NTNU Pro- Rector Johan E. Hustad (left) and CERN's Director for Research and Computing, Sergio Bertolucci, shake hands on the signing of a commercialization agreement in mid-October. Photo: Guillaume Jeanneret

NTNU and CERN sign commercialization agreement

  • Published 23.10.14

NTNU has signed an agreement with CERN to create a Business Incubation Centre (BIC) at NTNU to commercialize CERN technology.

NTNU Pro- Rector Johan E. Hustad and CERN’s Director for Research and Computing, Sergio Bertolucci, signed the agreement in mid-October.

Part of the background for the agreement has been the experience of students from NTNU’s School of Entrepreneurship, who have traveled to CERN to test the commercialization potential of different CERN-related technologies. Currently, two start-ups from the School of Entrepreneurship, Tind Technologies and GEM Radon Detectors, have grown out of CERN-related technologies.

Under the agreement, NTNU will reserve two office spaces in the Gløshaugen Innovation Centre for start-ups that are working with CERN-related technologies.

Individuals who create CERN-related start-ups are eligible for Discovery funding and other NTNU support in line with what is available to other entrepreneur start-ups.

CERN’s part of the arrangement is to agree license technologies to startups, and to provide technical support. NTNU and CERN will decide jointly which applicants will be granted places at the BIC.

The agreement gives NTNU access to CERN technology and expertise, while CERN gets helps commercializing technology it has developed.