Academic Research Programme

High-quality research on patent-related topics is crucial to supporting informed policymaking and sound business decisions, as well as revealing the pivotal role that patents play in advancing innovation and economic growth. Our Academic Research Programme, first launched in 2017, is designed to encourage more research in the field and promote the dissemination of research results.

Call for submissions for 2026-2028

The sixth call under the Academic Research Programme focuses on practical, solution-oriented research projects that use the EPO’s powerful Technology Intelligence Platform and PATSTAT, in line with EPO’s Strategic Plan 2028. The new call is a unique opportunity for researchers to generate patent intelligence that matters to innovators, businesses, policymakers, investors and the next generation navigating an increasingly complex world.

Submission deadline: 27 February 2026, 23.59 hrs CET

Download the application form

Collaborative research that makes a difference

Academic research can make a real difference to the advancement of policy, innovation and economic growth in Europe and elsewhere. Industries making intensive use of intellectual property rights (IPRs) generated almost a third of all jobs in the European Union in the period 2017-2019. Sectors using IPRs such as patents, trade marks or designs directly employed more than 61 million people in the EU and generated an additional 20 million jobs at companies that supply goods and services to IPR-intensive industries.

The results of academic research support informed policymaking. Patent legislation must balance the incentive to create and protect inventions with the goal of ensuring public access to knowledge. Empirical and theoretical research helps to assess how this balance can be achieved effectively and fairly to the benefit of inventors, patent applicants and the public alike.

Further, by analysing how patents influence investment in R&D and the diffusion of technology, academic research can identify trends and conditions that foster sustainable innovation and economic development.

Interdisciplinary collaboration is key. Academic research fosters dialogue among different disciplines, leading to new perspectives, innovative approaches and practical solutions. Research questions in the patent world span law, economics, management, engineering, and data science, among others.

The EPO’s Academic Research Programme is designed for researchers who want to contribute to this exciting process. After eight years and five previous calls for proposals, the programme has funded more than twenty research projects on a variety of patent-related matters, ranging from the scaling of digital data and training solutions to technical standards and knowledge transfer.

Research streams

Under the current call, researchers can submit up to one research project proposal per stream until 27 February 2026:

Research stream A: Advanced methods for forecasting patent applications

Data-driven insights into the direction of innovation can help us understand and steer where technology is heading next. This stream invites research teams to develop methods for forecasting patent filings across patent jurisdictions, industries and technology fields.

Research stream B: Local ecosystems of academic inventors and universities

As technological change accelerates at an unprecedented pace, Europe’s competitiveness depends on knowing what’s being developed where, by whom and with what potential impact. This stream invites proposals for research on academic inventors and universities as important actors in innovation systems across Europe, their performance, and related challenges such as access to finance and barriers to commercialisation. To this end, the EPO invites academic teams to build on its earlier study on the role of European universities in patenting and innovation (2024).

Use TIP and PATSTAT, two powerful EPO tools

To carry out their research project, researchers will use two powerful tools provided by the EPO.

The Technology Intelligence Platform (TIP) is the EPO’s next-generation platform for processing, analysing and visualising patent data. The platform empowers researchers, businesses and anyone with an interest in data and innovation to run advanced patent data analysis using the EPO’s PATSTAT databases and numerous other high-quality data sets. TIP is free to use and also provides free access to PATSTAT.

PATSTAT contains a wealth of bibliographical and legal event patent data from more than 100 patent offices worldwide. PATSTAT has been compiled by the EPO over the last 20 years and is today a leading, world-class source for patent intelligence and statistics. PATSTAT users include leading International Organisations, patent information centres (PATLIBs) throughout Europe and national patent offices worldwide.

How we support you

The new call will see the EPO provide financial support for high-quality research on topics that are directly relevant to one of the two research streams. A total budget of EUR 300 000 for both research streams will be available for up to six research projects, each with a duration of up to 18 months and eligible for a grant of up to EUR 50 000.

During the research project, subject-matter experts from EPO units will be available to support and share their expertise with the research teams.

Submit your application

Proposals for research projects can be submitted by individual research institutes based in a member state of the European Patent Organisation or by groups of institutes. With regard to groups, the partner institutes can be based anywhere in the world, as long as the official project applicant (contracting partner) is based in a member state of the European Patent Organisation. There are no nationality requirements for either the principal researcher or the co-researchers. Joint research proposals by several academic partners are strongly welcomed.

Applications must be submitted in English using the dedicated application form, which includes guidelines.

Download the application form

Submission deadline: 27 February 2026, 23.59 hrs CET

Queries regarding the application procedure and completed applications should be sent to [email protected].

Please note that the EPO cannot give feedback or advice on the content of project proposals during the call procedure.

Selection process

A Scientific Committee chaired by the EPO’s Chief Economist will lead the selection process, ensuring scientific rigour and alignment with the EPO’s strategic priorities, as outlined in its Strategic Plan 2028 and the recently launched Biennial Work Plan 2026-2027 of the EPO's Observatory on Patents and Technology.

The selection of research proposals from those submitted will be based on peer reviews by external experts specialising in the relevant area and on criteria such as:

originality and innovativeness of the proposed research question
clarity and quality of the proposed research proposal and methodology
ability of the applicant to successfully complete the research
collaborative research aspects
multi-disciplinarity of the research approach
potential policy, business and social implications of the research project and its expected results
potential applicability of the expected results.

We anticipate that the selection process will be completed and the applicants informed of the outcome by the summer of 2026.

Timeline