Most of CASRAI’s technology-transfer coverage looks at how a single country organizes commercialization — the UK’s university TTO model, France’s SATT network, Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. This guide covers the layer above those national systems: the EU-wide bodies and programmes trying to make technology transfer work as a single, coordinated market rather than 27 separate ones.
Three pieces make up that coordination layer, and they are connected but distinct: ASTP, the professional association for Europe’s knowledge-transfer practitioners; the European Commission’s Knowledge Valorisation Platform, the policy-coordination mechanism that sits alongside it; and Horizon Europe’s 2026-2027 Work Programme, which puts real funding behind the coordination push through a new set of “Proof of Market” and related valorisation call topics.
Why an EU-wide layer exists at all
University and public-research technology transfer in Europe is organized nationally, not centrally. Each member state runs its own IP framework, its own funding instruments for spin-outs and licensing, and its own professional norms for what a technology transfer office (TTO) does — France centralizes much of the work through regional SATT companies, Germany routes a large share of applied research through the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft‘s institute network, and the UK runs individual university TTOs with a newer shared-service pilot. That national diversity is not a flaw by itself, but it produces a real coordination cost for any invention, startup, or licensing deal that wants to move across borders inside the EU’s own research area.
Mario Draghi’s September 2024 report on European competitiveness, commissioned by the European Commission, made fragmentation of exactly this kind a central theme of its diagnosis of why the EU underperforms in turning research into scaled commercial outcomes. The report argues that financing, regulation, and markets that are “split along national lines” impose unnecessary complexity on the private sector and make it harder for a promising technology or startup to scale across the single market at the pace needed to compete globally. Applied to technology transfer specifically, that diagnosis lines up directly with the practical problem TTOs and licensing professionals already recognize: an invention licensed or spun out under one member state’s IP, funding, and company-formation rules does not automatically translate into an easy path across the other 26.
Note on sourcing: the Draghi report’s own text is a broad competitiveness diagnosis across the EU economy, not a technology-transfer policy paper; its fragmentation critique applies to R&D financing and markets generally, and the specific implication for university/public-research technology transfer described here is CASRAI’s own connection between that diagnosis and the sector, not a direct quotation from the report naming ASTP or the Knowledge Valorisation Platform by name.
ASTP: the professional association behind Europe’s knowledge-transfer practitioners
ASTP (Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals, formerly ASTP-Proton) is the main pan-European membership association for people who do this work — licensing officers, invention-disclosure managers, and TTO directors across universities, research institutes, and hospitals. Headquartered in Leiden, the Netherlands, ASTP describes its membership as spanning roughly 50 countries, with a wider affiliated network of national and regional technology-transfer associations across the continent.
ASTP’s practical role in the coordination picture is threefold:
- Professional standards and training. ASTP is one of the founding member associations of ATTP, the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals, the body that administers the RTTP (Registered Technology Transfer Professional) credential — the closest thing the field has to an internationally portable professional qualification, alongside credentials like the CLP.
- Policy engagement with the European Commission. ASTP participates directly in the Commission’s own knowledge-transfer initiatives and convenes its members around EU-level policy consultations, giving practitioners a collective voice in how EU research and innovation policy treats commercialization.
- Community and knowledge exchange. Through its annual conference and working groups, ASTP is the forum where TTO staff compare practice across member states — the informal counterpart to the formal coordination the Commission runs through the Knowledge Valorisation Platform below.
The Knowledge Valorisation Platform: the Commission’s coordination mechanism
The Knowledge Valorisation Platform is the European Commission’s own vehicle for coordinating “knowledge valorisation” — its umbrella term for turning research results into economic, societal, or policy value through commercialisation, licensing, spin-outs, and industry uptake. Per the Commission’s own description, the platform exists to “connect players in Europe working to turn research results into sustainable products and solutions that create economic value and benefit society,” functioning as a community and information hub: policy guidance, shared best practice, funding-opportunity signposting (including into Horizon Europe itself), and networking events for the people and institutions doing valorisation work across the EU.
For a TTO, the practical significance is that the platform is where the Commission surfaces its current thinking on valorisation policy before it shows up as funded call topics — including, most recently, thematic material specifically flagging what changed for knowledge valorisation in the pre-published 2026-2027 Work Programme. It is a coordination and signalling mechanism, not a funding instrument or a regulator in its own right; the funding is Horizon Europe’s, covered next.
Horizon Europe’s 2026-2027 Work Programme: the funding behind the push
The European Commission formally adopted the main Horizon Europe Work Programme for 2026-2027 on 11 December 2025 — roughly EUR 14 billion across the framework’s final two-year programming cycle, with knowledge valorisation named explicitly as a European Research Area priority alongside responsible AI use and SME/startup support. CASRAI covers the full adoption, including the climate-spending target and the shift toward lump-sum funding, in a separate news piece on the 2026-2027 Work Programme adoption; this section focuses specifically on the valorisation and tech-transfer-relevant thread within it.
The Commission’s own Knowledge Valorisation Platform materials put the valorisation-specific figure at over EUR 870 million allocated across valorisation-focused topics in the 2026-2027 programme, concentrated particularly in Cluster 4 (Digital, Industry and Space) and in WIDERA (Widening Participation and Strengthening the European Research Area). That budget shows up as several distinct kinds of call topics rather than one line item:
- “Proof of Market” topics — Innovation Actions that give small consortia (spin-offs, startups, and SMEs) financial support to explore the commercial exploitation potential, inside the EU, of results emerging from ongoing or completed Horizon-funded projects (including predecessor Horizon 2020 LEIT-funded work). These are the closest thing in the 2026-2027 programme to a dedicated commercialization-bridge instrument for TTOs and licensing offices sitting on a portfolio of promising but not-yet-licensed technologies. Reported call windows for Cluster 4 place the 2026 round opening in January 2026 with an April 2026 deadline, and a second 2027 round opening in September 2026.
- Industry–academia knowledge-exchange topics, including specific attention to the social sciences and humanities, an area valorisation funding has historically underserved relative to STEM commercialization.
- Topics aimed at helping research organisations unlock academic IP for industry, SME, and startup use — funding aimed at the institutional side of the transaction (the TTO and its IP portfolio) rather than only the receiving startup.
For a technology transfer office, this is arguably the most operationally relevant thread in the whole 2026-2027 programme: it sits directly alongside the exploitation obligations every Horizon Europe beneficiary already carries under the Model Grant Agreement’s Plan for the Dissemination and Exploitation of results (including Communication activities, PDEC), itself tied to the Article 39 open-access and data-management framework. Proof of Market and the related valorisation topics are, in effect, the funding the Commission is putting behind closing the exploitation gap those obligations already create.
How the pieces fit together
It helps to keep the three layers distinct, because they operate at different altitudes and a research office can engage with each differently:
- ASTP is the professional body — membership, training, RTTP accreditation pathway, and a collective voice into EU policy. An individual licensing officer or TTO director engages with ASTP directly, largely independent of any specific funding cycle.
- The Knowledge Valorisation Platform is the Commission’s policy-coordination and signalling layer — where valorisation strategy gets discussed and surfaced ahead of funding decisions. An institution engages with it for policy visibility and community, not for money.
- Horizon Europe’s 2026-2027 Work Programme is where the coordination agenda becomes an actual, applicable funding instrument — Proof of Market topics, WIDERA valorisation topics, and the broader EUR 870 million valorisation envelope a TTO can actually apply against.
None of this replaces the national layer covered elsewhere in CASRAI’s tech-transfer coverage. A Proof of Market grant still has to work through a beneficiary institution’s own national IP framework, national company-formation rules, and (where relevant) a national intermediary like a SATT or a Fraunhofer institute. What the EU-wide layer adds is a shared funding instrument, a shared professional standard-setting body, and a shared policy forum sitting on top of that national diversity — the coordination Draghi’s competitiveness diagnosis argued Europe needs more of, not a replacement for the national systems themselves.
What this means for research administrators and TTOs
Practically, this EU-wide layer is worth tracking for three reasons: it is a real, current funding route for institutions with technologies that have cleared initial disclosure and patentability review but have not yet found a licensee or founding team (see CASRAI’s coverage of applied-research commercialization models for how one national system handles that same gap); it is a professional-development and standards route through ASTP and RTTP for staff building a career in the field; and it is a policy-visibility channel through the Knowledge Valorisation Platform for institutions that want early sight of where EU valorisation policy is heading before it becomes a funded call. Institutions active in cross-border licensing should also track the EU’s patent-harmonization infrastructure separately — see CASRAI’s guide to the Unified Patent Court and Unitary Patent, the parallel legal-harmonization track running alongside the funding and policy coordination covered here.
As with any Horizon Europe call, the authoritative source for a specific Proof of Market or valorisation topic’s deadline, budget, and eligibility conditions is that topic’s own entry on the EU Funding & Tenders Portal, not this overview.
Frequently asked questions
What is ASTP?
ASTP (Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals) is the main pan-European membership association for knowledge and technology transfer professionals, headquartered in Leiden, the Netherlands. It provides training, participates in RTTP professional accreditation through ATTP, and engages directly with European Commission policy processes on behalf of its members.
What does the Knowledge Valorisation Platform actually do?
It is the European Commission’s community and policy-coordination hub for knowledge valorisation — connecting institutions and practitioners working on commercialisation, licensing, spin-outs, and industry uptake of publicly funded research, and surfacing Commission policy thinking and funding signposting (including Horizon Europe opportunities) ahead of and alongside specific calls. It is not itself a funding instrument.
What are “Proof of Market” topics under Horizon Europe?
Innovation Action call topics in the 2026-2027 Work Programme (concentrated in Cluster 4, Digital Industry and Space) that give small consortia of spin-offs, startups, and SMEs financial support to assess the EU commercial exploitation potential of results from ongoing or completed Horizon-funded projects. Reported 2026 call timing opens in January with an April deadline; a second round is reported to open in September 2026 for a February 2027 deadline. Always confirm current dates on the topic’s own EU Funding & Tenders Portal entry before relying on them.
Did the Draghi report specifically recommend an EU-wide technology transfer or IP coordination body?
The Draghi report’s central competitiveness diagnosis identifies fragmentation of financing, regulation, and markets across EU member states as a structural barrier to scaling research into commercial outcomes, and calls for greater EU-level coordination and simplification generally. It is a broad economic-competitiveness report, not a technology-transfer policy document, and does not, in its own text, name ASTP or the Knowledge Valorisation Platform specifically; the connection between its fragmentation diagnosis and the sector-specific coordination work those bodies do is CASRAI’s own analytical framing, not a direct citation.
How does ASTP relate to national associations like the UK’s PraxisAuril, France’s association network, or the US’s AUTM?
ASTP and AUTM are peer national/regional associations, not a hierarchy — both are founding member associations of ATTP, the shared accrediting body for the RTTP credential, alongside 14 other national and regional technology-transfer associations worldwide. ASTP is Europe’s pan-European association; national associations within Europe operate alongside it rather than being absorbed into it.
