The IP4OS Toolbox for Knowledge Valorisation provides tangible and adaptable guidance, checklists/rubrics, consultation models, and training concepts that can be practically applied by researchers, research supporting professionals such as research managers, KTO/TTOs, data stewards, librarians, legal professionals, and research-performing organisations in their everyday activities focusing on Research Knowledge Valorisation. The Toolbox supports informed decision-making on knowledge sharing and reuse, Intellectual Property Rights, and licensing—demonstrating that Intellectual Property (IP) and Open Science (OS) are not mutually exclusive but can effectively reinforce each other when valorisation choices are made thoughtfully and at an early stage. It also offers structured guidance for establishing multi-professional teams within research institutions, equipping them to provide consultations to their institutions’ researchers on valorisation strategies that coherently integrate IP management and OS practices.
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Description
As a key deliverable of the Horizon Europe IP4OS project, the IP4OS Toolbox advances impactful, value-oriented knowledge valorisation strategies through a synergistic approach to IP management and OS practices.
By integrating IP management and OS practices, researchers and institutions can promote OS and FAIR principles while managing their intellectual assets responsibly. Beyond copyright and patents, the approach encompasses open licensing models, rights retention strategies, secondary publication rights, and pre-publication IP checks in data management plans. In this framework, 'as open as possible, as closed as necessary' captures the core logic: IP rights define and manage conditions of reuse rather than restrict it, while OS facilitates meaningful knowledge circulation rather than making all outputs public.
The IP4OS Toolbox is a compilation of ten openly accessible materials supporting practical implementation. Among these, the Knowledge Valorisation Rubrics has to be highlighted. It is a structured guide for researchers, support professionals, and multi-professional consultation teams that breaks the valorisation strategy process into three components: (1) producing new or reusing existing intellectual assets; (2) conditions of reuse; and (3) timing of reuse. Another key resources of the toolbox is the FAIR-R²L Rubric expanding the concepts of FAIR-principles and AI-readiness to Responsible licensing.
The Toolbox forms part of the broader IP4OS capacity-building programmeand is complemented by the Synergy Framework — a handbook offering evidence-informed recommendations on concerted IP-OS approaches and research assessment reform.
Achievements & learning
By establishing an informed European Community of Practice, IP4OS equips the European R&I ecosystem with evidence-informed, actionable knowledge on a concerted IP-OS approach for effective valorisation strategies that enable sharing, reuse, and adequate protection.
All IP4OS outputs are successfully applied in the Europe-wide train-the-trainer program (Pilot Learning Lab) establishing multi-professional teams in European research institutions. So far, all pilots recognise these materials as highly important and helpful for further advancing their valorisation strategies.
Simultaneously these materials are free for reuse and adaptation for new institutions that are already equipped with skilled professionals but lack established workflows in IP-OS valorisation.
Another, important milestone (April to October 2026) is the launch of IP4OS Open Innovation Challenges.
Partners and sponsors
The Horizon Europe project IP4OS brings together eight partners from academia and librarianship (Kiel University, Karolinska Institutet, IFLA, University of Zagreb), knowledge transfer and law (MIK, EURICE, ASTP) and dissemination (PENSOFT) with extensive expertise in IP and OS.