Sandrine Borg
Following the Union for the Mediterranean’s (UfM) ‘From Research to Business’ conference held in Malta last October, the launch of the report ‘From Research to Business: Turning Knowledge into Jobs, Innovation and Growth’ captures the key insights and regional pathways identified during the high-level segment and technical workshops of this conference.
The Union organised this conference with the support of the German Development Cooperation, the European Commission and Xjenza Malta, with technical support from MIMIR.
The event reaffirmed the growing importance of translating scientific knowledge into marketable solutions and employment opportunities in the Mediterranean. The report consolidates contributions from policymakers, researchers, entrepreneurs and innovation ecosystem leaders, offering a common baseline on how scientific knowledge can be translated into market-ready solutions, employment opportunities and long-term regional competitiveness.
As Malta’s main national funder for research and innovation and UfM focal point for the R&I Platform, Xjenza Malta contributed both organisationally and substantively to the dialogue that informed the report’s findings. Interventions underscored the need to strengthen the full pathway from discovery to deployment, bridging the persistent gap between academic research and commercial application through collaboration, capacity building and targeted funding instruments.
The report builds on priorities presented and discussed during the opening high-level session, which took place within the margins of the UfM High-Level Conference on Employment and Labour, and brought together more than 200 participants from across the Euro-Mediterranean region.
Opening remarks and strategic reflections referenced in the report include those by Joan Borrell, UfM deputy secretary general for higher education and research, Stefan Olsson, deputy director general at the European Commission, and Keith Azzopardi Tanti, Malta’s parliamentary secretary for youth, research and innovation.
“Bridging the persistent gap between academic research and commerical application”
Their contributions highlighted the strong interlinkages between research commercialisation, skills development and employability.
The participation of Byron Camilleri, Malta’s minister for home affairs, security and employment, further reinforced the role of innovation policy as a tool for labour market resilience and sustainable economic growth.
In his opening and closing remarks during the workshop, Xjenza Malta’s director for the R&I Unit, Melchior Cini, highlighted Malta’s growing investment in research commercialisation through instruments such as the FUSION R&I Go-To-Market Accelerator Programme, the Commercialisation Voucher Programme and the European Innovation Council Support Scheme offered by Xjenza Malta.
These initiatives can be further leveraged alongside complementary measures provided by entities such as Malta Enterprise as part of a broader ecosystem designed to support the transition from research excellence to economic scale-up.
The report also situates these efforts within a wider international context, including participation in the Partnership for Research and Innovation in the Mediterranean Area (PRIMA), bilateral cooperation programmes, and EU funding opportunities under Horizon Europe. Together, these mechanisms are presented as key enablers of the UfM Research and Innovation Platform’s regional priorities in areas such as health, climate action and renewable energy.
In my intervention, Xjenza Malta presented the agency’s internationalisation perspective, noting that the conference represented a pivotal step in strengthening the Mediterranean’s research ecosystem as a network of opportunity.
Research valorisation is not merely a technical process, but a regional goal of transforming shared knowledge into shared prosperity. By enabling researchers, entrepreneurs and policymakers to co-create solutions, the UfM is weaving a fabric of cooperation that aims to turn policy into impact.
Xjenza Malta also had the opportunity to mobilise Malta-based researchers, including from private entities, the University of Malta and MCAST, to attend this event alongside leading R&I entrepreneurs and research valorisation experts from across the Mediterranean.
The launch of the ‘From Research to Business: Turning Knowledge into Jobs, Innovation and Growth’ report marks a necessary strategic direction in consolidating the outcomes of the Malta event into a shared knowledge base for policymakers and practitioners.
At the national level, Xjenza Malta remains committed to fostering a framework that provides research projects with a clear pathway to economic scale-up and impact. The agency’s goal is to translate R&I investments into sustainable enterprises, quality jobs and exportable innovation, ultimately making research a true pillar of Malta’s competitiveness and long-term growth.
Sandrine Borg is a senior executive at Xjenza Malta and serves as Malta’s National Focal Point for the Union for the Mediterranean Research & Innovation platform.
