Dr Christophe Haunold;
Credit: C.U.R.I.E.
The University of Luxembourg announced today the appointment of Dr Christophe Haunold as new Head of Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer.
In this role, Dr Christophe Haunold will lead the university's newly created Central Office for Partnership, Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT). Dr Haunold joined the University of Luxembourg on 15 May 2020 from the Institut national polytechnique de Toulouse (Toulouse INP), where he led the Technology Transfer Office (TTO SAIC INPACT® ) since 2004.
According to the university, the new office symbolises the establishment's ambitions to further develop its partnership with industry, market players and society and to leverage its research activities to contribute to the social and economic development of Luxembourg and the Greater Region. Together with existing teams in the University’s faculties and interdisciplinary research centres (ICs), the KTT office will foster partnerships, patenting, licensing and spin-off activities for scientific research.
Prof. Jens Kreisel, Vice-rector for Research, commented: “The University delivers research and innovation with both local and global socio-economic impact, often in collaboration with private and public partners. Such collaborative projects, throughout all fields of activity of the University, offer a springboard for future developments”. In the year 2019, the University of Luxembourg already received close to €20 million of external funding within collaborative projects.
“With the new Central Office for Partnership, and Knowledge and Technology Transfer, the University complements its existing teams in the faculties and ICs by a central University office,” continued Jens Kreisel.
Dr Christophe Haunold added: “Successful Knowledge and Technology Transfer (KTT) requires a strong political will, adequate resources, and of course high-quality research activities. All of these can be found in Luxembourg and its University. I am looking forward to reinforce the existing dynamic and highly professional teams".
In 2018 and 2019, the university’s faculties and IC secured a total of 35 FNR JUMP grants, the Luxembourg National Research Fund’s (FNR) funding programme designed to help bridge the gap between research-driven discoveries and their marketing.
Dr Christophe Haunold has close to 30 years of experience in technology transfer. After gaining his PhD in chemical engineering from the Toulouse INP, he started working in technology transfer at this institution in 1992 and consistently excelled at innovation management, intellectual property and research collaborations. In addition to his position at the Toulouse INP, Dr Haunold acts as Vice-President of the ASTP, a leading association of knowledge transfer based in Leiden, and acted as Deputy Director General at TTT (Toulouse Tech Transfer), a company which supports technology transfer between public laboratories and market players.
