Current research projects

The following six research projects were awarded funding in 2026.

Forecast: a multi-faceted ensemble framework for patent application forecasting

A new patent forecasting approach will be developed to help identify emerging technology trends by assigning greater importance to patents that are likely to be innovative and have a technological impact, rather than treating all inventions equally. The new approach combines several advanced forecasting models and uses economic indicators such as R&D spending, employment and venture capital to make predictions more accurate and relevant.

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Michail Salampasis	International Hellenic University (IHU), Thessaloniki (GR)	Advanced methods for forecasting patent applications (research stream A)

Forecasting quantum technologies trends via social media communication

Quantum technologies are an important but still emerging field, making future patent activity difficult to predict. A method will be developed and tested that combines PATSTAT data with social media information to assess whether - and if so, how - social media can help to forecast patent filings in this field. This method constitutes a novel, data-driven approach that uses social media posts as early indicators of emerging innovation trends in fast-moving fields. 

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Dolores Modic	Rudolfovo - Science and Technology Centre Novo mesto, Novo mesto (SI)	Advanced methods for forecasting patent applications (research stream A)

Tracking scientists’ careers to understand the commercialisation of knowledge

The commercialisation of scientific knowledge is central to economic growth. However, regions with strong scientific capabilities such as Europe often struggle to translate research excellence into innovation. While existing research emphasises the role of scientists’ and inventors’ mobility in transferring tacit knowledge across organisations, it has largely overlooked how mobility is jointly determined with career progression and the acquisition of authority, influence and access to relevant resources within firms. To investigate the role of mobility in the commercialisation of technologies, the project will integrate career data from large social networks with information on research publications and patent documents. 

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Stefano Horst Baruffaldi	Politecnico di Milano, Milan (IT)	Local ecosystems of academic inventors and universities (research stream B)

Public research institutions in EU collaborative R&D: consortium configuration and knowledge production

This project investigates how European public research institutions contribute to the scientific and technological output of collaborative research funded by the European Union, with a focus on collaborative projects within framework programme 7 (FP7). It examines the composition and structure of the research projects and their impact on the generation, novelty and disruptive potential of knowledge output. To this end, project-level indicators of output volume, citation impact, novelty and disruption are developed using data from the EU Open Data Portal, OpenAlex and PATSTAT.

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Alfredo Yegros	Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) – Leiden University, Leiden (NL)	Local ecosystems of academic inventors and universities (research stream B)

Ownership models, professors’ privilege and the performance of academic patenting in Europe

Building on the EPO’s study on the role of European universities in patenting and innovation (2024), this project is the first systematic assessment of how ownership of inventions in the academic sector shapes incentives, governance and commercialisation outcomes in Europe. Moving beyond patent counts, the project evaluates patent quality, startup formation and cross-border diffusion using comparative legal analyses, the econometric evaluation of EPO patent data and qualitative case studies. The project focuses on Sweden where inventors retain full ownership, unlike most other European countries which have abolished professor’s privilege and shifted ownership to universities.

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Frantzeska Papadopoulou Skarp	Law Faculty, Stockholm University, Stockhom (SE)	Local ecosystems of academic inventors and universities (research stream B)

Universities in Europe’s green-digital transition: ownership structures, AI integration and national specialisation in Europe

This project investigates the role of European universities in developing and protecting green energy generation and storage technologies. Based on patent analyses, it systematically compares general green energy patents with those that incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), in order to determine whether the incorporation of AI affects collaboration, ownership structures, patent quality and national specialisation dynamics. 

The project addresses two research questions: 

1. Are specific ownership structures or collaboration models associated with higher-quality patents and does the incorporation of AI alter these dynamics? 
2. How do national innovation systems influence the incorporation of AI into green technologies and which country-specific factors explain the different technological trajectories? 

The project provides policy-relevant insights into how institutions and national contexts influence Europe’s green-digital technological transformation.

Lead applicant	Leading institute	Research area
Maite Couto Ortega	Mondragon Unibertsitatea, Arrasate-Mondragon (ES)	Local ecosystems of academic inventors and universities (research stream B)