Dorien Wellen, TTO Radboud University Nijmegen:
"Many networks dealing with valorisation focus on valorisation policy, but the NGI Valorisation Network is the only network where technology transfer officers meet and where the focus is on business development. This facilitates interaction and stimulates concrete actions. For me, participating in the Valorisation Network has resulted in very useful professional relationships. One of the reasons this network scores well with the participants is the openness of everybody involved. That is the result of the way NGI has approached this network from the start by creating ample time for the members to meet and get to know each other, for example during communal courses or trips abroad.
When you only meet each other during a presentation every now and then, contacts will stay rather superficial. But after a shared hard day's work, you sit down to have a drink and that is when contacts are deepened. Activities like these have contributed to an atmosphere in which people feel sufficiently comfortable to discuss failures and problems as well, which is when you really start learning from each other. Personally, I would like to see more of these intensive meetings. Bring everyone together for a few days, put all the available knowledge and findings on the table and get to work. With so much knowledge at our disposal, there have to be opportunities for valorisation and that should be the basic assumption.
If you feel valorisation is not possible, you have to give strong arguments. That would make for interesting and useful sessions."