Abstract: Public, non-university research institutes (PRIs) are central players in a national innovation system. In their labs and parks, ground-breaking discoveries are made, ideas are created, and innovation is developed. Research and innovation policy has acknowledged this role through growing public funding over the last years while simultaneously trying to encourage researchers and their respective organizations to collaborate more with industry. Joint research potentially secures additional funding and, even more importantly, supports the identification of application fields for research results. However, the transfer of knowledge and technologies between PRIs and industrial organizations has been rocky in the past, to say the least. This is not only due to different organizational and institutional goals but also because of different cultures, mindsets, and organizational constraints. Therefore, this study analyzes the case of the Helmholtz Innovation Labs as novel technology transfer instrument to carve out barriers and success factors for effective PRI-industry collaboration.
