The Helmholtz centres conduct use-inspired basic research within the framework of programme-oriented funding. Their goal is to implement research findings for the benefit of society and to commercialise them through innovations in the marketplace. For both the application of newly generated knowledge within society and the commercialisation of technology through products and services, research organisations require appropriate processes and tools to ensure that the transfer of findings to both society and the economy takes place on a professional basis. The Helmholtz centres offer different types of infrastructure to support this transfer – e.g., service units and model projects that, among other things, offer policy advice on the implementation of the transition to alternative energy, analyse earthquakes across the world and provide important climate data. Furthermore, in the technology transfer offices at the Helmholtz centres, a staff of more than 100 is helping to transform application-based research ideas into commercially viable products and services.

The following figures demonstrate the association’s
success in recent years:

• Each year around 3,000 collaborations are implemented with industry, including collaborative projects with small and medium-sized enterprises, long-term strategic partnerships with industrial concerns, traditional contract research, and arrangements under which innovative companies are permitted to use the association's unique large-scale research infrastructure. These partnerships with the business community generate revenue of about 160 million euros a year.
• The Helmholtz centres apply for around 400 patents and other intellectual property rights each year. They are actively marketing a broad portfolio of patents and have entered into around 1,500 licence and option agreements, which in 2011 generated revenue of around 16 million euros.
• The Helmholtz Association is continuing to support and take stakes in research spin-offs. In 2011, for example, around 14 high-tech companies were spun off from Helmholtz centres. A comparison with the Fraunhofer Society, which has launched an average of 13 spin-offs per year since 2005, underscores the enormous application potential of Helmholtz research.

Activities at the technology transfer offices are provided
with intensive support at the association level:

• Using the “Helmholtz Enterprise” funding instrument, the association has fund over 70 research spin-offs since 2005.
• Since 2011, the new Helmholtz Validation Fund has been used to support projects that require additional developmental steps in order to commercialise research findings through spin-offs, licence agreements and business partnerships. This instrument is designed in such a way that revenue from successfully implemented projects flows back into the fund and is invested in new validation projects.
• Both these programmes are financed by the Initiative and Networking Fund, as is the model project “Shared Services”. The goal of the Shared Services project is to ensure that the special expertise acquired in the large technology transfer departments of the Forschungszentrum Jülich and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is made accessible to the technology transfer offices at all the Helmholtz centres. This includes the special expertise in invention evaluation and IP strategy at the Forschungszentrum Jülich and in research spin-off support and equity management at the KIT.
• The Shared Services project is adding a new dimension to the longstanding collaboration in the working group “Technology Transfer and Intellectual Property Rights”. It is also complementing the successful cooperation in the life sciences via Ascenion GmbH, the Helmholtz centres’ joint commercialisation partner. In the field of the life sciences, the Helmholtz Association continues to be a partner of the Life Science Incubator.
• Moreover, the Helmholtz head office regularly organizes workshops in collaboration with companies such as BASF, Eon, Zeiss, Siemens and Roche. Its “Innovation Days” serve as a central commercialisation platform and are intended to permanently improve contact with the business community and to bring Helmholtz technologies to market. The Helmholtz centres are also expanding marketing and business development activities. They are holding events, participating in clusters and creating institutionalized networks such as the KIT Business Club at the regional level. Trade shows and other marketing channels are being used to profitably translate research findings into commercially viable products and services.

DKFZ – mtm laboratories and Gardasil
mtm laboratories AG, a research spin-off founded by the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in 1999, was sold to Roche in 2011, bringing stakeholders hundreds of millions of euros in revenues. mtm was one of the first spin-offs in which the DKFZ took a direct stake. In the event of a sale of the company or an IPO, the DKFZ was ensured a share in the proceeds through a combined licence and participation agreement and through productrelated licence revenues. The company has developed a test for the early detection of cervical cancer based on a cancer protein. After the test successfully passed clinical trials, mtm became an attractive acquisition candidate for a major partner in the diagnostics and pharmaceutical industry. The DKFZ has already earned several million euros by licensing the Gardasil vaccine against cervical cancer, the basis of which was developed at the DKFZ by Nobel laureate Professor Harald zur Hausen.

DLR – Licence Agreement and Award
for Early Warning System for Forest Fires
Researchers at the DLR’s Institute of Planetary Research
have developed an early warning system for forest fires that uses cameras originally intended for space exploration. The product was brought to market by IQ wireless GmbH in 2000 and has since earned the DLR substantial income under a licence agreement. The early warning system for forest fires is currently being used internationally in countries such as Spain and Australia. All told, around five million hectares of forest worldwide are being monitored by the more than 280 installed systems. In 2011, the system was honoured by the US Space Foundation as an outstanding example of how technologies from space research can spawn market innovations that benefit society.

DESY – MTCA.4 for Industries
The large-scale research infrastructure and facilities that are a distinguishing feature of the Helmholtz Association are being used to generate scientifically and commercially applicable research findings. For example, as part of a current project supported by the Helmholtz Validation Fund, scientists at the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY are developing new electronic standards for German and European accelerator systems and commercial use.

The examples illustrate the association’s successful strategy:

• The Helmholtz Association is providing research services for socially relevant topics with a clear link to applications. Professional service units have been set up to systematically transfer research results to applications and commercialisation activities.
• Key data show that the efforts have been successful.
• The association will continue its substantial and systematic efforts to strengthen activities in fields such as validation, business development and marketing.

These results show that the Helmholtz Association is transforming its special product knowledge into applications for the benefit of society. Its goal is to generate revenues through professional technology transfer and successful commercialisation efforts.