SCUOLA SUPERIORE SANTANNA

Elisa Grassi
Ufficio Valorizzazione Ricerche (UVR)

1. SSSA and UVR

2. Networking
3. Success stories

SSSSA in Tuscany

Pisa: a melting pot of students, professors and

scientist
Established in1343
About 1.500 Faculty staff
47.865 students

Established in 1810
About 86 Faculty Staff
About 450 students

National Research Council

15 Research Institutes

Established in 1987
113 Faculty staff
880 students and Phd

National Institute
of Nuclear Physics

Scuola Superiore SantAnna

Biorobotics

Communication,
Information
and Perception
Technologies

Economics

Life Sciences

Management

Law, Politics and

Development

Knowledge transfer office @SSSA

Boards of Director

Knowledge transfer
committee

Academic Senate

Advisory board of the

Rector/President
General Manager
Luca Bardi
Vice rector for
Knowledge
Transfer

Area Finance
Planning and Control
Barbara Morelli

Institute of
Biorobotics

Institute Institute of
DIRPOLIS Economics

Institute Institute of Institute of

TECIP Management Life Science

U.O. Valorizzazione
Ricerca
Andrea
Piccaluga

KT contact for each institute

Monia Gentile
Alessandra Patrono
Chiara Maiorino
Elisa Grassi
Rosita Minardi

Knowledge transfer office @SSSA

The Knowledge Transfer Office at SSSA works together with researchers with the specific
aims of exploitation of research results. Its general objectives are to bring research results to
industrial applications and to foster activities within the so-called third mission of
universities.

IP

Spin-off companies

scouting of new
scouting of new business ideas
ideas/technologies;
promote creation through
IP rights protection and
internal awareness,
management;
streamlined procedures,
patent search
support services;
licensing of SSSA IP;
offering of several services and
marketing of new technologies,
a network of strategic
economic and financial analysis
relationships (e.g. marketing,
and strategic planning;
financial partners);

Third Mission
assistance in reviewing IP
issues in research contracts
with companies;
support for institutional and
external relations, both
national and international;
encouragement and support of
joint labs;
training in entrepreneurship
and patenting fields

Collaborations with companies@SSSA

Collaborative research Contracts:
EU projects, joint labs, PhD Scholarhips, etc. (long terms, strategic goals)

Exploitation Contracts:
patents licensing and/or selling for lump-sum, royalties or development
contracts

Training activities collaborations:

Funding of Master Programmes on jointly defined subjects (e.g. first Master
course in Innovation Management in Italy)

Placement activities

Research and training activities contracts:

short term and specific technical training needs

Licensing @SSSA
Direct Licensing: along with other researchers,
through business partners (spin-offs, project partners,
local businesses)
Licensing through: SSSA has established an
agreement with a company (MITO S.r.l.) for
promoting the licensing of five patents
Internal procedures: for the assignment of patents of
SSSA to third parties (approval by the Board of CVR,
revision of the agreement and monitoring of
revenues and contract and expiry dates)

Support to IP management
- UVR provides support to the Institutes and
cooperate with the Legal Department for the
drafting of the clauses relating to the aspects of IP,
particularly in contracts research with third parties
- usually companies and other agreements
(NDAs, MTAs)
- UVR has drawn up some templates of agreements
and evaluates the draft of the agreements trying
to find the most appropriate solution to protect
the interests of researchers

Joint Laboratories @SSSA

Ericsson (Pisa, 2001)
Waseda University (Tokyo, 2003)
Oto Melara (La Spezia, 2005)

STMicroelectronics (Catania, 2011)

Telecom Italia (Pisa, 2013)

UVR newsletter: InnoVaRe news

Innovare news is UVR newsletter,
Innovazione e Valorizzazione della
Ricerca

It is a fortnightly newsletter about:

Events of research and Innovation
Calls and business plan
competition opportunities
Highlights about Startup Italian
law and Policy
Suggestions on the themes
It is open to everyone; registration to
UVR web site

Networking

Match-making events
UVR presents last research results and/or activities from researchers and SpinOffs

UVR participates on behalf of researchers of Scuola SantAnna and Spin-Off

companies in technological and match-making events:

Borsa della Ricerca (2010 e 2015)

SMAU Toscana Tecnologica (2014-2015)
Match-Making CNR (2014)
Meet in Italy for Life Science (2014 pross. ediz. 2015)
Toscana Promozione

Networking and collaborations

Collaborations between SSSA and its national or international partners,
allow:
sharing of good practices
creation of a broader portfolio contacts
synergy for concerted action ( institutions, governments, etc.)
UVR of SSSA is part of regional (ILONOVA), national (NETVAL) and
international (PROTON) networks for TT
UVR has contacts with the local chambers of commerce, business
incubators, science parks, etc..
UVR has created a database for the relationships with companies (contract
research, licenses, etc.)

Local Network on Technology Transfer

Joint Technology Transfer Office
(SSSA-SNS-IMT) settled Oct 1, 2015
3 TT Units

1 Policy for IP management and strategy definition

1 Commettee to decide on the IP protection,
licensing and spin-off
Shared information and training for researchers
Joint participation to events, calls

Joint
TTO

National Network on Technology Transfer

NETVAL
www.netval.it
Italian TT Association of Universities and Public Research Organizations for the valorization
of results from public research. Founded in 2002 and Association since 2007

MISSION: to be the research interface for Ministries and local administrations, industrial
associations and industries, venture capitalists and financial bodies to promote the role of
public research in innovation processes
OBJECTIVES
protection and exploitation of research results from public research through education,
dissemination, patenting, licensing, public-private cooperation and start up promotion
improvement of links between universities and companies to enhance research results
based on industrial competitiveness (networking, managing research and know how,
contract tools, joint labs)
generation of new companies from public research

CIRA
CRA
CRO
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
ENEA
Fondazione IRRCS Ca' Granda
INFN
Universit dellAquila
Politecnico di Bari
Universit di Bari
Universit di Bergamo
Universit di Bologna
Libera Universit di Bolzano
Universit di Brescia
Universit di Cagliari
Universit della Calabria
Universit Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria
Universit di Camerino
Universit di Catania
Universit di Catanzaro
Universit di Chieti-Pescara
Universit di Ferrara
Universit di Firenze
Universit di Foggia
Universit di Genova
IMT Lucca
Universit LIUC
Politecnica delle Marche
Universit di Messina
Politecnico di Milano
Universit Bocconi

Netval members

54 universities, 5 PROs and 2 IRCCS

66,3% of the Italian univerisities
75,7% of the Italian students
80,4% of the university professors

Universit degli Studi di Milano

Universit di Milano Bicocca
Universit IULM
Universit di Modena e Reggio
Seconda Universit di Napoli
Universit di Padova
Universit di Palermo
Universit di Perugia
Universit per Stranieri di Perugia
Universit di Pavia
Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa
Scuola Superiore S. Anna
Universit di Pisa
Universit del Piemonte Orientale
Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
Universit di Roma Tor Vergata
Universit del Sannio
Universit del Salento
Universit di Salerno
Universit di Sassari
Universit di Siena
Politecnico di Torino
Universit di Torino
Universit di Trento
SISSA
Universit di Trieste
Universit di Udine
Universit di Urbino
Universit di Verona
Universit Ca' Foscari di Venezia

Netval activities
TT education
Training activities on IP, patenting, licensing, research and know
how contracts and spin-off creation
Networking among all the associates (staff exchange
programmes, working groups and workshop)

Promotion of tools and practices

Best practices sharing and tech transfer process analysis are two
of the main themes of Netvals seminars and the focus of the
yearly Netval Summer School

Monitoring and reports

Italian TT activity: spin-off, patenting, licensing

Institutional links

Success Stories
1

Land lab

PERCRO SEES
Scientific coordinator: Marco Fontana
Group: 5 Ph.D. Students, 1 PostDoc, 1 Technician
Research Topics:
Wave Energy Converters:
New class of PTO systems based on smart materials
Modelling design
Experimental (scaled) testing

High Altitude Wind Energy:

Modelling of high altitude wind energy converters
Analysis of off-shore systems

Wave Energy
Projects:
PolyWEC:

Future Emerging Technology FP7, EU Project.

New mechanisms and concepts for exploiting
electroactive Polymers for Wave Energy
Conversion.

Role: Coordinator
WETFEET:

H2020 Energy Project, Wave Energy Transition

to Future by Evolution of Engineering and
Technology
Role: Partners

WES:

Wave Energy Scotland funded project on direct

contact dielectric elastomer wave energy
converters.
Role: Coordinators

Collaborations:
WavEC Offshore Renewables (Pt) , IST Lisboa, University of
Edinburgh (UK), ENEA (IT), University of Reggio Calabria (IT), Selmar
(IT), Sendekia (Spain), Trellerborg (DK), INNOSEA (Fr), Teamwork
Technology (DK), Plymouth University (UK), Wave Energy Scotland
(UK).

Wave Energy Main Project

We are developing on a new class of wave energy converters that are based on rubberlike materials that are able to directly convert oscillating mechanical energy into
electricity.
These new materials, called Dielectric Elastomers presents extremely promising attributes
in terms of costs, energy density and enable new perspectives in producing generators
that are low-cost, reliable and highly efficient irrespective of the solicitation frequencies.

Materials
characterization and
Modelling

Test-bench

Wave-Tank testing

Airborne Wind Energy

Airborne Wind Energy is an emerging sector in wind energy. The challenging goal is to
harvest wind energy at high altitude (not reachable by traditional wind turbine). This is
achieved through autonomous flying tethered kites. This techniques is extremely
promising for the low-cost and the prospected high efficiency of the systems.

Collaborations:
Kitegen S.r.l., Sequoia Technology, Delft U.
Activities:
- Modelling of AWE converters
- Design of Offshore systems
- Aerodynamic cable design
Off-shore system modeling

Giant-kite developed for a 3MW systems, By KiteGEN

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

Environment

Land Lab
Agricolture

Land scape

PEOPLE

Institute of Life Science -Land Lab

1 Full Professor
2 Associate Professor
2 Assistant Research
4 Technicians
5 Junior Postdoctoral
researchers
4 Senior Postdoctoral
researchers
15 PhD students
7 Research grants
Administrative staff

Offices around 300 m2 in

Pisa
Experimental Field Trials
at the Agroenviromental
Research Centre of the
Pisa University
Experimental Field Trials
and Pilot Plants for
biomass conversion at
CRIBE
Interuniversitary
Research Centre on
Biomass for energy use
Analitical Lab in
Pontedera (Pi)

FOUNDING RESEARCH

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

PRIVATE
COMPAN
IES

EU

REGIO
NAL
NATION
AL

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

HOLISTIC
APPROACH

OUR MISSION
Design, development and evaluation of
SUSTAINABLE food and no food cropping
systems
characterized
by
low
environmental impact

AGRICULTURE & ENERGY

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

ENERGY
FROM
AGRICULTURE

IMPROVING ENERGY
EFFICIENCY IN
AGRICULTURE

Bioenergy sector

Food cropping
systems

Valorisation of
agricultural residues

Energy crops

Innovative crop
management for input
reduction

AGRICULTURE & ENERGY

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

ENERGY FROM AGRICULTURE

WHICH BIOMASSES ?
- AGRICULTURAL
RESIDUES
- PERENNIAL SPECIES
In marginal and contaminated
lands

MISCANTHUS

POPLAR

SWITCHGRASS

GIANT REED

GIANT REED

WHICH ASPECTS ?

- CROP MANAGEMENT
- CROP MODELING
- BIOMASS LOGISTICS
BIOENERGY vs ENVIRONMENT

WHICH APPROACH ?

AGRICULTURE & ENERGY

Institute of Life Science - Land Lab

IMPROVING ENERGY EFFICIENCY IN AGRICULTURE
CROPPING SYSTEMS AT DIFFERENT INPUT LEVEL (L3>L2>L1)

1- WHICH ASPECTS ?
- SOIL TILLAGE
- NITROGEN LEVEL
- WATER MANAGEMENT
- WEED CONTROL
- PEST CONTROL

GIANT REED

2- WHICH RESULTS ?

U.O. Valorizzazione Ricerca@SSSA

Monia Gentile

Andrea Piccaluga

Elisa Grassi

Alessandra Patrono

Barbara Morelli

Rosita Minardi

Chiara Maiorino

www.sssup.it/UVR

uvr@sssup.it

Tel. +39-50-883584