The 'Industrial Research Fund' (IOF) has been established in 2004 by the Flemish government for stimulating the valorisation of academic knowledge through the development of societally and industrially relevant applications. In order to achieve this goal, the Flemish government puts a considerable budget at the disposition of the Flemish universities.
In order to achieve this goal, the Flemish government puts a considerable budget at the disposition of the Flemish universities. This budget is distributed annually among the Flemish universities, based on several valorisation-related parameters, such as the number of industrial projects, EU-projects, spin-offs, patents, doctoral degrees,...
ECOOM’s technometrics team provides the data about patents and spin-offs (parameters 5 and 6) for the annual calculation of the IOF key. For the patent parameter, academic patents (EPO applications and grants, USPTO grants and WO applications) are counted for a five year period, whereby the university is registered as applicant or co-applicant.
After verification by the Flemish universities, validated patent counts are presented to the steering group. For the spin-off parameter, all official documents of academic spin-offs are collected by ECOOM. Based on information about founding date, shareholder structure, technology transfer, licensing agreements, etc , companies that meet the IOF counting criteria are retained. The resulting list of spin-offs is presented to the steering group.
