Innovation Europe > News > Innovation EU Vol1-1 > Innovating Interdisciplinarily

The University of Ljubljana is responsible for half of the entire annual scientific output in the Republic of Slovenia. Words such as “traditional” and “research oriented” are seldom missed in an introductory presentation of the University of Ljubljana. Between the lines of its basic documents lies the strong awareness of the need for achieving cohesion of its research agenda and a reduction in the time between creating, obtaining, transferring and applying knowledge into practice. Its strategic plan 2006–2009 was aimed at unlocking the University’s full research potential, which lies in the ability to resolve complex challenge through the interdisciplinary cooperation of its 26 member schools and nearly 3,000 researchers.

Shifting focus from smaller projects to large-scale challenges required a new approach and the means of facilitating such endeavours. Improvements to the internal staffing policy were made, taking into account a combination of superlative achievements in scientific, artistic, teaching and development work, allowed for greater flexibility in the relationship between the individual’s range of teaching and research and development work. Another important change was the linking up of the developmental and research work of university members and securing a higher number of junior and postdoctoral researchers both from Slovenia and abroad. However this was not enough. A new platform for interdisciplinary research had to be created in the form of an interdisciplinary Innovation and Development Institute, a University Service for R&D and Intellectual Property and a University Office for EU Projects.

The Innovation and Development Institute of the University of Ljubljana has the status of a public-private institution and associate member of the University, which facilitates faster and more efficient linking with research users and the transfer of knowledge between the University and users. The institution is open to all UL members and their research groups, as well as to researchers working in the field, and functions according to the principles of voluntary inclusion, independence and full responsibility of project or research groups.

The University Service for R&D and Intellectual Property does not only help secure intellectual property rights but also stimulates and facilitates projects in their earliest stages. In 2008, the UL also participated in two international projects in the field of managing intellectual property, the aim of which was the development of tools and the knowledge necessary for the assessment of prospective business ideas in the university environment and assistance in evaluating and realising the most successful business ideas. One such project is a pilot project on the transfer of technology from university to industry, which is held as a collaboration between The European Patent Office, the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office and the University of Ljubljana. The goals of the project are: encouraging the transfer of knowledge from the University to the economic environment, improving the results of University research and assisting education and raising awareness on the relevance of intellectual property rights.

European projects are also of significant importance for the development of the UL research activity and its increased interconnection with the economy, as well as for market orientation development. The University Office for EU Projects plays a key role in integrating and managing the University’s research agenda pertaining the European projects. Its efforts were in preparing for the 7th European Framework, where already UL has improved its performance in the first year of the FP7 by more than 60%.

With these new university-level instruments in place, a new environment of innovation was created. The University of Ljubljana is now ready to take on even larger-scale challenges, fully harnessing the diversity of its research quality.

University of Ljubljana
Kongresni trg 12,
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
Tel: +386 1241 8500
Fax: +386 1241 8560
E-mail: rektorat@uni-lj.si
Website: www.uni-lj.si