Impact Licensing Initiative

Technologies and data are still underused or sub-optimally allocated to solve the societal challenges of today in Europe and beyond. Moreover, the COVID pandemic and the recent war in Ukraine has revealed that (health, environment, energy,…) chocks in our systems create new technology needs and gaps in our access to necessary technologies in Europe itself. Impact licensing is a strategic instrument to optimize the valorization potential of technologies and data without losing sight of the economic dimension. It is a time-bounded voluntary permission granted by a technology holder to bring at preferred conditions an IP, a technology, a product or a service to a pre-defined market for a specified societal purpose which can be a societal or environmental unmet need or triggered by a crisis. Moreover, the impact licensing mechanism creates for technology holders important incentives for market exploration, reverse (frugal) innovation and access to real world data on technology performance and outcome /impact indicators.This project aims to develop an integrated toolkit (6 instruments and 2 training modules) and a network of intermediaries (=clearing houses) across the EU to introduce impact licensing as an IP instrument (a) for societal value creation with focus on the UN SDG goals, (b) as an instrument for a resilient Europe that guarantees access to technology and data during crisis , (c) as a driver for innovation and research through performance data access and insight for technology improvement and (d) as a smart tool for (emerging) market exploration.