On July 4-7, Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra /IPC (Coimbra, Portugal) hosted a Workshop on "The EU spin-off best practices" within the project Erasmus+ project "UNISON University-enterprise cooperation via spin-off companies network". The workshop was designed to introduce project partners from Russia , China and Georgia to the EU perspectives on university spin-offs, promotion of technology transfer and R&D commercialization.
Nizhnevartovsk State University was presented by Oksana Kozlova, Professor at the Department of Commerce and Management, Nadezhda Nemchinova, Head of NVSU International Office and Oksana Yakovishak, Project Manager.
During a 3-day workshop, host institution representatives alongside guest speakers gave presentations on spin off models and initiatives of IPC to generate spin offs, including review of the nationwide context, theoretical background and a range of other supporting/contributing instruments, mechanisms and concepts, such as:
- PIN: National network to nurture entrepreneurship and the promotion of spin-offs;
- INOPOL-Entrepreneurship Academy of IPC;
- GLOBAL-SPIN: Transnational Entrepreneurship and Corporate Learning: Fostering 
Effective Internationalization Strategies in Academic Spin-Offs;
- Intellectual property and the GAPI: Valorisation of Knowledge and Innovation;
- European investment and the promotion of university spin-offs in the trans-European context.
Workshop participants visited top incubators and accelerators in Portugal:
1. Instituto Perdo Nunes/IPN (Coimbra) - a private non-profit organization that promotes innovation and transfer of technology by establishing connection between scientific and technological environment and the production sector. IPN Incubator won the 1st place in the world award for "Best Science-Based Incubator” in 2010.
2. BIOCANT, Biotechnology Innovation Center (Cantanhede) - the first Portuguese park entirely devoted to biotechnology. It promotes development of R&D in consortium with national and international companies for the creation of biotechnology new products and services and to encourage and endorse Portuguese bioentrepreneurship.
Coimbra workshop was the first in a series of "the EU spin-off best practices" workshops of the UNISON project aimed at upgrading knowledge and competences of the staff from the partner countries institutions. Next workshops will be held by Fachhochschule des Mittelstands (Bielefeld, Germany) and University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) in October and November 2017 correspondingly.
The project “University-enterprise cooperation via spin-off companies network”(UNISON), 573555-EPP-1-2016-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP, is co-financed by European Commission in the framework of Erasmus + programme. The European Commission support for the production of this publication does not constitute an endorsement of the contents which reflects the views only of the authors, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.
