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Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) have become a crucial part of Spain’s innovation ecosystem, serving as bridges between universities and public research centers and the productive sector. Their role is to facilitate turning scientific research into impactful products, services, and companies. Established since the late 20th century, TTOs are now widespread across public universities and technology centers, managing patents, intellectual property, licensing, and supporting academic spin-offs. They also engage in regional and sectoral innovation networks, playing an especially vital role in deep tech fields like artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and quantum computing. These sectors face complex, lengthy, and costly paths from concept to market, necessitating strong institutional support.
In response, Spain launched the Innvierte Deep-Tech Tech Transfer fund in May 2025, a €353 million initiative backed by the CDTI and the European Investment Fund. This fund aims to convert scientific knowledge into sustainable companies by selecting experienced fund managers to channel public and private investments from early development stages to commercialization. It also seeks to strengthen TTOs by providing resources for professionalization and impact expansion, thereby helping overcome the innovation “valley of death.” Complemented by other government tools and successful university models, this fund positions Spain to enhance its innovation capacity. However, challenges remain, including training fund managers, improving governance, and establishing clear performance metrics. Addressing these will enable Spain to solidify its status as a competitive knowledge economy with strategic autonomy.
The Spanish innovation ecosystem is supported by intermediation mechanisms that seek to connect researchers, companies and investors.
In recent years, Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) have established themselves as an essential element within the Spanish innovation ecosystem. Its main function is to act as a bridge between scientific research and the productive fabric, facilitating the transformation of the results generated in universities and public centres into products, services and companies with a real impact on society.
These offices are not a recent novelty. Their origin in Spain dates back to the end of the last century, when they began to be institutionalized as strategic nodes to channel the transfer of knowledge. Currently, they operate in practically all public universities and in many technology centers, performing key tasks such as patent management, intellectual property protection, negotiation of technology licenses and accompaniment in the creation of academic spin-offs. They also actively participate in regional networks and sectoral forums, such as the Tech Transfer Day promoted by Biocat in Catalonia.
The role of TTOs is even more relevant in the context of deep tech, an area that encompasses technologies based on disruptive scientific advances with high transformative potential, such as artificial intelligence, biotechnology, new materials, quantum computing or space. In these sectors, the path from proof of concept to commercial application is particularly complex, long and expensive, which makes institutional support indispensable both in terms of financing and technical and legal support.
Spain has 1,210 companies considered deep tech spin-offs. These companies generate more than 2,000 million euros per year and employ more than 12,000 highly qualified professionals. 55% of these companies are concentrated in Catalonia and Madrid, and the most represented sectors are health, digital technologies, industry 4.0 and energy.
Innvierte Deep-Tech Tech Transfer Fund
In this context of the maturation of the ecosystem, the Government of Spain launched a new large-scale financial instrument in May 2025: the Innvierte Deep-Tech Tech Transfer fund. Officially presented in Valencia by the Minister of Science, Innovation and Universities, Diana Morant, this fund is the result of the collaboration between the Centre for the Development of Technology and Innovation (CDTI), which contributes 300 million euros, and the European Investment Fund (EIF), which adds another 53 million. In total, the fund mobilises 353 million euros to promote the development and commercialisation of deep tech technologies born in the Spanish scientific environment.
The objective of the fund is clear: to transform the knowledge generated in universities and public centers into viable and sustainable companies. To achieve this, professional managers of specialised funds will be selected, who will act as vehicles to channel public and private resources from the earliest stages of technological development – such as pre-seed or proof of concept – to market entry. These managers will be selected by the EIF based on criteria of experience in technology transfer and risk investment, thus ensuring rigorous and results-oriented management.
Innvierte Deep-Tech Tech Transfer also seeks to strengthen the internal capacities of TTOs, providing resources and stability so that they can professionalize their structures and expand their impact. This direct collaboration between financial managers, transfer offices and researchers promises to reduce the so-called “valley of death” of innovation, that critical stretch in which many promising technologies are left without funding or support to make the leap to the market.
The launch of the new fund strengthens the capacities of the CDTI, which in 2025 will manage almost 2,000 million euros between subsidies and investments. For initiatives linked to priority sectors alone, such as biotechnology, artificial intelligence, energy transition or the space economy, an additional €800 million is foreseen through co-investment vehicles. The Innvierte Deep-Tech Tech Transfer fund thus joins other existing tools, such as the Science and Innovation Missions programme, innovative public procurement contracts or the Innterconecta – Step plan, with which it must be coordinated to maximise its impact and avoid overlaps.
Good practices in Spanish universities
Some Spanish universities have already shown that it is possible to successfully walk this path. This is the case of the University of Valencia, whose Science Park is home to more than 80 companies that have emerged from academic research. Its Office for the Transfer of Research Results (OTRI) has been key to creating an environment of collaboration between scientists, entrepreneurs and investors. The Universitat Rovira i Virgili, in Tarragona, has also stood out for its multisectoral approach, articulating centres such as CITEE and EMAS, which combine technical advice, legal support and incubation spaces for new projects.
In Catalonia, centres such as the ICN2 (Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology) and IBEC (Institute of Bioengineering of Catalonia) have specific units for the valorisation of scientific knowledge, while in Andalusia, the Technological Corporation of Andalusia (CTA) acts as a public-private alliance to promote applied innovation in strategic sectors.
The challenges facing this new stage of the Spanish innovation ecosystem are not minor. On the one hand, it will be essential to ensure the training and professionalization of fund managers, capable of attracting private co-investors with a long-term vision. On the other hand, effective governance between administrations, universities and intermediate agents will be needed to align objectives and simplify procedures.
In addition, it will be necessary to establish clear indicators to evaluate results: number of licenses granted, companies created, income from transfers or volume of private investment mobilized. If these challenges are tackled decisively, Spain has the opportunity to consolidate itself as a competitive knowledge economy, capable of generating innovation with added value and strategic autonomy.
