Partners of choice

More than a year ago, he took the helm of the new "Research, Innovation, Support and Enterprise (RISE)" administration to execute an ambitious agenda over the next four years and " shine a light on the University's science."

Didier Mattivi took over the management of the new administration "Research, Innovation, Support and Enterprise (RISE)" more than a year ago. With Olivier Gillieaux (in charge of applied research), Véronique Larosa (in charge of fundamental research) and some sixty employees, Didier Mattivi wants to carry out an ambitious agenda over the next four years and " make the University's science shine ". For this civil engineer turned multi-entrepreneur, notably founder of a telecom company (IPTrade, a university spin-off) and a video game incubator studio, this is an opportunity "to have a positive impact on his region and society in general. But how? We asked him the question.

LQJ:Perhaps first recall what is behind this new acronym RISE?

Didier Mattivi: "Research, Innovation, Support and Enterprise (RISE)" is an administration that results from the merger of the former research administration (ARD) and the Interface-Enterprise-University. I was hired to operationalize this integration which, although initiated in 2021, had been envisaged and discussed for several years with the aim of establishing, as is done in most universities, a single interface. Its vocation is to take charge of our researchers, from the beginning of their doctorate until the moment they leave the University, and to accompany them in their search for external (European, community, regional) and internal (ULiège research funds) funding, both in applied and fundamental research.

The integration of these two teams, one located at Place du 20-Août and the other at the "Liège Science Park" at Sart-Tilman, first went through an ideation exercise to find a new name that could be the starting point of a common culture. "Research, Innovation, Support, Enterprises" adequately captured all of our services: aid to research and in particular its financing; innovation, i.e. the transformation of this research into something useful to the outside world; support for researchers; and finally, relations with enterprises, in other words the role of gateway to the University for them. In short, the RISE unit has a facilitation mission: we want to be there to promote the interactions of our researchers with the outside world, whether it be funding agencies or companies.

LQJ:Given your background as a serial entrepreneur and your interest in start-ups, should we expect more attention and resources to be given to technology transfer, and in particular to the creation of spin-offs?

D.M.: First of all, it is important to emphasize that basic research and applied research are interdependent. Basic research is an important part of our University's impact on society, which benefits every day from the increase in knowledge to which our researchers contribute. As for the second, it must, in my opinion, correspond to the needs of its ecosystem, without necessarily being directed by it. It is a difficult exercise, a sort of balance to be found. Research must aim at valorization in terms of technology and knowledge transfer.

Today, there are two ways to achieve this transfer. The first is to grant exploitation rights to third parties on research results. The second way is to incorporate so-called spin-off companies, which presupposes that researchers wish to take the lead, at least scientifically, in these companies. In other words, finding individuals who not only conduct marketable research, but also have an entrepreneurial streak. Some people do not wish to embark on this type of career path, and we respect this desire. The idea that scientists should be taken out of their laboratories and turned into entrepreneurs makes no sense. On the other hand, we must be there to support those who wish to embark on an entrepreneurial path.

LQJ:How do you go about it?

D.M.: Many researchers don't imagine that their work can be valorized. At RISE, we have to proactively get these researchers to talk to us, to understand their research - which implies having the right scientific resources - in order to discover potential applications. In other words, we need to develop a close relationship with the research units, probe their ambitions and keep an eye on them over the coming years.

In addition to the legal expertise that we provide to researchers when it comes to setting up the company as such or understanding what can be transferred from the University to the spin-off in terms of following the rules for transferring intellectual property, we can also suggest that they integrate into their scientific team someone with entrepreneurial experience, for example.

Finally, we are working to create a dynamic around these researcher-entrepreneurs. In March 2023, we founded a university spin-off club to bring together companies that in reality know very little about each other, even though they are facing similar challenges, essentially start-up problems. In addition, we are working on setting up a maturation fund, a small equity fund that would allow us to support certain projects for longer, to help them mature further, so that they will ultimately be better valued.

These are already two pillars of the RISE action plan, and not the least because we have some 4000 people involved in research.

LQJ:Will we see more spin-offs then?

D.M.: I think there is a real potential to double the number of these new companies. We could create four to five per year. I have no personal interest in promoting them! I simply note that, in the complicated context of research funding, this type of monetary valorization - in applied research for the most part, but not only - is a way for the University to generate revenue, which allows it to fund other initiatives, notably in basic research. This is an important message. We have a vested interest in making our spin-offs successful.

LQJ:Not all research projects will necessarily lead to a monetary value. What about research in the social sciences, linguistics, archaeology, etc.?

D.M.: Valorizing our research does not necessarily mean making money from it. Valorizing it means developing its societal, economic and environmental impacts. So I don't want to neglect initiatives that have no direct link with the business world. I hope that everyone has been able to see that there has been no disinvestment whatsoever since my arrival. We are just as concerned about the research that, when it is shown to the general public, contributes to the influence of our institution. After all, this research, which has been financed by public money, must be able to return to society in one way or another, even in the form of exhibitions - I am thinking in particular of the recent "Simenon Spring" - but not only. I am also thinking of Veerle Rots, archaeologist and director of the TraceoLab at ULiège, winner of the Francqui 2022 prize in the humanities for her pioneering research on Paleolithic tools. The University Council for Research and Development of ULiège has awarded her a grant to develop a center of competence likely to attract international researchers. I could cite other examples.

This form of valorization is therefore part of a communication effort, which is the third pillar of our action plan. We want our institution to increase its contacts with society at large, so as to create an appetite for our research.

I would like to point out that, for RISE, all research is of equal value, regardless of the Faculty where it is conducted. Our role is to find the best instruments to fund it. Based on our in-depth knowledge of funding agencies at the regional, community and European levels, we can define application strategies with researchers, or help them write their responses to calls for proposals. We also communicate to all researchers, via a newsletter, the new research programs likely to interest them. This is RISE's main activity: ensuring that every research finds funding.

LQJ:To what extent are external actors, particularly companies, interested in working with the University?

D.M.: The contacts are many and varied. One laboratory and another company decide to work together on a project such as a competitiveness cluster. A certain company asks us to solve a specific problem and funds us to do so. A large company approaches us to explore possible synergies. The fact remains that if these two worlds want to work with each other, they often don't know how to go about it. These two worlds do not have the same logic, especially regarding time. The business world tends to work by "trial and error", whereas we tend to do things excessively well. We, therefore often add considerable time to the decision, which the outside world does not understand. The role of RISE is to identify these "bottlenecks" in advance, to propose structuring programs aimed at reducing misunderstandings, and thus to make the University an easy partner to work with. For my part, I would like ULiège to become, at least in the Walloon Region, "the" partner of choice for companies when it comes to R&D.