ETH transfer Named Tech Transfer Unit of the Year by Global University Venturing Magazine
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ETH transfer won the Global University Venturing Award 2019 for Tech Transfer Unit of the Year. The trophy was handed over last July 3rd in London. The winning team, led by Silvio Bonaccio - head of ETH transfer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, has been on an upward trajectory since 2001. With a 2018-record-breaking year for ETH transfer – the unit had formed 25 spinouts during each of the three preceding years, ETH Zurich's Tech Transfer Office is now ranked number one in the world. We met Silvio to enlighten us about this success.
What do you think were the decisive element(s) that led to this award?Global University Venturing (GUV) awards the prize to tech transfer organizations of academic institutions that successfully help to transfer technologies to industry and society, particularly through spin-offs. During the last 20 years, ETH Zurich has put a lot of effort and resources into building platforms and supporting its students and researchers to start their own companies based on technologies developed at our institution. This has stimulated many founders and boosted both the number of ETH Spin-offs (27 last year), as well as the quality. Obviously, this has also caught the attention of national and international investors and has led to the many success stories that make the news year after year. ETH Zurich is of course very proud of its spin-offs and very happy about the recognition of its efforts by GUV.
You've led ETH transfer for 18 years, how as the unit's role developed since 2001? How have attitudes towards entrepreneurship changed among ETH students and staff during this time?
Initially, we were a kind of a start-up too. In 2004, we submitted a business plan to our board with the request to expand and professionalize the tech transfer activities at our institution. The plan was accepted, the funds granted and ETH transfer was established as a staff unit under the vice presidency for research and corporate relations. Since then we have grown into a well-established, sizable unit entrusted with an extended portfolio of tasks, including the stimulation and support of spin-off foundations.
However, much more important is the fact that the mindset at ETH Zurich has changed quite a bit during these years. The students and the researchers are much more self-confident, are better informed, educated and connected with respect to entrepreneurship, are more demanding and more courageous. The awareness has grown that the things done in the lab are of potential socio-economic value, and there is a general appreciation that becoming an entrepreneur is in fact a valid career path and a great opportunity to make a contribution to our country and the world. And last, but certainly not least, the students have also organized themselves in powerful groups such as the ETH juniors or the ETH Entrepreneur Club, building up a fantastic community.
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Tim Lafferty, Chief Operating Officer of Mawsonia Ltd congratulates Dr. Silvio Bonaccio, head of ETH transfer at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich.
What are the next challenges for ETH transfer and potential future ETH spin-offs?
There are still lots of opportunities and we have tons of ideas: for instance regarding education, national and international community building and new translation platforms. We are also looking into bringing everything connected to entrepreneurship physically under one roof in the (hopefully near) future. There are also a couple of ideas to improve the access to venture capital covering all stages and across borders.
How can Venture Kick, Venturelab's Venture Leaders programs or Innosuisse Start-up Training help?
These are all fantastic and super-important programs for the Swiss start-up community in general, and for ETH spin-offs in particular. I even dare to say that Switzerland’s start-up environment would not be where it is today without the pioneering work and great effort of the organizations behind these programs. Therefore, my biggest wish would simply be that these initiatives together with the many other public and private organizations keep up their drive and excellent work.
