Tech Transfer Challenge brings researchers out of their bubble

On June 4, the final of the first Tech Transfer Challenge will take place at ASML. Researchers from TU/e are not only challenged there to pitch their technology, but above all, to discover whether their research can form the basis for a company.

A researcher who has been working on a technology for years often knows exactly where the scientific gaps still are. Which measurement needs to be even sharper. Which paper still needs to be written. Which step is still needed before colleagues in the same field are convinced. But outside that scientific bubble, the same technology can suddenly become something else: the beginning of a company, a product, a market, perhaps even a new industry.

That is the idea behind the Tech Transfer Challenge, whose final takes place on June 4 at ASML. The challenge was set up for PhD candidates, postdocs and researchers from TU/e and is intended to help test early technologies for commercial potential. Not by immediately turning researchers into entrepreneurs, but by bringing them into contact with entrepreneurs, investors, coaches and experts who ask different questions than fellow scientists are used to.

According to Bert-Jan Woertman, who is involved in this competition on behalf of the Gerard & Anton Foundation, the challenge shows exactly what Eindhoven has been strong at for generations. “Connecting people, talent and technology at the right moment. From a first idea in a lab to something that can make an impact worldwide.”

Out of the research bubble

That connection is less manufacturable than is often thought, says Woertman. Precisely in the informal encounter, acceleration often arises. “What you see emerging during such a process is often much more human and organic than people think. Real acceleration usually arises when people truly meet and speak with each other. Stepping out of their own bubble for a moment. Sharing an idea they are not yet entirely sure about themselves. Precisely there, new insights, collaborations and unexpected opportunities often arise.”

That is also the experience of Boudewijn Docter, co-founder of EFFECT Photonics. His own entrepreneurial journey began years ago in a similar way: with a call for researchers to put their ideas down on paper in 100 words. The reward was limited, but the effect was great. “I saw a poster with something like: Do you want to become an entrepreneur? Write down your idea in one hundred words and win one hundred euros. I thought: that sounds easy, that is five minutes’ work. So I did it.”

What Docter mainly won was access to people who looked at his research differently. “There were coaches, mentors and investors who said: you are not yet very good at explaining what you do, but what you do is interesting.” In retrospect, that turned out to be the tipping point. “It was not immediately a eureka moment, but it was the seed to think: perhaps I should take this more seriously.”

With that, he touches on a core problem of tech transfer. Within the university, research is assessed on scientific quality. The question of why something can be socially or economically relevant often receives less attention. “When you write a paper, you always need a short introduction in which you explain why it is relevant. But after that, you quickly move on to the content. Nobody really asks the question: is this the right market, where can this make an impact?”

Precisely those questions are asked in the Tech Transfer Challenge, as Monique Greve, opportunity creator at TU/e-KTO, also knows. “From my role at TU/e and the Knowledge Transfer Office (KTO), I mainly look at how you can translate research more quickly into social and economic impact. A researcher does not simply step from the lab into the entrepreneurial world. For that, not only trust, support and the right people around you are needed, but often also an extra push to dare to take that first step. For many participants, the TTChallenge has been exactly that: an accessible way to test their ideas outside the scientific context. Precisely for that reason, the collaboration around the TTChallenge was so interesting for us.”

Tech Transfer Challenge

From idea to plan to spin-out

For Tienko Rasker, that is precisely the greatest value of the program. “The potential of scientists and researchers to make a lot of difference in society is gigantic. It is then not only about knowledge but also about entrepreneurship. If they can convert their ideas and techniques into companies and products that people can use, we are all better off.”

But he says there is a gap between technology and the company. “In practice, that is easier said than done. The TTC is a proven formula that enables researchers to very easily determine whether they have something in their hands from which a company can be formed. And at the same time, we bring them into contact with the right expertise from outside the university. That is worth a lot.”

Initially, it was exciting to see whether the approach would work again. A previous variant led, more than ten years ago, partly to the emergence of EFFECT Photonics. Similar formulas are also running at universities such as MIT and Cambridge. Still, every ecosystem has to prove again that the method fits its own researchers, technologies and networks.

Rasker saw conviction grow in the successive sessions. “You see companies go from idea, to plan, to spin-out. That turns out to go very quickly if you bring the right people together.” That speed of development has also surprised Monique Greve. “From 24 first submissions of one hundred words, to increasingly concrete plans, pitches and financial models. But even more important was the enthusiasm that emerged. You saw participants grow in how they spoke about their technology and increasingly learned to make connections with applications outside the university. Very exciting to see where this adventure will lead for them!

Not an entrepreneur? Also good

The Tech Transfer Challenge is not based on the idea that every researcher has to become a founder. The initiators also emphasize that. Sometimes a participant actually discovers that entrepreneurship is not the right role. According to Woertman, that is not a failure, but part of a mature ecosystem. “If the technology is strong enough, you can then look together at how to organize it further. With other people, other roles and new combinations of talent.”

Docter also mainly sees the value of that first push. “We started the TT Challenge because I myself experienced firsthand that as a researcher you often live in your own bubble. If you are open to the idea that your research has commercial potential, you often still need a push to actually get started with it.”

That push works precisely because people from outside the university are involved. “We see that the connection between experienced entrepreneurs, investors and the university’s KTO works well. And I also see that the participants exchange a lot with each other. I hope we have planted a number of seeds and that a number of beautiful startups will emerge from them.”

Eindhoven, Amsterdam and the Dutch tech corridor

For Woertman, the challenge fits into a broader movement. He sees how the startup calendar in the region has become much fuller in recent years: The Gate, Brainport, HighTechXL, the TU/e Knowledge Transfer Office, the Gerard & Anton Foundation, founders drinks, venture building programs, awards and Demos, Pitches & Drinks. Together, they form an infrastructure in which ideas are tested, sharpened, and connected more often to people who can take them further.

At the same time, he looks beyond Eindhoven. Fourteen years ago, Eindhoven was precisely seeking connection with Amsterdam, among other things through the first A2 Challenge with Waag Society, Accenture, Philips and High Tech Campus Eindhoven. “Back then, we wanted to learn, connect and build a startup ecosystem that was still really in its infancy here.”

Now that movement seems partly to be reversing. Amsterdam is more explicitly seeking a connection with Brainport Eindhoven. According to Woertman, the conclusion is clear: Amsterdam and Brainport should increasingly be seen less as separate ecosystems and more as one Dutch tech corridor in which both regions complement each other.

“That is quite special when you look back at where we started.”

More than a final

The final at ASML is therefore more than a pitch moment. It is a test of a method: can you bring researchers into contact with the market early enough, without shortchanging science? Can you offer entrepreneurship as a possibility, not as an obligation? And can you build an ecosystem where a single conversation is enough to get a technology moving?

For Rasker, the ambition clearly extends beyond one edition at one university. “The ambition should be to do this at every technical university every year, or even at every university that would like more spin-outs. We are already getting interest from Berlin. Just imagine.”

Woertman sees, in the first edition, above all, confirmation that the need is great. “That this was only the first edition of the Tech Transfer Challenge and that so much quality, energy and potential is already visible, mainly shows how much strength there still is in this region.” Ultimately, he says, innovation is, of course, about technology. “But perhaps even more about people who manage to find each other and accelerate together.”

The impact of the TTC is already tangible, but according to Monique Greve, it will mainly become visible in the long term. “Not only in possible startups or spin-offs, but also in the culture you create. Colleagues become inspired, researchers step out of their own bubble more easily and the network between science, entrepreneurs and investors becomes stronger. Ultimately, every successful company begins with an idea, and sometimes one extra push is enough to really get that idea moving.”