The study "The role of European public research in patenting and innovation. An in-depth analysis of the patenting activities of European public research organisations and research hospitals at the EPO" from the European Patent Office (EPO) Observatory on Patents and Technology extends the Observatory’s 2024 analysis of university patenting to encompass public research organisations (PROs) and research hospitals across all 39 EPO member states. By adopting the academic-patent methodology, tracking applicants as well as inventors, it captures the true innovation footprint of European PROs, universities and research hospitals.
Developed in close co-operation with Fraunhofer-Institut für System- und Innovationsforschung ISI and support from experts from 24 national patent offices, the study offers both quantitative metrics and contextual insights, reinforcing its relevance for stakeholders across Europe:
- Firstly, it provides a detailed assessment of PRO contributions to EPO patenting.
- Secondly, it benchmarks the patenting activity of PROs against universities and research hospitals in Europe by comparing patent volumes, temporal trends and the ratio of direct versus indirect filings, thereby illuminating differences in institutional strategies and collaboration models.
- Thirdly, it evaluates these institutions’ roles in European research integration and the broader innovation ecosystem by analysing co-applicant collaborations with industry, cross-border partnerships and links to startup creation and technology transfer.
The study shows that PROs generated almost 63.000 European patent applications between 2001 and 2020. Annual European patent applications linked to PROs increased from around 2.000 at the beginning of the period to more than 3.500 by 2020. The study identified 250 PROs, each of which had filed at least 20 academic patent applications with the EPO between 2001 and 2020, finding that over two-thirds of all PRO filings came from the top 16 organisations alone. Leading the ranking is France’s National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) with over 10.200 European patent applications over the two decades, followed by France’s Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) and Germany’s Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. The study shows the major role PROs play in some countries, whereas in others universities are the major actors in patenting linked to publicly-funded research (e.g. in Italy, Switzerland and the UK).
The study builds on the policy imperatives set out in the Letta and Draghi reports which called for deeper integration of Europe’s research systems, stronger cross-border collaboration, and tighter links between public research and industrial innovation. It also draws on the European Commission’s recent EU Startup and Scale-up Strategy, which emphasises the need to make Europe more attractive for technology-driven ventures by improving regulatory frameworks, access to finance and support for research commercialisation.
