The future of Atlantic Area depends mostly on its capacity to invest in research, knowledge and technology transfer, which allows its best outcome in terms of new products, services and processes. Technology transfer can be made effective by:

• Creation of new companies for long term development;
• Interaction with industry for medium term economic development;
• IP management and licensing.

The choice of either route depends to a large extent on the nature of the technology and may have quite different outcomes. For instance, technology improvements that would fit existing business models are best exploited by existing companies, which are better positioned to innovate in the specific area; thus it is best to improve this interaction with industry. In the case of new technologies that would require inventing new business models, these are best represented by spin-out companies, which explore the market needs with higher flexibility and speed and with lower risk. In both cases, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) provide protection for the creators of the technology and establish the conditions regarding ownership and use of the technology. Many of the MNAA partners gave already good examples of this fact.