"SoftWert" wins audience prize at BMBF’s Transferwerkstatt

Software developed in research can also offer added value for business and society outside the scientific community. In the project "SoftWert – Method kit for the Exploitation of Scientific Software” DESY has been working together with the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) and Saarland University since 2020 to develop a methodological toolbox for the exploitation of research software.

Zahra Saleh and Janine Fischer (DESY) together with Lisa Wenzel (GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences) have presented the central results of the project at this year's transfer workshop for knowledge and technology transfer of non-university research institutions at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in Bonn. With complete success: In the subsequent public voting of all presentations on "deepening and transferability as best practice", the project team was convincing and clearly prevailed with more than half of the votes.

"We are pleased that we can provide very good transfer opportunities for the transfer community with the methods from 'SoftWert'," says Zahra Saleh. "Software has long been a key component in scientific work, part of the research infrastructure and a valuable resource from science for the transfer of knowledge and technology."

In order to anchor the topic of software expoloitation at DESY in the long term, a "Software Innovation Hub" will be set up in the Innovation and Technology Transfer Office after the project at the end of December 2023. This will bundle all relevant support services for scientists: Starting with the evaluation of the exploitation potential of research software, through clarification of the legal conditions, to the identification of suitable transfer paths and design of the respective business models, right up to the creation and negotiation of license agreements.