EPO publishes study "The role of European public research in patenting and innovation"

European Patent Office (EPO) Patent and Technology Observatory has published a study entitled "The Role of European Public Research in Patenting and Innovation."

Study presents an in-depth analysis of the patent activities of European public research organisations and research hospitals in the period from 2001 to 2020.

Patent applications from public research organisations almost doubled during this period (63,000 applications). The study identified 250 public research organisations, of which 16 account for more than two-thirds of all applications, led by France's National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) with more than 10,200 European patent applications, followed by France's Alternative Energy and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Germany's Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

The study also reveals that public research organizations are generally more involved in the commercialization of their research than universities, but also that universities are strongly involved in collaborative projects which has led to a large number of jointly filed academic patent applications, while in the same period European research hospitals have increased their patent activity by almost 50% (about 17,400 European patent applications). The study also shows that around 2,800 European start-ups linked to public research attract a particularly high share of investment, contributing to the advancement of capital-intensive technologies in areas such as health technology, energy or hardware, the EPO said.

“Public research is one of Europe’s greatest strengths. This study highlights the vital role of our public research organisations and hospitals, whose inventions boost Europe’s competitiveness,” said EPO President António Campinos, stressing that in order to unlock their full potential it is necessary to step up collaboration and accelerate the transfer of research into real-world technologies.

The full study is available at the following link: https://link.epo.org/web/publications/studies/en-the-role-of-european-public-research-in-patenting-and-innovation.pdf