Europe has no shortage of research, talent or ideas. The more persistent challenge is what happens next: how knowledge moves through organisations, markets and public systems, and how promising results become solutions that create economic and societal value. The proposed European Innovation Act speaks directly to this challenge. It is therefore relevant not only as a new policy initiative, but as a useful lens through which to reflect on the work of knowledge valorisation in Europe.
A proposal about the conditions for uptake
Presented by the European Commission on 9 September 2026, the proposed Act seeks to strengthen the conditions under which innovative solutions can be developed, financed and scaled in the European Union. Its focus is practical: creating a common framework for research and development procurement, improving the valuation and use of intellectual property, and establishing an EU-level marketplace for intellectual assets. It is accompanied by a proposal for common principles on regulatory sandboxes, which would give innovators and public authorities more structured ways to test solutions and learn from their use.
Read through a valorisation lens, these measures are about more than commercialisation. They address the interfaces where value is often lost: between a research result and a usable product, between an intellectual asset and a financing decision, between an innovation and the public organisation that might adopt it, and between experimentation and the rules that govern implementation.
Valorisation is not an end stage
Knowledge valorisation is sometimes understood as the final step in a linear journey from discovery to market. In practice, it is a continuous process of recognising potential, making choices, building relationships and adapting knowledge to different contexts. A patent, dataset, software tool, method or research capability may have several possible users and several possible routes to impact. Some pathways are commercial; others lead to public services, standards, policy, open science or community benefit.
The proposed Act reinforces this broader understanding. It does not remove the complexity of the innovation journey, but it attempts to improve some of the conditions around it. That is important because the quality of a valorisation pathway depends not only on the quality of the underlying research, but also on whether actors can assess value, share risk, access finance, work with public buyers and navigate regulation with sufficient clarity.
Three measures, viewed from practice
Making intellectual assets more visible and usable
The proposal responds to a familiar difficulty: innovative companies and research-based ventures often hold valuable intellectual assets, but those assets are difficult to compare, value and use in financing. A common EU framework for intellectual property valuation, together with a digital marketplace and expert support, could help make intangible assets more legible to investors and potential users.
For knowledge valorisation, this points to the importance of intellectual asset management as an active strategic practice. It is not simply a matter of deciding whether to file for protection. It involves identifying the full range of assets created through research and collaboration, clarifying ownership and access, understanding their potential users, and choosing when protection, sharing or adaptation is most appropriate. Better valuation can support this work, but it will not replace judgement. The relevant question is not only what an asset is worth, but for whom, under which conditions and toward what form of impact.
Using public demand to accelerate uptake
The proposed common procedure for R&I procurement recognises that public authorities are not only regulators or funders. They can also be informed users, test environments and lead customers for innovation. When public buyers articulate real needs and procure research, development and testing more strategically, they can help create a pathway from an emerging solution to wider deployment.
This connects strongly with societal value creation. Valorisation is not complete when a technology reaches a market; it becomes meaningful when a solution is adopted, used and sustained in contexts where it addresses a recognised need. Public procurement can help bridge that gap, particularly in areas such as health, education, clean mobility and other domains where market demand alone may not be enough to bring innovation into use.
Treating regulation as a space for learning
The accompanying proposal on regulatory sandboxes offers a complementary perspective. A sandbox is not a space without rules, nor is it a shortcut around public safeguards. It is a structured environment in which innovators and authorities can test how a new solution works in practice, understand risks and refine both the solution and the regulatory response.
This is a valuable reminder that valorisation depends on feedback. Uptake is rarely achieved by transferring a finished result into a fixed external environment. It is shaped through interaction with users, regulators, investors, public authorities and other stakeholders. Regulatory sandboxes can make some of that interaction more deliberate, while generating evidence that supports future policy and implementation decisions.
A shared agenda for the knowledge valorisation ecosystem
The European Innovation Act reflects several priorities at the heart of our innovation ecosystem. It supports clearer pathways from research to uptake; it highlights the need to manage intellectual assets deliberately; it opens further discussion about how economic and societal value can be developed together; and it places collaboration between researchers, companies, public actors and policymakers at the centre of innovation.
It also underlines the role of capabilities and communities. Common frameworks only become useful when people know how to apply them. Researchers need support to recognise opportunities and engage with potential users. Universities and public research organisations need processes that connect intellectual asset management to strategy. Companies and investors need better ways to interpret research-based assets. Public authorities need the skills to commission, test and adopt innovation. Intermediaries have an important role in connecting these perspectives and translating policy ambitions into workable practice.
This is where knowledge valorisation becomes an ecosystem endeavour. No single instrument can resolve the distance between research and impact. Progress depends on how instruments, organisations and people work together across the innovation chain, and on whether lessons from individual projects are captured, shared and adapted elsewhere. The work is therefore both strategic and practical: shaping pathways, managing value, opening routes to uptake and building the capacity to act.
From policy proposal to shared practice
The proposed Act is still a policy proposal, and its eventual value will depend on how its measures are designed and implemented across different national and sectoral contexts. A common framework can reduce fragmentation, but it must remain usable for organisations with different capabilities, resources and innovation environments. It will also need to work alongside existing European initiatives, research programmes and knowledge valorisation practices rather than becoming another disconnected layer.
The proposal is an invitation to keep asking practical questions. How can intellectual assets be recognised early enough to shape decisions? How can public demand help research results move into use? How can regulation support experimentation while maintaining trust? And how can successful approaches be turned into shared knowledge rather than remaining isolated in individual projects?
These questions are at the centre of a more collaborative, agile and ecosystem-oriented approach to valorisation. The European Innovation Act may help improve the framework conditions. The lasting impact, however, will come from the practices, relationships and capabilities that turn those conditions into real pathways from knowledge to value.
Explore further here:
Factsheet on the European Innovation Act
Proposal for the European Innovation Act
Proposal for a Council Recommendation on regulatory sandboxes