The fourth discussion of "The Spirit of Entrepreneurship" took place on Thursday 8 December at Innovathens. The discussion was a result of the co-operation among the Entrepreneurship and Innovation Unit of the National and Technical University of Athens, the Athens University of Economics and Business and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Greece. The event focused on the institutional support that a start up venture should receive when aiming to begin from inside the University. The key discussants where experts on the topics of technology transfer and patent building, coming from both German and Greek universities.

The event as a whole had three distinct topics on which it focused: The German experience of building a technology transfer and patents office, the Greek experience of forming a working start up without the institutional support, and the experiences of universities' research teams aiming to develop to a start up service.

The part of the international experience was covered by Dr. Alexandros Papaderos, Head of Patents and Licenses of the Technical University Munich. Dr. Papaderos presented:

• How technology transfer and the creation of spin offs is addressed in the Technical University of Munich.
• What are the benefits for the University and the society from promoting and supporting the diffusion of research outcomes through technology transfer and the creation of spin offs.
• What could incentivize researchers and academics in leveraging and commercializing the outcome of their research efforts.
• What is the right strategy for a research team in further exploiting its research results.

The second part was covered by Start Ups which developed in Greek universities. In specific by Dr. Achilleas Gravanis, Professor and Researcher in the Institute of Molecular Biology & Biotechnology, presented the difficulties that the Bionature Spin off Team had when beginning in Crete. Dr. Xenofontas Verikios, Prof. and Head of the HELBIO Team, presented the working path of the HELBIO Spin off Team from the University of Patras. Last in this section was Dr. Ioanna Zergioti, Asc. Professor at the School of Applied Mathematical and Physical Science, who presented the work of the Laser printing of functional materials and microdevices Team NTUA. The biggest problem reported by all the Start Uppers coming through the universities was that the institutional framework that could support them did not exist. They had to face bureaucratic difficulties which could be moderated by an institutional instrument helping them move from theory to praxis easier.

The third part of the presentations was concluded by current University teams which aim to become a spin off in the future. The presentations where held by Dr. George C. Polyzos, Professor and Head of the Mobile Multimedia Laboratory, of the Control Things AUEB Research Team and Dr. Katerina Pramatari Associate Professor and Scientific Coordinator of the ELTRUN-SCORE Research Group which aims to the commercialization of research results in the fields of business analytics and marketing for better customer support in AUEB.

The moderation was held by Dr. Ioanna Kastelli, herself an adjunct professor, coordinator and researcher of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Unit of the National Technical University of Athens.

The key result of the discussion was that technology transfer offices take time to be build and operate properly. The institutional support which is necessary is missing and needs to be build, in order for the participating staff and researchers to be able to give their best.