12:00 – 13:30
Registration and buffet lunch
Brocher Foundation
13:30 – 13:50
Prof. Yves Flückiger, Rector of the University of Geneva followed by Prof. Howard Riezman, Department of Biochemistry, Director of the NCCR Chemical Biology, University of Geneva, Switzerland & Prof. Raymond G. Riezman, University of Iowa, USA.
Welcome & introduction
Session: Public and private funding in basic research / Systems of innovation / Scientific concentration / Diverse centres of innovation (chairman: Prof. Venki Ramakrishnan)
13:50 – 14:25
Dr. Claire Craig, Director of Science Policy at the Royal Society, London, UK.
Innovation, science and technology: a policy perspective
14:25 – 15:00
Prof. Patrick Aebischer, Neurodegenerative Studies Laboratory, EPF Lausanne and Former President of the EPFL, Switzerland.
The responsibility of academia in translating research into innovation
Coffee break
15:20 – 15:55
Prof. Maria Leptin, Director of EMBO, Heidelberg, Germany.
Risk and diversity in basic research
15:55 – 16:30
Prof. Matthias Egger, President of the National Research Council of the SNSF, Bern, Switzerland.
The contribution of basic research to innovation and growth
16:30 – 17:05
Dr. B. Ravikumar, Vice President and Deputy Director of Research, Federal Reserve of St. Louis, USA.
Openness, Protection and Technology Adoption
17:05 – 17:50
Roundtable discussion led by Dr. Claire Craig
18:00 – 18:50
Transfer to the hotel and installation
18:50 – 19:20
Transfer to Yvoire (restaurant)
19:30 – 21:30
Dinner by the Geneva lakeshore at Yvoire
Session: Seeking financing at the pre-seed stage / Venture capital / Competition and innovation / Intellectual property (Chairman: Dr. Carsten Fink)
09:00 – 09:35
Prof. Kai Johnsson, Full Professor at the Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, EPF Lausanne, Switzerland. Former co-Director of the NCCR Chemical Biology. Director at the MPI Heidelberg, Germany.
Paths from basic research to start-ups
09:35 – 10:10
Prof. Marc Gruber, Vice President for Innovation at EPFL, Switzerland, Full professor at the College of Management of Technology at EPFL, Chair of Entrepreneurship and Technology Commercialization (ENTC), Switzerland.
How to identify the most promising market opportunities
10:10 – 10:45
Prof. Hugo Hopenhayn, Department of Economics, University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
The direction of innovation (joint with Francesco Squintanini, University of Warwick)
Coffee break
11:05 – 11:40
Dr. Francesco de Rubertis, Founder and Managing Partner of Medicxi, Geneva, Switzerland
Mathematics and game theory in venture capital
11:40 – 12:15
Dr. Carsten Fink, Chief Economist of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland.
The role of patents in university technology transfer
12:15 – 13:00
Roundtable discussion led by Dr. Carsten Fink
Lunch
Session: Industry - academic relations / Industry strategy / Economics of technology policy (Chairmen: Prof. Monika Mrazova and Prof. Anja Schulze)
14:30 – 15:05
Prof. Marie Thursby, Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Strategy at Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, USA.
Sharing scientific results: conflicting incentives
15:05 – 15:40
Mr. Amir Naiberg, Associate Vice Chancellor, Chief Executive Officer Technology Development Group and Chief Executive Officer & President of Westwood Technology Transfer, UCLA Technology Development Group.
Technology transfer & echo systems
Coffee break
16:00 – 16:35
Dr. Hans Widmer, Program Director at Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research, Switzerland.
Industry/academic relations from the industry perspective
16:35 – 17:10
Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, Munich, Germany.
Tracing the path from science to innovation
17:10 – 17:45
Cancelled // Prof. Peter Rupert, Director of the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, Santa Barbara, California, USA.
Labor, leisure and technology
17:45 – 18:30
Roundtable discussion led by Prof. Monika Mrazova, Institute of Economy and Econometrics, GSEM, University of Geneva, Switzerland and Prof. Anja Schulze, Department of Business administration, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
Walking dinner at Brocher Foundation
Session: Going to the local/global market (Chairman: Prof. Raymond G. Riezman)
09:00 – 09:35
Prof. Dominique Foray, Chair in Economics and Management of Innovation (CEMI), EPFL, Switzerland
A few secrets about innovation in Switzerland: the good and the less good
09:35 – 10:10
Clare Fairfield, Chairman of the Venture Capital Institute, Managing Director at Concerto Ventures.
Global innovation interrupted: evolving beyond the economics of the Silicon Valley experience
Coffee break
10:30 – 11:05
Prof. Wolfgang Keller, Department of Economics, University of Colorado, USA. Research associate of the CESifo network, the NBER and the CEPR.
International technology transfer and spillovers
11:05 – 11:40
Prof. Peter Egger, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
The Economic Geography of Innovation Incentives
11:40 – 12:25
Roundtable discussion led by Prof. Raymond G. Riezman, Research Professor of Economics Emeritus, University of Iowa, USA.
12:35 – 12:50
Concluding remarks