From 14 to 17 September, representatives of public administration, research institutions and industry will take part in an exchange visit to Switzerland aimed at learning from Swiss experience in the commercialisation of research results and cooperation between research and industry, while also sharing Latvia’s experience and challenges in these areas.
The ability to turn research-based knowledge and technologies into new products, services and practical solutions is essential for a country’s innovation development and competitiveness. Excellent research results alone, however, are not enough – close cooperation between research institutions, businesses and public authorities, as well as effective mechanisms for knowledge and technology transfer, are also needed. With the aim of learning from Switzerland’s experience in the commercialisation of research results and in fostering cooperation between research and industry, while at the same time sharing Latvia’s experience, solutions and challenges, a visit organised within the framework of the Swiss-Latvian Cooperation Programme “Partnership in Applied Research” will take place in Switzerland. The Latvian delegation will include representatives of the Ministry of Education and Science, the Ministry of Economics, the Ministry of Finance, the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia, Riga Technical University (RTU), the Institute of Solid State Physics, University of Latvia (ISSP UL), the Institute of Electronics and Computer Science (EDI), as well as industry representatives from LAU Infra Group and the Latvian Chemical and Pharmaceutical Industry Association.
“Researchers and industry representatives highly value the Latvian-Swiss Applied Research Programme because it strengthens cooperation between research institutions and businesses, promotes the development of innovative solutions to address challenges of importance to society and the economy, and supports the translation of scientific knowledge into practical solutions. The forthcoming visit provides an opportunity to further strengthen this cooperation, exchange experience, showcase achievements, and explore new opportunities for future initiatives that bring together researchers and industry representatives from both countries,” emphasises Lauma Sīka, Deputy Director of the Higher Education, Science and Innovation Department at the Ministry of Education and Science.
Switzerland is not a coincidental choice for this exchange of experience – the country’s achievements in research and innovation are highly recognised internationally, making the opportunity to gain first-hand insight into the experience and approaches that have contributed to these results particularly valuable.
“Switzerland is consistently ranked among the world’s leading countries in research and innovation, and international cooperation is an essential part of that success. The Swiss–Latvian Applied Research Cooperation Programme builds on our strong bilateral relations, creating new opportunities to exchange expertise and turn excellent research into practical solutions,” says Anja Zobrist Rentenaar, Ambassador of Switzerland to Latvia.
The programme of the visit has been designed to enable the Latvian delegation to gain an understanding of the entire Swiss research and innovation chain – from policymaking and research and innovation funding to cooperation with industry and bringing technologies to market. In Bern, meetings are planned with the Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), the Swiss Innovation Agency Innosuisse and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF).
During the following days of the visit, the delegation will visit the Swiss Center for Electronics and Microtechnology (CSEM), the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) and Park Innovaare, the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), as well as the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa). The visits will provide an opportunity to learn about mechanisms for technology transfer and intellectual property commercialisation, cooperation with industry, support for start-ups, and the experience of research institutions in turning scientific results into innovations.
For Latvia’s research institutions, this will be an opportunity not only to learn about Swiss experience, but also to compare it with their own practices and discuss the challenges they already face in developing cooperation with businesses and moving research results closer to practical application.
“We are going to Switzerland to explore how research results can be more effectively translated into practical solutions and technologies that benefit industry and society. We want to share our experience and jointly seek solutions for building closer cooperation between universities, research institutions and businesses, and for involving industry at an early stage of research,” says Maira Indrikova, Vice-Rector for Research at RTU.
Andris Anspoks, Director of ISSP UL, emphasises that a key challenge is to ensure that the further development of research results does not depend solely on individual successful cases: “ISSP UL has accumulated experience in developing cooperation platforms, technology licensing and advancing research results together with industry partners. However, our challenge is to ensure that the path from the laboratory to the market becomes systematic rather than relying solely on individual success stories. In Switzerland, we are particularly interested in understanding how research institutions identify the most promising technologies, engage industry at an early stage and ensure their further development after the end of a research project. At the same time, we see the visit as an opportunity to build closer contacts with partners in the Swiss research and innovation ecosystem, which could develop into joint projects and long-term cooperation in the future.”
For EDI, this visit continues its long-standing cooperation with Swiss research partners. EDI Director Modris Greitāns sees one of the key benefits of the visit as an opportunity to consider Swiss experience from the perspective of Latvia’s needs and competitiveness: “EDI has been collaborating with Swiss partners on joint research projects for many years, and I see this visit as a valuable opportunity to better understand how the commercialization of research results generated by projects works in practice in Switzerland. I hope to gain insights that can be adapted to the Latvian context, in particular how cooperation between federal and regional governments, industry and research institutions can translate research results into technologies that strengthen the competitiveness of local industry and the country as a whole.”
At the conclusion of the visit, Latvian and Swiss representatives will work with specific examples from Latvia that have presented challenges, jointly analysing their causes, possible solutions and Swiss experience in similar situations.
The aim of the visit is not only to share Latvia’s experience and learn about the Swiss model, but also to build professional contacts between Latvian and Swiss representatives of research, public administration and industry, and to encourage discussion on how to create a more effective pathway in Latvia for research-based knowledge and technologies from the laboratory to practical application and the market.
Additional information about the Applied Research Programme under the Swiss-Latvian Cooperation Programme is available here: https://swiss-contribution.lv/lietiska-petnieciba/zinas/