HBP-EBRAINS Joint-Workshop

Technology Transfer, Commercialisation, and IPR: Practical, Ethical and Governance Challenges in the Transition to a Post-HBP Future

7^th Nov. 2022; 9:00-12:00 UK time (10:00-13:00 CET).

About this event:

EBRAINS is a new European digital research infrastructure, created by the EU-funded Human Brain Project (HBP). With the end of the HBP’s ten-year (2013-2023) funding period coming into sight, EBRAINS will play a key role in the distribution of a vast range of data, tools and technologies that come out of the HBP and its partner projects, to users from academia and industry worldwide.

The workshop examines issues related to the transfer and commercialization of software, code and algorithms developed in the Human Brain Project, that can be used for the development of new, brain-inspired artificial intelligence (AI) and neurorobotics applications.

More specifically, the event aims to:

· Examine the practical, ethical and governance challenges that arise for large-scale digital research infrastructures such as EBRAINS, and the wider research community from the transfer of research outputs to third party users from universities, companies and other institutions in Europe and internationally.

· Explore key challenges and requirements to support researchers with adequate IPR and licensing procedures.

· Identify areas for capacity building to enable EBRAINS and other digital research infrastructures, to develop adequate technology transfer and IPR protocols and policies

As part of these aims, the workshop will look at the transfer of knowledge and technologies to organizations outside of Europe, including in non-democratic societies, countries involved in military conflicts, low income and developing countries, as well as countries with poorly developed, or ineffectively implemented regulatory infrastructures and rules. The event will involve the inter-disciplinary discussion of case studies and the collective exploration of hypothetical scenarios. It will bring together experts from academia and industry.

Speakers

Prof. Michele Migliore, Institute of Biophysics, National Research Council, Palermo, Italy

Prof. Michael Schmuker, Centre of Data Innovation Research, University of Hertfordshire, UK

Mr. Steven Vermeulen, EBRAINS, Brussels, Belgium

Panellists

Prof. Katherine Rockett, University of Essex,

Prof. Mario Trapp, Fraunhofer Institute for Cognitive Systems

Dr. Sarah Wellard, InnovateUK

Mr. Andrea Andrenelli, OECD

Mr. Malcolm Bain, Across Legal

Dr. Nicholas Martin, Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovations Research

Co-organised by: Achim Rosemann, De Montfort University; Steven Vermeulen, EBRAINS; Rainer Goebel, University of Maastricht; Sacha van Albada, Research Centre Juelich; Bernd Stahl, University of Nottingham.