Innovation Act misses ‘unique’ university commercialisation role

The European Union’s proposed regulation aimed at closing Europe’s innovation gap overlooks some of the biggest barriers preventing university research from reaching the market, universities across the continent have warned.

The European University Association (EUA) said in a statement that while it welcomes the European Innovation Act, the new regulation fails to address the “unique role” that universities play in turning research into commercial products and the challenges that make it difficult for students and researchers to move between universities and companies.

“Europe needs a shared innovation culture that rewards the wide-ranging contributions of innovators through flexible, supportive career frameworks,” the group said. “For example, two-way mobility of students and staff between companies and universities is an important tool to boost Europe’s innovation capacity, yet administrative and regulatory barriers still remain which hamper this process. The act does not address these.”

The EUA, which represents more than 800 member universities, said such issues could be addressed by “better connecting” the regulation with the European Research Area (ERA) Act, as well as with proposed legislation to establish a borderless market for research and innovation across Europe, and initiatives in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), an intergovernmental framework to make academic degree standards compatible across the continent.

A proposal for the regulation, the EU’s first major legislation dedicated to innovation, was published on 9 September after an online consultation and call for evidence closed in October 2025. The act aims turn ideas emerging from research into products and services more effectively to boost Europe’s competitiveness.

The European Commission said the regulation would make it easier for the continent’s companies to collaborate across borders as they face different rules across EU countries. The act “promotes” a common framework to value intellectual property, creates a digital marketplace connecting buyers and sellers and offers “expert support” to companies to help their bring their ideas to the market – measures that the bloc said would generate about €35 million (£30 million) in administrative cost savings and unlock €10.2 billion per year in additional financing.

Additionally, the Commission said, the act will establish a common procedure for research and development procurement, which would give more “legal certainty” and help new technologies reach the market faster. Universities are just mentioned once in the act, in connection to the potential benefits of the proposed framework and digital marketplace.

The act will now head to the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union for negotiations and legislative review.

The EUA also said the proposed regulation was missing a “place-based approach to innovation” that would help to connect ideas, staff and students and universities with local start-ups and scale-ups. “Although universities are often the anchor institutions of such dynamic local interactions, the act does not recognise their role as a long-term ecosystem builder,” it said, adding that university innovation should be judged not just by patents and commercialisations but also by its wider social, environmental and policy impact.

“As the first major piece of EU legislation dedicated to innovation, the Innovation Act could have been a more substantial attempt to devise systemic measures in support of the transition from knowledge creation to commercialisation,” the EUA said, adding that it welcomed plans to make it easier for universities and researchers to commercialise their intellectual property and to use it to attract investors or find commercial partners.

But the group said universities needed more guidance on upgrading their internal IP regulations to help them “achieve the best outcomes” in negotiations with investors and academic inventors. “The EUA therefore calls for a clear articulation of the Innovation Act and the blueprint for IP licensing announced in the Startup and Scaleup Strategy,” it added.

seher.asaf@timeshighereducation.com