Knowledge and Technology Transfer Centre

A significant international recognition has been awarded to Lithuania’s science and innovation community. TTO Lithuania—the national collaboration platform uniting Lithuanian Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs)—has officially become a member of the National Associations Advisory Council (NAAC), a governing body of the European knowledge and technology transfer association ASTP. This achievement marks another important step in Lithuania’s continued integration into Europe’s highest-level knowledge transfer and innovation governance structures. In its official welcome letter, ASTP emphasized that TTO Lithuania’s membership will strengthen the voice of Lithuania’s innovation community and provide opportunities to contribute actively to the development of European Union innovation policies. Vilma Purienė, Director of the Knowledge and Technology Transfer Centre at VILNIUS TECH and current Chair of the TTO Lithuania network, has been appointed as Lithuania’s official representative to the committee.   What Is NAAC and Why Does It Matter for Lithuania? The National Associations Advisory Council (NAAC) is one of ASTP’s key governance bodies, currently bringing together 35 national associations from 28 European countries. The committee serves as a vital link between European-level initiatives, regional technology transfer offices, and local innovation ecosystems. By becoming a full member of NAAC, TTO Lithuania gains strategic opportunities in four key areas:   Representation and Visibility Each national association is represented in the committee by one official delegate. From now on, the interests and perspectives of Lithuania’s knowledge and technology transfer professionals will be represented alongside those of Europe’s leading innovation nations.   Advisory Role in European Innovation Policy NAAC members provide direct advice to ASTP’s Executive Board on European and EU policy matters related to innovation, knowledge commercialization, and technology deployment. This enables Lithuania not only to learn from international best practices but also to share its own experiences, achievements, and emerging trends with the broader European innovation community.   Influence on Governance NAAC holds the unique right to nominate candidates directly to the ASTP Executive Board, ensuring that the perspectives of national associations remain an integral part of strategic decision-making processes.   Participation in Decision-Making As a member of the council, TTO Lithuania gains voting rights within the organization, allowing it to participate directly in the adoption of key resolutions and the submission of proposals.   A Step Towards Deeper European Integration NAAC members collaborate actively throughout the year. The council typically holds five to six meetings annually, including four online sessions and up to two in-person gatherings. These meetings address the most pressing issues in knowledge transfer, review developments in regulatory frameworks, and foster the creation of joint initiatives and projects. TTO Lithuania’s accession to the council opens new opportunities for specialists from Lithuanian universities, research institutes, and technology transfer organizations to engage more closely in international processes, strengthen their professional expertise, and help ensure that Lithuanian scientific discoveries and innovations reach global markets more effectively. This milestone further reinforces Lithuania’s position within the European innovation ecosystem and highlights the growing recognition of the country’s contributions to knowledge transfer, research commercialization, and innovation-driven growth.

VILNIUS TECH has received a highly positive assessment from international experts. In their recently published conclusions, it is noted that since the 2022 institutional evaluation, the university has achieved significant, evidence-based progress across all four evaluation areas: governance, quality assurance, studies and research activities, and impact on regional and national development. In 2022, VILNIUS TECH was granted a seven-year accreditation. At that time, the expert panel provided the university with 19 recommendations for further improvement. The latest progress review concludes that the university responded to these recommendations responsibly, systematically, and constructively, and that the implemented changes have become part of long-term institutional development. „We are pleased that external experts have highly evaluated the progress achieved by VILNIUS TECH across all four assessment areas. It was noted that the university demonstrates a mature quality culture, a strategic vision, and the ability to consistently sustain growth and increase its impact on society. This ensures that we are entering the next institutional evaluation period with a strong position,“ says Nora Skaburskienė, Director of the Studies Directorate. International experts particularly highlighted the consistently strengthened system of strategic management, the quality culture, active collaboration with business and alumni, leadership within the ATHENA European Universities Alliance, the development of new interdisciplinary study programmes, and significant progress in innovation and technology transfer. The rapid expansion of lifelong learning activities was also noted — VILNIUS TECH has broadened its micro-credential offerings, strengthened partnerships with social and business partners, and is creating favourable conditions for knowledge commercialization and startup development. According to the expert panel, the university has already moved beyond the stage of merely responding to recommendations and is now ready to purposefully leverage its accumulated potential to achieve even higher performance results. In summarizing the evaluation, the experts concluded that VILNIUS TECH is entering the next phase of institutional assessment with a solid foundation for continued successful development.

The Innovation Agency Lithuania invites representatives of academia and business to participate in two free online seminars designed to strengthen the connection between innovation development and successful market implementation. The seminars will be held in English and are open to researchers, academics, entrepreneurs, innovators, and professionals from all fields. Validation of the Commercial Potential Date: 22 June 2026 Time: 14:00 EEST Speaker: Thomas Blekman, Co-founder of Unknown University of Applied Sciences (The Hague, Netherlands) Participants will learn how to assess and validate the commercial potential of their ideas before investing significant time and resources. The session will cover customer discovery, market validation methods, and tools for evaluating value propositions. Registration and more information. Intellectual Property Rights and Management Tools Date: 23 June 2026 Time: 14:00 EEST Speaker: Greta Žėkienė, Intellectual Property Management Project Manager, Kaunas University of Technology (Lithuania) This seminar will introduce the practical fundamentals of intellectual property protection and management. Participants will gain insights into safeguarding innovations and strategically applying IP management tools in both business and research activities. Registration and more information: https://inovacijuagentura.lt/events-ext/view/5855?lang=en Participation is free of charge. Both seminars will be held online and conducted in English. We encourage VILNIUS TECH researchers, doctoral students, students, innovators, and industry partners to take advantage of this opportunity to strengthen their knowledge of innovation commercialisation and intellectual property management.

VILNIUS TECH Library invites you to follow the published new dissertations. The dissertation „Economic impact of Baltic region startups ecosystems“ prepared at VILNIUS TECH by Daina Kleponė. The dissertation was prepared in 2021–2026. Scientific consultant – Prof. Dr Laima Okunevičiūtė Neverauskienė. The dissertation was defended at the public meeting of the Dissertation Defence Council of the Scientific Field of Economics in the Aula Doctoralis Meeting Hall of Vilnius Gediminas Technical University at 2 p.m. on 13 May 2026. Since the 1990s, a distinct innovation-driven and high-growth activity, organised around venture-capital-financed startups and their surrounding ecosystems, has diffused globally. Despite strong policy and investor attention, the field still lacks a consistent, operational definition of a “startup,” and empirical evidence on startups’ net economic contribution remains fragmented. Consequently, policy ambition for startup-tailored instruments has advanced faster than empirical clarity, complicating the design, targeting, and evaluation of ecosystem interventions. This dissertation develops and empirically substantiates an integrated conceptual model for assessing the enabling environment and macroeconomic impact of startup ecosystems. The research proceeds in two stages. First, it constructs a structured theoretical framework for defining startups and refines the definition using empirically validated characteristics. Second, it operationalises ecosystem inputs, firm-level outputs, and macro-level outcomes in an empirically testable framework grounded in entrepreneurial ecosystem theory, endogenous growth theory, and Schumpeterian creative destruction. The empirical core focuses on the Baltic startup ecosystems (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) using extensive firm-level accounting data (2014–2024) for startups and comparable non-startups within the same industries, complemented by ecosystem and macro indicators from international organisations. Methods include comparative performance analysis, panel econometrics for growth and productivity determinants (including total factor productivity estimation), and machine-learning techniques (principal component analysis and k-means) for indicator reduction, ecosystem typologies, and composite index construction. A key contribution is the construction of a startup ecosystem maturity proxy (V index) based on venture capital activity metrics and the estimation of its association with selected macroeconomic indicators via regression models. The dissertation provides an empirically grounded basis for startup identification, cross-country ecosystem assessment, and a more rigorous evaluation of whether and how startup ecosystem development translates into measurable economy-wide outcomes. Doctoral dissertation readers can search via VILNIUS TECH Virtual Library.