures Priority patent appl. Licenses, TT agr. & options Start-ups 80 60 40 20 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Figure 8: intellectual property handled by TTO In 2009, there were 92 inventions and software disclosures and 47 new priority patent applications were filed. Specialists of IP will be interested to know that in addition 27 PCT applications were filed and 23 patents granted. 45 new licenses were signed with external partners. Patent applications and patents have a cost, which force technology transfer officers to make choices in the group of invention disclosures. EPFL invested a total of CHF 1.3M for the prosecution and maintenance of patent applications and patents, of which CHF 0.2M were charged to the concerned EPFL labs according to applicable splitting rules. EPFL s TTO manages a portfolio of presently 311 active patent families and 353 licenses. These licenses generated in 2010 the total gross income of CHF 1.8M including ca CHF 0.4M as reimbursements of patenting costs. The net revenue of active licenses is finally CHF 570 000 for 2010, after the deduction of the investment of EPFL in patenting. For each individual technology managed by the TTO, the net income is distributed as follows: 1/3 to the inventors or authors of software as individuals, 1/3 to the laboratory where the technology was generated and 1/3 to EPFL-VPIV for further investments in innovation and technology transfer. In 2010, EPFL distributed a total of ca. CHF 1.1M. Figure 9 summarizes the 2010 technology transfer activity by EPFL school in terms of invention disclosures, patent applications, licenses and start-up creation. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 16
Similarly to research collaborations, the STI school represents with its engineering activities the main part of EPFL technology transfer. 2010 - inventions & software 2010 - Priority patent applications 8% 1% 7% 18% ENAC IC 7 1 6 ENAC IC SB 7 SB 50% 16% STI STI SV Others 26 SV 2010 - licenses & TT agreements 9% 2% 7% ENAC Start-ups 2010 0 1 1 ENAC 27% IC SB 4 IC SB 33% STI STI SV 7 SV 22% Others 1 Others Figure 9: technology transfer activity by school Start-Ups EPFL has been at the origin of nearly 200 start-ups since it began to identify such companies and 136 over the 2000-2010 decade. This means EPFL contributes to about one start-up per month on average. Logitech is the EPFL success story but EPFL recently had other nice success such as Endoart, Snaketech, Cytion or Calcom. It should never be forgotten that alumni contribute as much to innovation as the formal technology transfer from the campus. Famous alumni such as Aart de Geus (Synopsys) or Mark Burki and Paolo Buzzi (Swissquote) illustrate the importance of entrepreneurial alumni. In a similar manner to the American Give Back to the Community, the Swissquote founders have endowed an EPFL chair which is as important as a very successful license from a financial and symbolic standpoint. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 17
2% 5% 13% 25% 25 following 12% 10% 8% 17% 8% 20 15 10 5 Others Energy-environment Sensors Electrical-electronics Micro-nanotech Mechanical Medtech Biotech IT 0 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Figure 10: EPFL start-ups by year and fields of activity A STRONG ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY About 25% of the start-ups are active in information technology (IT); another 25% is active in medical technologies and biotechnology. Other fields of activities are micro, mechanical technologies and electronics and the emerging field of energy and environment (cleantech). It is quite well-known that European startups remain behind their American counterparts in terms of their growth. EPFL is no exception as a recent survey showed that PSE start-ups had 7 employees on average (increasing from 4.6 in 2006). Growth is enabled by venture capital which is also less developed in Europe. Table 3 identifies EPFL start-ups which have been funded with venture capital money. On average, EPFL counts a little more than one VC-backed company per year. The star (*) in the table indicates companies which have been acquired. More than CHF250M were raised by EPFL start-ups in the last 13 years. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 18
Company Founded VCs Amount raised Snaketech * 1997 Auriga, Innovacom, Sudinnova CHF3M Cytion * 1997 Banexi CHF5M Endoart * 1998 Sofinnova, VI, Vinci CHF31M Dartfish 1998 Vinci, Intel CH12M+ IR Micro * 1999 VI CHF4M Xitact * 2000 Nextech CHF9M Omnisens 2000 Vinci CHF6M BeamExpress 2001 Index, Oak CHF 30M+ Covalys 2002 BVGroup, VI, Novartis CHF5M Innovative Silicon 2002 Index, Austin, Highland, Auriga, Wellington CHF60M+ Sensimed 2003 Wellington, Vinci CHF25M HPL * 2004 VI, DFJ eplanet, BankInvest CHF8M NEXThink 2004 VI, Auriga CHF7.5M G24 Innovations 2006 Morgan Stanley CHF25M+ Biocartis 2007 Advent, KBC, Aescap CHF60M Bicycle Therapeutics Ltd 2009 Novartis Venture, Atlas Seed funding Table 3: EPFL start-ups funded by venture capital Conclusion - Summary and ratios Table 4 is the overall summary of EPFL s technology transfer activities with the addition of key ratios: the absolute number of innovative metrics is obviously related to the size and resources of an institution. The European ASTP weights these numbers with the number of full time employees active in research as well as with the research budget. EPFL measures this budget as 64% of its total budget. The amounts are given in US dollars ($) which may explain some surprising numbers linked to the strong volatility of the American currency in recent years. EPFL s Innovation activity is consistent with its academic ranking as a leading European institute of technology. A comparison with its European counterparts would show very positive outcomes on the research funding and innovative activities. It would also show that American universities have been active much earlier in technology transfer and have some lead, particularly on the start-up growth but EPFL is catching up! A major difference with US major universities is the income from licensing of IP which is in average significantly lower in Europe and also for EPFL. One element of explanation is that licensing s aim is to develop research projects and not to monetize technologies per se. http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 19
Enablers 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Research personnel 2736 2774 2812 2849 3032 3280 3677 3860 Research expenditure (MCHF) 350 356 381 392 408 472 474 471 Industry funding 7.7% 5.7% 5.9% 4.9% 5.5% 5.6% 9.9% 6.7% TT Data 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Invention disclosures 55 62 83 73 89 78 98 92 Patent application 27 43 44 36 36 40 44 47 Patent grants 19 17 20 29 14 24 29 23 Licenses executed 27 42 46 56 64 29 47 45 Gross license income (MCHF) 1.3 1.6 1.7 2.9 3.6 2.5 2.2 1.9 Spin-offs established 10 8 5 8 12 18 20 14 R&D agreement 193 254 255 266 331 391 405 341 Per '000 research personnel 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Invention disclosures 20.1 22.4 29.5 25.6 29.4 23.8 26.7 23.8 Patent application 9.9 15.5 15.6 12.6 11.9 12.2 12.0 12.2 Patent grants 6.9 6.1 7.1 10.2 4.6 7.3 7.9 6.0 Licenses executed 9.9 15.1 16.4 19.7 21.1 8.8 12.8 11.7 License income 0.5 0.6 0.6 1.0 1.2 0.8 0.6 0.5 Spin-offs established 3.7 2.9 1.8 2.8 4.0 5.5 5.4 3.6 R&D agreement 70.5 91.6 90.7 93.4 109.2 119.2 110.1 88.3 Table 4: EPFL technology transfer metrics and ratios http://vpiv.epfl.ch Page 20