Technology transfer offices (TTOs) are the interface between lab and market: they assess whether an invention made at a university or research institution has commercial potential, take care of protecting it, look for suitable licensing partners in industry, and support researchers who want to launch their own spin-off.
In a joint study, the European Patent Office (EPO), the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), and the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI) took a closer look at technology transfer offices in Europe. It is the first Europe-wide assessment of its kind, based on survey data from more than 800 European TTOs.
The study shows that patent filings by European universities have risen sharply over the past two decades. While their share of all applications was just under 5% in 2006, it now stands at more than 9% – almost on par with the United States, where academic patents account for 9.5% of all applications.
Academic patent applications are gaining importance
The growth is also remarkable in absolute terms: in 2006, around 3,200 European patent applications were filed by at least one European research institution. In 2025, the figure was almost 8,000 – roughly two and a half times as many.
The main reason for this increase is the abolition of the so-called professor’s privilege in many countries: Under this rule, professors, not their universities, owned the rights to their inventions. At the same time, specialized structures were established: more than half of the TTOs surveyed were founded in 2005 or later.
However, the survey data also shows growing budget pressure in recent years. As a result, technology transfer offices have to be more selective about which inventions to protect and how long to maintain the corresponding IP rights.
Investing in technology transfer pays off
The study highlights the added value of investing in technology transfer: it shows a clear statistical correlation between staffing and commercialization output. In other words, the more people work at a TTO, the more new startups and spin-offs emerge around the university.
But for research to turn into new technologies for the market, the right partners also need to find each other. This is where two new EPO tools come in. A “Data Desk” dashboard makes the patenting activity of public research in Europe visible and can be filtered by country, institution, and technology. In addition, the “Deep Tech Finder” (DTF) has been expanded to include data on European research institutions. This is intended to make it easier for industry and investors to discover promising research and the people behind it.
The Austrian Patent Office has also recently stepped up its cooperation with TTOs. With the “Pre Check Erfindungsmeldung” (invention disclosure pre-check), universities receive a particularly fast and low-cost initial search that clarifies the question of patentability and provides a basis for deciding whether to claim the disclosed invention. We also offer “IP Buddy,” a free mentoring program for students on all aspects of protecting intellectual property.
Full report “Europe’s technology transfer challenge: turning research into market success”