Egenhard Link has joined as head of the newly established Technology Transfer Office. As of June 1, 2012, Link will manage the promotion and exploitation of Intellectual Property Rights derived from scientific discoveries made at the Institute. While dedicated to the principle of curiosity-driven research, patents, licenses to industry, and shares of start-up companies are expected to become in the long-term a vital source of income for IST Austria. Egenhard Link joins IST coming from Max Planck Innovation GmbH.

The President of IST Austria, Thomas Henzinger, welcomed Egenhard Link to Klosterneuburg: “With Egenhard Link as builder of the Technology Transfer Office, IST Austria proceeds to the next level of its development. It may take decades until profits arise, but we need to lay the groundwork now and start the Technology Transfer Office, like any other activity at the Institute, according to the highest international standards.”

Egenhard Link, born in Hamburg, Germany, performed his doctoral studies in the Boyer Center for Molecular Medicine of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Yale University in the laboratory of Reinhard Jahn, receiving his PhD in 1994. After two years as Postdoc in the Jahn lab, he moved to Göttingen, Germany, to do postdoctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in the Department of Molecular Neurobiology and to build up the BioTech Start-up company Synaptic Systems GmbH. In 2000, Egenhard Link joined Max Planck Innovation GmbH in Munich, the Technology Transfer Agency of the Max Planck Society and one of the most successful organizations of its kind in Europe. As Senior Patent and Licensing Manager, Egenhard Link negotiated many successful deals with industry and contributed significantly to the successful technology transfer of the Max Planck Society.

IST Austria wants its professors to do what top scientists do best – namely, to follow their creative instincts in their research. At the same time, the Institute will promote the exploitation of Intellectual Property generated on campus, where possible, either through licensing or by supporting spin-off companies. The requirements for starting successful technology and spin-off parks close to institutions for basic research will be discussed at

this year’s Science-Industry Talk, which will take place on June 5 in the Raiffeisen Lecture Hall on the IST Campus. A high-ranking international panel of experts will discuss international role models and best practices for technology transfer and spin-off parks.

Egenhard Link will also serve as Deputy Managing Director of IST Austria, thus supporting Managing Director Gerald Murauer.
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