Spin offs

Spin-offs are companies that are created within another existing company or entity and normally as part of an initiative of one of its employees. Most of the spin-offs stem from universities or research centers. These companies or entities act as an incubator for the new company and are a necessary support in the early phases of the spin-off.

Spin-offs have their own legal jurisdiction and are independent of the incubator company or entity. Thus they are newly created companies.

Spin-off companies that arise from universities, technological centers and research institutions help to transfer know-how and scientific research to the business world, by directly applying productive processes and even commercializing them. In addition, they also improve communication among universities, the marketplace and society. Normally, these companies are founded by professors, students or administrative and service staff. They usually count on some form of institutional support, although they are privately run.

In order to foster these initiatives it is necessary to create a climate that is favorable to the development of business initiatives and linked to the idea of transfer of technology. The idea is to change the function and the role of the university by extending its scope of activity and possibilities. In this way, researchers can channel their efforts towards the business world.

Spin-offs also offer the interesting prospect of job creation for researchers. It is a way of generating stable employment and better alternatives in the scientific community. Similarly, the Torres Quevedo Program of the Ministry of Education and Science, is a vehicle for the hiring of doctors by companies and technological centers. This fund explicitly fosters spin-off companies by reducing their requirements for funding applications. Some of the requirements that must be met by doctors and technologists in order to be hired under the auspices of this type of funding is as follows:

"Not have, during a period of three years prior to the date of application, contractual links with the contracting agency nor any type of shareholding relationship with said agency. In the case of "spin-off" companies, this requirement will not be enforced if the labor relation has been maintained with a public R&D institution that participates as a shareholder in the newly created company."

Sources: IdAB y www.tecnociencia.es