Management Structure & Membership Categories

Membership in General

Organisations involved in the transfer of knowledge from European PROs are eligible to become Members of the Association. There are two classes of Members.

Full Membership

Full membership is open exclusively to organisations (not physical persons) involved in the transfer of knowledge from PROs (hereinafter referred to as Transfer Offices or TOs):

• That are entrusted by one or several PROs with a substantial activity in the transfer of knowledge from those PROs, including intellectual property management, licensing, partnering with industry and the creation of new companies. Such organisations can range from dedicated departments from PROs to separate limited liability companies;
• Whose main objective is to promote innovation from public research for the general benefit of the public;
• Which can provide active management support to their associated PRO(s) in innovation related matters;

As a further condition for eligibility, Full Members shall adhere to the Code of Conduct defined by the Board of Directors.

Full Members may register several employees and collaborators as delegates. Each Member must have one official delegate acting as main contact person and entitled to represent the Member and to vote on its behalf at the General Assembly. The delegates have access to the services provided by the Association, with the privileges reserved to Full Members.

Associate Membership

Associate membership is open to organisations that provide significant assistance to TOs in their tasks, but which do not fulfil the criteria for Full Membership. Organisations eligible to become Associate Members include, but are not limited to commercial companies having significant R&D operations, law firms, patent attorney firms, technology brokers, financial advisers, business development consulting firms, seed capital organisations, technology incubators, national or international associations of knowledge transfer. As a condition for eligibility, the Associate Members must demonstrate a sizeable activity in support of Full
Members.

The Associate Members may register several employees and/or collaborators as delegates. Each Associate Members must have at least one representative delegate acting as contact person. The delegates have access to the services reserved to Associate Members.