IRC

Innovation Relay Centres have been brought about by the European Commission as a network consisting of 68 centres throughout Europe and also in some countries outside Europe. Among its most important objectives are the promotion of two-way technology transfer, the support of EU research and development programmes, and the assistance of innovative initiatives by counselling and by various other services.

As a member of the IRC Hungary consortium (coordinator: the National Technical Information Centre and Library of the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, BME-OMIKK), the Theodore Puskas Foundation and its Institute of International Technology (PTA-NETI) promotes the aims of the international network, acts as a mediator in spreading Hungarian technologies all over Europe, and introduces European innovations domestically.

To facilitate these objectives, PTA-NETI provides assistance free of charge in reviewing bids and claims, assists in finding appropriate partners and liaising with them, contributes to problem-free technology transfer by making use of the network’s own database (BBS) and distribution system.

The project is strictly task-oriented: the accomplishment (and the financing by the Union) of any project period is conditional on a predefined number of “success stories”, i.e. on the completion of specific transactions in the field of international technology transfer.