Parallel to its teaching and research missions, the university pursues a third mission inseparable from its other activities: serving society. Turning university research findings into services or products accessible to civil society and companies—this is technology transfer.
This process of putting knowledge to practical use is a major concern for researchers, the university and society. At UCLouvain, the Louvain Technology Transfer Office was created to support research teams and meet technology transfer and research development challenges.
Composed of teams from the Research Department and Sopartec S.A. (UCLouvain’s technology transfer company), LTTO provides UCLouvain researchers with a team of experts in funding sources, project creation, contracts, intellectual property and ‘know-how’ protection, biological material transfer, patent applications, business model definition, license agreement negotiation and spin-off start-up support.
There are many possibilities to apply university research findings in society and participate in its development. LTTO support unfolds in four phases: funding research, identifying viable results (or scouting), maturation and commercialisation.