Limitaciones del estudio

In order to implement their strategies and policies regarding the diversification of higher education funding, including in particular private sources of funding other than households, almost all European countries have developed an incentive of some sort for HEIs and/or private partners (see Figure 4.4).

Figure 4.4: Public incentives to seek private funding,

public and government-dependent private higher education, 2006/07

BE fr BE de BE nl BG CZ DK DE EE IE EL ES FR IT CY LV LT LU

Informs allocation of public funds or external evaluation

Tax relief for institutions

Tax relief for donors/sponsors/private partners Financial or other support for partnerships with the private sector

Regulatory framework authorising institutions

to own intellectual property rights

HU MT NL AT PL PT RO SI SK FI SE UK-ENG/

WLS/NIR UK-

SCT IS LI NO

Informs allocation of public funds or external evaluation

Tax relief for institutions

Tax relief for donors/sponsors/private partners Financial or other support for partnerships with the private sector

Regulatory framework authorising institutions to own intellectual property rights

Existing incentives Source: Eurydice.

Additional notes

Czech Republic: The information relates only to institutions at ISCED level 5A.

Greece: With a new law passed in March 2008, universities are allowed to own the intellectual property rights to the results of research conducted by their staff.

Italy: Tax relief for donors is not common practice.

Luxembourg: Information not verified at national level. Explanatory note

Private spending on HEIs considered here does not include tuition and other fees.

Private funding informs allocation of public funds or evaluation

An institution’s capacity to obtain private funding is considered in determining the amount of public funding in a very limited number of countries. In Denmark, Estonia, Ireland (universities), Lithuania and Poland, this concerns research grants (see Chapter 3). Moreover, in Denmark, the performance contracts of universities define specific objectives as regards the use of research results as well as cooperation with third parties, including the business sector. But the degree to which these objectives have been achieved does not constitute a formal evaluation criterion and they do not influence the allocation of public funds. In the Flemish Community of Belgium, the amount of private funding collected through contract research is a criterion for the allocation of public funding for knowledge transfer.

In Portugal and Finland, whether HEIs receive private funding may influence the amount of the grant allocated for teaching and operational expenditure.

In Portugal, the importance of ties with the community, in particular through the provision of services and partnerships, is one of the evaluation criteria for higher education. These results have a bearing on determining the amount of the basic operational budget of HEIs. In Finland, performance contracts established with universities include objectives in relation to the volume of private fundraising, which is taken into account in determining the next budget.

The evaluation of HEIs in Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia and Slovenia covers their capacity to obtain private funding.

Tax relief for institutions

Tax relief for HEIs relating to donations or other types of private funding exists in seven countries.

In the Flemish Community of Belgium, tax relief for HEIs relates to the cost of research staff. In the Czech Republic (ISCED level 5A) and Poland, possibilities for tax relief depend on the use of funds, which must be directed towards teaching and research (Czech Republic) or invested in specific funds such as social or development funds. In Latvia, HEIs are exempt from certain taxes due to the fact that they have the same legal status as non-profit organisations. In Hungary, in certain cases, HEIs have the possibility to carry out commercial activities without having to pay taxes. In the Netherlands, the private funding of HEIs is exempt from tax in specific cases. Since January 2006, donations received by HEIs are exempt from tax. In the United Kingdom, all HEIs have charitable status which confers tax benefits. In England, a government report published in 2004 suggested that HEIs could raise their levels of excellence and gain greater independence from the state by boosting their income through voluntary giving. The government subsequently created a funding programme to help the higher education sector to build capacity for fund raising, to run from 2005 to 2008.

Tax relief for donors/sponsors/private partners

In the French Community of Belgium, the Czech Republic (ISCED level 5A), Spain, France, Latvia, Luxembourg, Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and United Kingdom, donations made to HEIs may be the object of tax relief for donors. In Latvia, Lithuania and Romania, this applies to sponsoring.

In the Flemish Community of Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Latvia, Portugal and Norway, companies which conduct research in partnership with HEIs benefit from tax relief.

In Denmark, private companies may obtain a 50 % tax relief for expenditure related to research and development projects co-financed by public research institutes, including universities. In Italy, according to a bill which entered into force in January 2007, companies and entrepreneurs may benefit from tax relief for research activities conducted in partnership with universities, of up to 15 % of the amount invested. In Portugal, companies may deduct a significant percentage of their research and development expenditure from their taxes, including expenditure in the framework of partnerships with universities. In Norway, the government gives tax credits to small and medium-sized firms which carry out research and development projects in collaboration with HEIs and public research institutes.

Financial or other support for partnerships with the private sector

Approximately half of the countries have implemented – often recently – or will implement various incentives related to partnerships between HEIs and the private sector. In France, public research grants are more focused on projects carried out in partnership with the private sector, in particular via the activity of the National Research Agency, created in 2005. The priorities of the Finnish government also point in this direction. In Lithuania, the activity plans of the Ministry of Education and Science foresee the development of several programmes which would enable the financing of research programmes carried out in partnership with companies.

In the Flemish Community of Belgium and Finland (since 2006), the government may allocate grants to HEIs to implement interfaces in view of establishing partnerships with the private sector. In Finland, however, structures of this type do not yet exist. In France and Portugal, the regulatory framework surrounding the implementation of these interfaces was relaxed in 2007. In Italy, the government simplified the regulatory structure which governs the creation of spin-off companies by universities and it also provides financial support to universities to establish this type of structure.

Finland, Sweden and Norway offer a wide range of support and potential sources of funding for partnerships with the private sector. In Bulgaria, various pilot programmes to support partnerships between universities and small and medium-sized firms are part of the higher education action plan which is under way until 2010.

In Sweden, different state authorities, research councils and foundations provide incentives in the form of grants to promote cooperation between HEIs, companies and local authorities. In Finland, the establishment of national and regional innovation systems in the form of policies, organisational structures and funding programmes is creating a wider infrastructure for partnerships. In Norway, a wide variety of measures have been launched to promote R&D cooperation between industry and higher education. For example, these measures are aimed at influencing the ways in which academic staff work and disseminate research results so that companies will be able to make use of them more easily, or at encouraging researchers to focus more attention on the possibility of commercialising their research results. They may also focus on the improvement of the competences of companies in the area of research and development.

In Romania, a national agency which supports partnerships and knowledge transfer between HEIs, society and the private sector has been implemented. In the United Kingdom, since 1998, HEIs have been supported through a number of government funding schemes in developing their capacity to commercialise knowledge generated through research activities. Examples of such funding schemes include the Higher Education Innovation Fund (England) and the Knowledge Transfer Grant (Scotland).

Finally, Greece supports partnerships with the private sector by developing information structures for potential partners.

Regulatory framework for intellectual property rights

National policies regarding intellectual property rights represent an important aspect which may favour private funding of HEIs. A legislative framework, which authorises HEIs to own the intellectual property rights to the results of research conducted by their staff and allows them to generate resources from the possible commercialisation of results, exists in thirteen countries (see Figure 4.4). Generally speaking, these measures have existed since the end of the 1990s or are more recent. In Denmark and Finland, national regulations specify certain conditions with respect to the sharing of commercial profits with the researcher concerned.

In Estonia, employment contracts may determine who owns the intellectual property rights to the results of research conducted by an employee. Most HEIs have developed internal regulations on intellectual property rights and have included them in the employment contracts with their research staff. In Finland, the intellectual property rights policy has been regulated since 2007 by a law on invention. This law obliges researchers working for a university or a Polytechnic to inform the institution of their inventions. The internal regulations of the institution then determine who owns the intellectual property rights. In Sweden, researchers own the rights to research results but may transfer them to the institution. In Norway, a 2003 law withdrew the privileges of academic staff with respect to research results and allowed HEIs to commercialise these results. However, researchers reserve the right to publish the results instead of patenting them. In Romania, in the case of research funded by public sources, HEIs and the ministry of education and research own the results, if the research contract does not contain a clause against this. When research is financed by private partners, the ownership of research results is governed by a contract between the parties, which is negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Two countries have taken measures aimed at supporting HEIs to that effect.

In the Flemish Community of Belgium, partnerships between HEIs and business are governed by decree so as to protect the interests of HEIs. An agreement must be made on the dissemination of results and intellectual property rights, guaranteeing fairness in the sharing of profits. In the United Kingdom (England), the Lambert Review of Business-University Collaboration, published in 2003 by the then Department for Education and Skills and the then Department for Trade and Industry, drew attention to the difficulties inherent to the issue of the ownership of results of research co-financed by universities and private partners. An intellectual property working group, composed of representatives from universities and the business world, was set up in May 2004 to produce a set of model collaborative research agreements to facilitate negotiations between potential collaborators.