Helping researchers through the innovation process

Awareness-raising activities are regularly offered to researchers to help them gain a better understanding of the aim of innovation and the methods used to achieve it through day-long events called “Exploiting your research and results”.

A network of partnership and technology transfer specialists connects all INRAE centres to provide assistance and support to researchers during this process. Partnership project engineers help set up and negotiate partnerships. Working in conjunction with researchers, the partnership and innovation managers pinpoint results that can be exploited and help identify and develop projects in line with the strategies for the innovation fields. Finally, the commercialisation managers promote the inventions to support the technology transfer to our socio-economic partners and business creation.

A strategy for each project

With this organisational structure, the Institute can roll out a partnership and transfer strategy focused on innovation based on the invention declaration and exploitable results. All researchers are encouraged to declare their inventions and consider the best partnership and exploitation strategy for the invention. This may be take place through a partnership to continue research, efforts to bring the invention to maturity (pre-maturation and maturation), or even the creation of a start-up. These partnerships also rely on national innovation initiatives, namely the SATTs (technology transfer acceleration companies) and competitiveness clusters.

Support in creating start-ups

Creating a company is one way to drive innovation and imagine disruptive products or services. INRAE has helped create more than 228 start-ups since 1999. Entrepreneurship days are organised to provide assistance on start-up creation plans, with testimonials from start-up leaders.