Researchers & Inventors
Our researchers are the key asset to drive innovation at iMM. Our team helps you to understand the commercial potential of your ideas and results, make connections with industry, and expand the impact of your research by promoting the transition of your discoveries and inventions from the lab into real-life benefits.
Report Your Ideas & Inventions
Our team proactively meet researchers on a regular basis and attend relevant internal seminars and talks in order to be updated with the work and activities ongoing at iMM. In addition, discoveries, inventions, research tools and biological materials arising from individual or collaborative research must be formally and promptly disclosed by submitting a confidential Disclosure Form to the Technology Transfer Office.
Download the Disclosure Form here.
Importantly, publication or presentation of valuable results and inventions that have not been duly secured can severely affect their patentability and potential for commercialisation. Please talk to our team as soon as you plan to make a public disclosure of work that could potentially have a useful application. Please do not hesitate to contact the TTO in case of doubt. Our team will be happy to help you. Otherwise, we look forward to receiving your disclosure.
More info:
Learn more about Invention Disclosures through our IDF Guide.
Protect Your Invention
We will work with you and top IP firms to secure the best protection for your inventions without hampering your research activities. Patent protection is especially important in biomedical innovation where the path to market is long and expensive. The innovator has a tough path to market and, without patent protection securing the rights when the innovation finally starts to pay off, there may not be adequate incentive to bring the innovation to market at all.
Patents protect inventions that are novel, inventive, and involve an industrial application. While the latter is usually out of question, and inventiveness may be a matter of discussion, novelty means that no public disclosure in whatever means and form has been made prior to filing a patent.
More Info:
Portuguese Institute of Industrial Property (INPI)
European Patent Office (EPO)
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)
Develop Your Invention
Additional funds and partnerships are very often required to bring an invention closer to market. Many inventions remain unexploited due to the absence of funding to prove the potential and feasibility of an invention in a relevant context for a real application. In medical innovation the establishment of solid proof-of-concept evidence is key to attract industry or investors. We will work with you to define the best development strategy to bring your invention to an investment readiness stage. We use both public and private funding sources to support the development of inventions.
If you are interested about financial sources to develop your ideas or inventions you can contact us or our Pre-Award office. If you identify an opportunity that is suitable for you and your project, the TTO will do its best to help you build a strong proposal.
Commercialise Your Invention
There are many ways in which the knowledge and inventions generated at iMM can be transferred for the benefit of society, and produce revenues in return that feed further research and compensate your initiative, diligence and support to the technology transfer process. We will promote your inventions through our well established network of investors and industry partners, and any other possible means to make the best out of your results.
The way that revenues from commercialisation are shared with researchers is detailed in iMM’s Intellectual Property Policy, which you can find through the “iMM Policies and Guidelines” section.
iMM Policies & Guidelines
We have established a set of documents that clarify the background, set the rules, and facilitate technology transfer at iMM. Learn more about the policies and guidelines that related with intellectual property and technology transfer in this section:
- IP Policy
- Inventor’s Guide to Technology Transfer
- Conflict of Interest Policy
- Start-up Guide
- Guidelines for Consulting Activity
Agreements with External Organizations
We will work with you to draft and negotiate the necessary arrangements that protect iMM and your rights on results arising from collaborations and exchanges of proprietary materials and information.
Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA)
These contracts govern the exchange of confidential information between two or more organisations. Usually exchanges are reciprocal, but it can also be that one party discloses confidential information unilaterally to the other party for a given purpose.
Please use any of the two standard forms below to formalise the disclosure of confidential information of your group to an external organisation.
If you get a request for modification of the standard form, or for any other potential transfer of confidential information, you should contact the TTO before proceeding to any exchange of information. Likewise, the Legal Office and the TTO need to review the terms of any incoming NDA before any exchange of confidential information.
Material Transfer Agreement (MTA)
MTAs govern the transfer of tangible research materials (e.g. plasmids, antibodies, cells and mouse strains, chemical compounds, etc.) between two organisations.
Please use our standard outgoing MTA form below to transfer proprietary materials to an external organisation.
Be aware that if you get a request for modification of the standard form, or if you need to transfer materials to a third party for purposes other than research (including the transfer to a for-profit organisation), you should contact TTO before proceeding to any exchange of materials. Likewise, the Legal Office and the TTO need to review the terms of any incoming MTA before any receiving proprietary materials from third parties.
Research & Development Agreement (RDA)
RDAs govern the collaboration between two or more organisations, by facilitating the exchange of materials and information between the collaborating groups, and by setting the rules regarding ownership, contributions, publication, protection and exploitation of relevant research results arising from the collaboration.
Please contact us to formalise any collaboration between your group and any other group in industry or academia. Likewise, please refer any incoming RDA or similar to us.