We wanted to find out which challenges for cross-border cooperation currently exist and what opportunities the project partners see in an increased trinational collaboration within the field of knowledge and technology transfer. For this purpose, we conducted an interview with Dagmar Vössing, head of technology transfer at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Alessandro Mazzetti, manager of innovation alliances at the University of Basel, and Antoine Parmentier, manager of external relations at SATT Conectus. The latter organization is responsible for transferring technologies and for managing collaborative research contracts of universities and research institutes in the Alsace area.

The first meeting of the “Knowledge Transfer Upper Rhine Circle” will take place in December 2020. This measure is part of a work package aimed at structuring the cooperation between the numerous transfer offices in the Upper Rhine region. The aim of the mainly face-to-face meetings will be to get to know the stakeholders from Germany, France and Switzerland better and to exchange ideas and experiences in the context of lectures and discussion rounds on various topics from the field of knowledge and technology transfer, also with regard to cross-border particularities. We spoke with Prof. Dr. Jörg Thietke, Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Vice Rector for Research, Innovation and Transfer at the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University (DHBW) Lörrach, about his expectations and wishes regarding this exchange format.