The paper explores the possible consequences for academic research of increased patenting in European universities. It underlines that most of the policy literature refers to the advantages of university patenting without balancing them against the costs or the risks involved in the activities....

Based on a survey of the inventors of 9,017 European patented inventions, this paper provides new information about the characteristics of European inventors, the sources of their knowledge, the importance of formal and informal collaborations, the motivations to invent, and the actual use and...