At Transfer Week 2020, which took place from 26 to 30 October 2020, researchers, companies, and practitioners from over 200 organizations in the Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan region exchanged ideas on knowledge and technology transfer. The organizers included Berlin Partner for Business and Technology (Berlin Partner für Wirtschaft und Technologie), Bit6 – Berlin Innovation Transfer, the Berlin Chamber of Skilled Crafts (Handwerkskammer Berlin), the Berlin Chamber of Industry and Commerce (Industrie- und Handelskammer Berlin), Masterplan Industriestadt Berlin 2018 – 2021, FU Berlin’s Profund Innovation (Profund Innovation der FU Berlin), the Berlin-Brandenburg Business Association (Unternehmensverbände Berlin-Brandenburg, UVB), the Brandenburg Business Development Agency (Wirtschaftsförderung Brandenburg, WFBB), and the state universities of applied sciences.

Thies Johannsen opened the conference week with a keynote on knowledge and technology transfer. He gave an academic review explaining the function that technology transfer plays in the innovation system. As this is only one aspect of a wider development, Thies located current forms of application-based technology transfer within a larger discourse. He outlined developments in science policy, new demands on academia and participants in the innovation system, and new forms of knowledge production. He went on to identify current opportunities and challenges, and presented future competencies for professionals, including those in academia.