Find out moreWe help identify and develop the potential of innovative projects. Working in synergy with researchers, investors, companies and organizations, we help high-potential ideas become successful products or services.
Find out what we can do for you and how we support your innovation.
Do you believe that your project or process can introduce effective innovations into society and the market? Contact us or talk to your university’s TTO, we can help you find the most suitable development process. Remember though: do not disclose your idea or share any technical information; make sure to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement with third parties before going into details.
Is your innovation patentable? The TTOs of the three universities and the U4I Foundation can support you in taking this path. We will consider together how to do it and the necessary documents to sign to safely develop your technology.
If the project idea is worthy of protection, U4I offers support in the patenting process. The process can start from the national filing and be extended to the international level. The granting of a patent is the result of a long and delicate process, which can take several years: once all the forms have been correctly submitted, the patent application is examined by professional reviewers who can reject, request corrections or definitively approve the request.
For this reason we work together offering you all the necessary information and all our experience. We support you in the best possible way to make the path to certification effective and smooth.
We offer the best innovations the greatest chance for growth. With this in mind, we look for companies that operate in the specific application area of your project and select companies that could benefit from your technology. We promote the potential of your innovative product or process, and we also investigate investment issues and growth strategies for your idea. We support the creation of possible synergies, helping the parties to find effective visibility plans.
We evaluate together with the companies, the most appropriate contractual forms for the use and development of inventions and patents
We offer licensing with the right to use, sell or develop the invention; we promote the matching of demand and interest of patents, investors and researchers.
We can arrange those types of agreements:
- License exploitation agreements: involves payment of royalties, based on license sales.
- Stock licenses: award U4I shares in the company.
Together with the TTOs of the partner universities, we look for the best path for the development of your innovation: we evaluate the requirements necessary to file a patent and/or the possibility of creating a spin-off company. The factors that influence one choice over the other are many: from the researchers ability to assume roles of scientific leadership of a new company to the maturity of technology development (TRL), from the the business plan to actual development actions, etc..
Over time, U4I Foundation and the TTOs of the three partner universities have developed strong relationships with the industrial ecosystem. These relationships can lead to the creation of joint ventures suitable for promoting university research. But also to startups creation: thanks to license agreements, U4I and the TTOs can transfer existing know-how.
We promote joint research that can arise in collaboration between researchers and business partners. Agreements of this type involve, for example, small economic operators or consortia: each relationship is designed and structured for the specific requirements and peculiarities of the project.
In these types of joint research agreements, each party actively contributes to the same research activity, and the resulting intellectual property is usually shared.
