Our RESEARCH

RTDS Association is a private, non-profit innovation research institute advancing applied social and economic sciences to promote academia-industry collaboration, accelerating technology and knowledge transfer to create scientific, economic and societal impacts.

What is Innovation Research?

Innovation Research studies how new ideas for products, services, processes and business models emerge and are adopted through industry-academia collaboration. It explores the drivers of innovation from user value and cultural diversity to market and policy conditions and their impacts on science, technology, the economy, society and the environment.

RTDS contributes to this field through applied social and economic sciences, developping strategies, tools and methods that optimise collaborative research and innovation projects. Our work focuses on maximising the societal, economic and scientific outcomes of research, ensuring that results deliver lasting value for both industry and society.

Through participation in European research and innovation projects, RTDS applies and advances this expertise across disciplines, sectors and countries in cooperation with partners from academia, industry & SMEs to support the triple transition of the European economy.

Our Research

Innovation Analysis, Foresight, and Conception

Drawing on over 20 years of experience in European collaborative research and innovation projects, RTDS conducts innovation analysis and foresight to identify emerging opportunities and knowledge gaps. Working closely with SMEs and large companies, we assess innovation needs, map available technologies and connect the right academic and technology partners to co-develop evidence-based collaboration concepts… which may, or may not, evolve into projects.

Coordination of Transnational, Multi-stakeholder Consortia

RTDS investigates and applies methods for effective network governance in complex, cross-sector partnerships. Our research focuses on building trust, cooperation, and transparency among diverse partners across cultural, organisational, and national boundaries to enable an innovation ecosystem. We design and apply best-practice tools for project coordination, including meeting and workshop facilitation, consensus-building techniques, and governance procedures that ensure inclusive and ethical collaboration. Attention to gender balance and ethics is embedded in all coordination processes. Effective governance across sectors is essential to advance systemic change aligned with Europe’s triple transition ambitions.

Dissemination & Science Communication

RTDS conducts systematic research into science communication and dissemination strategies for multi-stakeholder projects. We study how to maximise awareness creation, knowledge transfer and stakeholder engagement contribute to creating scientific, social, and policy impacts. Our approach integrates stakeholder analysis, surveys, multi-actor engagement and citizen science methodologies to ensure that research results are adopted and scaled within society.

Policy Analysis & Briefs

RTDS applies evidence-based policy research to bridge the gap between scientific knowledge and decision-making. Through clustering with multidisciplinary experts and facilitating interactive policy workshops, we analyse targeted policy areas and their interdependencies with ongoing research. This enables RTDS to contribute evidence to policies shaping Europe’s interconnected green, digital and socio-economic transitions. The resulting policy briefs synthesise research evidence and expert insight to highlight needs for change, inform policy makers and communicate findings to broader audiences, with actionable recommendations for uptake.

Exploitation, Intellectual Property & Business Planning

RTDS investigates how research results can be effectively transformed into marketable innovations. Our studies examine the macro-economic and sectoral conditions influencing technology transfer, as well as the ownership regimes and intellectual property (IP) frameworks that underpin collaborative R&I. By combining IP management, exploitation planning, and innovation analysis, RTDS develops best practices for academic–industrial partnerships to achieve sustainable commercialisation and long-term impact.

Publications