One of the goals of NIRICT is to contribute substantially to innovation.NIRICT research creates knowledge which can be used in the development of new ICT products, applications, and services. Innovation requires that ideas which have a commercial potential move from the laboratories into the marketplace. To strengthen the knowledge transfer within the defined
Strategic Research Agenda’s and the NIRICT Centre-of-Excellence CeDICT, the joint NIRICT Research Laboratories have been founded.
The NIRICT Research Laboratories were set up to initiate and coordinate projects where research expertise is applied to industrial and societal applications, especially for SME’s. Because these SME’s have a strong basis in their region, the NIRICT Research Laboratories will have three locations, although it will be managed as one organization (one board). Each branch will have his own expertise / specialization and a front desk to serve the own region.
The NIRICT Research Laboratories are:
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the Laboratory for Quality Software (LaQuSo), |
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the Smart Environment Laboratory, and |
Knowledge transfer from universities to industry and society. There are several ways to realize knowledge transfer:
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Graduates and research projects: The Dutch economy is becoming ever more knowledge-based; this demands a more highly skilled workforce. The most important way in which knowledge is transferred from the 3TU’s into the wider world is through the skills and experience gained by the numerous graduates (M.Sc., PDEng) and PhDs. In externally funded research projects, knowledge transfer takes place between the participating universities and the industrial project partners (often larger companies and/or high-tech SME’s). In general, these – more traditional - aspects of knowledge transfer are taking place within the SRA’s. |
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Transfer through programmes and projects. These are broad collaborations of university groups, knowledge institutes, branch organisations and individual companies to perform precompetitive research. |
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Licensing and spin-off companies: Licensing of university intellectual property and consulting have long been the traditional methods by which universities have spread their skills and experience into the wider world beyond. In the past few years, the creation of spin-out (or start-up) companies has become an important additional mechanisms through which the knowledge and expertise developed by universities flows directly to industry. Knowledge transfer performance is not easy to measure but if the rate of ICT spin-outs is any guide, the track record of the 3TU’s is impressive. NIRICT will build upon the existing successful spin-off activities of the 3TU’s, which will be further professionalized within the 3TU Innovation Lab (o.a. stimulation and development of the required mentality and skills of the researchers, TOP arrangements). Coming up with nice ideas and turning them into clever technologies is not sufficient by itself. A clear understanding of how each new technology addresses a real market need is essential, and for this, new skills and dedicated ICT networks are needed. Besides, in contrary to most other disciplines, the possibilities to take out a patent (which can form the basis for a potential business case) are rather limited in the ICT (software) sector; alternative business strategies are required. Therefore, NIRICT Research Laboratories will play a specific supporting role in the process of setting up ICT-knowledge based spin-off companies (although NIRICT Research Laboratories will make use of the standard facilities and knowledge provided by the 3TU Innovation Lab). The cooperation between NIRICT Research Laboratories and ICT-based Business Accelerators (such as Smart Systems) will speed up the expansion of favourable young ICT-based spin-off companies. |
Website, demo centre, brokerage events: the NIRICT Research Laboratories will make the NIRICT research results easily accessible for potential (industrial and/or governmental) users via a website specifically addressing particular target groups. Web-based and mobile demonstrators presenting various aspects of NIRICT research (e.g. context-aware ICT services, intrusion detection, mobile eHealth services) will show potential end users the possibilities of research results. At the same time, the NIRICT Research Laboratories will play a coordinating role in the organization of meetings such as 3TU customer days and other brokerage events with a focus on the matchmaking between supply (knowledge institutes) and industrial demand.
