While Europe excels in producing world-class research, too much knowledge still struggles to reach the market. The Guild argues that clearer, more predictable and innovation-friendly State aid rules are essential to accelerating knowledge valorisation and enabling universities to contribute fully to Europe’s long-term competitiveness, prosperity and resilience.
The Guild welcomes the Commission’s efforts to simplify and streamline the GBER and supports the draft’s recognition of innovative enterprises as a distinct category. We welcome measures that would allow innovative companies facing early-stage financial challenges to continue receiving support for research and innovation activities.
We also urge policymakers to recognise university spin-offs as a unique category within the innovation ecosystem. Such companies play a critical role in commercialising research results but often face significant risks during their early development. Future guidelines should therefore help universities support spin-offs through methods such as intellectual property (IP) transfer or licensing. Spin-offs should also have access to research, testing and experimentation infrastructures.
The paper further highlights the challenges universities face when valuing research-based intellectual property. Existing valuation methods can be costly, time-consuming and poorly suited to breakthrough technologies, where market potential remains uncertain. We therefore endorse the draft GBER’s move away from prescriptive valuation methods but stress that greater flexibility must be accompanied by comprehensive practical guidance to ensure legal certainty.
To improve implementation, The Guild recommends the development of practical guidelines based on concrete examples, the creation of an EU-wide blueprint for IP licensing, and a European repository where research-performing organisations such as universities can share experiences, receive tailored advice and establish direct channels of communication with national competition authorities.
We look forward to joining the discussion and working together with the European Commission to strengthen ties between research and innovation.
The EU must simplify, and a revised General Block Exemption Regulation is a key part of this. The Commission must take this opportunity to support innovation coming from universities that act in the public interest, and that need different types of support compared to commercial actors. When it comes to state-aid rules, a level playing-field for innovation does not mean the same for all, but an acknowledgement that universities must be empowered to serve innovators according to their full potential.
Secretary-General Jan Palmowski