Academic Excellence and
Knowledge Transfer to
Society
Hearing on Horizon 2020 and the EIT
Panel: Academic excellence and knowledge
Joseph Sifakis
transfer to society
EPFL, Lausanne
19 February 2014
Center for Integrative Research, Grenoble
Brussels
Achieving Excellence
1. Attract the best from Europe and worldwide - make academic careers
more attractive
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Competitive salaries – R&D labor market is global!
Recognition - create an environment that recompenses master
researchers who continue to grow, evolve and perform
Flexibility in resource management – reduce bureaucracy!
Meritocracy in career management
2. Create Critical Mass: Centers of Excellence
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Integration on a regional basis of fragmented research centers into
single site and under unified governance
Appropriate balance between basic/applied/technological research!
Gathering teams covering a broad spectrum of skills and
competencies - multidisciplinary expertise is needed to bring a project
to fruition!
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Achieving Excellence
3. Collaboration with industry and enterprises
 Industry can reinvigorate research by bring new problems and
resources
 Academic research should recognize the importance of applications
in the evaluation criteria
 Break up with the pseudo-dilemma: theoretic research or applied
research?
There is only good research or bad research i.e. non applicable
applied research or bling-bling theory
ACADEMIA
INDUSTRY
Small teams
Large teams
Unrelated disciplines
Multidisciplinarity
Optimization in the small
Global optimization
Risk taking, long term
Low risk solutions
Formalization
Ad-hoc, pressurized
Public, Multiplicative
Secretive
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Achieving Excellence – US vs. EU
US supremacy in R&D is largely due to Centers of Excellence which
combine critical mass and industrial relevance
Europe has a large research potential, well-trained engineers and strong
basic research teams.
 US attract the majority of best researchers in Centers of Excellence and
provide the majority of high quality research publications and scientific
breakthroughs.
European research landscape is too fragmented - labs lack critical mass
 There is no European equivalent to MIT, CMU, Stanford, Berkeley.
European academic institutions lack efficient mechanisms for transferring
innovative results to industry.
 US research institutions are propelling innovation through the
creation of start-ups and leadership in ambitious R&D project
EIT is just a set of "Knowledge and Innovation Communities", composed of
networks of existing businesses, institutes and education institutions
Changes and Trends in Knowledge Transfer
Company-specific problems
addressed on an exclusive basis
Academic
Research
R&D addressing generic
problems on a cost & risk
sharing approach
 IP is shared!
 Reusable Technology
Platforms and
Components!
Corporate R&D
executed by
a single player
having the exclusive
rights
on the results
GLOBAL R&D
Innovation Ecosystem
1945
1990
2000
2013
The Emergence of Innovation Ecosystems
Large
Companies
 Resources
 New Problems
 Know-how
INNOVATION
The Virtuous Innovation Cycle
Global
R&D
BASIC RESEARCH
Predictability & Constructivity
Supremacy in innovation is largely due to Centers of Excellence which have
successfully and advantageously implemented the Virtuous Cycle of
Innovation
 increased financing, and new problems for basic research
 Innovative results for industry
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For European Strategy for Innovation and Transfer
We need a pan-EU high-tech strategy
rather than
separate national strategies
spreading money too thinly across different geographies and sectors
1. A framework implemented through structural measures and reforms
intended to enhance assets, reshape the landscape of available forces,
and ease their synergy for the emergence of innovation ecosystems
 Align all EU policies to restore consistency and credibility of political
decision-making: Economic and Competition Policy, State Aid, R&D,
Justice
 Better funding for high-tech start-ups
 Improve efficiency and effectiveness of EU funding – tighter
management, stricter evaluation against well defined success
criteria!!
 Improve skilled labor supply through more technology-oriented
education and targeted immigration
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For European Strategy for Innovation and Transfer
2. Priorities and associated action lines targeting a set of sectors vital for
European sovereignty and economy such as
automotive, manufacturing industry, mobile platforms, smart grids, avionics
and space, food technology, medical technology and robotics
 Matching strengths and promising prosperous growth
 With concrete technical objectives intended to grow selected
industrial segments through concerted actions …. not just a list of
buzzwords!
3. Discernible roles to the main players and stakeholders and sets up
incentives and measures for their harmonious collaboration.
Create pan-EU Clusters of Excellence and Innovation gathering together
 High-performing companies (European champions) + Leading
research Institutes
 committed to use the results in case of success
 avoid “amateurs” seeking only subsidies
EADS with Airbus is a good example of pan-EU collaboration
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A Revolution not to Miss!
While the US has maintained a world-leading ICT sector, Europe is losing
ground in key high-tech markets. Some examples:
 Rise of Samsung and Apple - decline of Nokia (acquired by
Microsoft),
 Bankruptcy of BenQ Mobile ( formerly Siemens Mobile)
 Exit of Ericsson from the Sony-Ericsson joint venture
 Continued decline of Alcatel-Lucent
We are living a revolution due to the accelerating technological convergence
 Blurring boundaries between sectors e.g. the Internet of Things
 New interoperability standards e.g. converged services, converged
network infrastructure
 Breaking down of the walls of niche markets and opening of
global markets
In less than five years, IBM, Apple, Microsoft, Google have been
transformed into devices and services companies!!
Facts are stubborn things
Let’s face reality
Political courage and will
matter!
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Changes and Trends in Knowledge Transfer
The post-war R&D model based on a clear separation between
academic and corporate R&D has radically changed in the 90’s
 Long-term research has become a luxury only a few monopolies can
afford e.g., decline of the big corporate R&D laboratories: Bell Labs,
Xerox Park, IBM Yorktown
 modern technology firms are much less vertically integrated
 the rise of venture capital has smoothed the progress of
innovation into products
 big companies rely on Centers of Excellence for much of their
basic research and to tap into fresh ideas and young talent at
universities
 The boundary between research and development is blurring
 acceleration of the innovation cycle : how to turn results/ideas
into commercial innovations?
 competition is fierce and the time to market can be instantaneous
The Virtuous Innovation Cycle – My Story
Global
R&D
VERIMAG Laboratory
Critical Systems Design Tools
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