RETE VENTURES, a company associated to the coordinator institution INSTM that has a long experience in these activities, will coordinate the IPR activities and integration of the Network.

The main objective of the Intellectual Property Rights work will be the elaboration of strategies and tools and their application for the protection of the intellectual capital developed within the Network. This will be realized by a continuous monitoring of patents and other property rights generated from the research of the five areas of the Network.

Moreover, this task will be also dedicated to generate the organisation, the rules and the tools to manage the IPR in the European Centre for Multifunctional Nanostructured Polymers and Polymer Matrix Nanocomposites (ECNP).

The specific objectives are:

• Development of a homogeneous policy for IPR inside the new organisation.

• Determination of current know-how inside the Network accordingly with rules in the Consortium Agreement.

• Organisation of a permanent advise office to support NANOFUN members in IPR in the framework of the Network activities.

Representatives for IPR will be identified in each core partner to form a work group. RETE VENTURES will be the IPR coordinator and will be part of and report to the Integration Committee.

In particular, the activities that Rete Ventures will conduce are:

1) Consortium agreement definition, that is negotiation and definition of IPR contents of consortium agreement:

- exclusion of pre-existing know-how

- access right to pre-existing know-how between same-project participant, by core partners and by third parties

- access right to knowledge (results of the project) between same-project participant, core partners and by third parties

- publications, ECNP creations and IPR

- confidentiality, protection and ownership of IPR by ECNP

2) Design and organisation of IPR models and of IPR managing office for the Network, that means structuring of IPR management suitable to the Nanofun consortium specific needs and design of IPR model and management instruments, training and adaptations:

Organisation of IPR management office and definition of rules and organisation:

- specific data collection from partners (concerning the specific country IPR legal issues)

- design of procedures, model contracts and rules about:

- patents

- confidentiality agreements (among partners and among partners and third parties)

- publications

- access rights agreements

- joint patent agreements

The main deliverable is a report on IPR Management office composition, procedures and rules.

3) Design and organisation of an IPR managing office for the European Centre for Multifunctional Nanostructured Polymers and Polymer Matrix Nanocomposites (ECNP), structuring the IPR management suitable to ECNP:

- Conceptualization of IPR managing structures and rules in ECNP.

- First definition of the final IPR organization for ECNP.

The deliverables are a report on IPR managing office for ECNP and the progress reports.

4) Managing the IPR inventory of the specific research activities of Nanofun, managing inventory on the web database (starting from the screening of WP14) on:

- Polymer chemistry

- Polymer processing

- Nanostructure property relationships

- Applications

- Life Cycle Engineering

On the five research areas update of database about:

- patents

- agreements (joint patent, confidentiality, access rights)

- knowledge (after the screening of WP 15 Technology Transfer)

- publications