The number that stopped me cold
I was reading the latest report from the EFI — Germany’s Expert Commission for Research and Innovation. One number made me put the report down.
18 months.
That’s how long it takes, on average, to transfer university IP into a startup in Germany. Not to build the product. Not to find the first customer. Not to raise funding. Just to negotiate the contract. 18 months, before anything real can begin. I had to re-read it.
This isn’t a process problem. It’s a startup killer.
Let’s put this in context. In December, I read in The Economist how China is accelerating drug discovery with AI: discovery to clinical trial in 12–18 months. Before AI: 3–5 years. So while European biotech teams are still sitting in contract negotiations, Chinese competitors are already entering clinical trials. We’re not losing on innovation. We’re losing on bureaucracy.
And the worst part? We’ve proven we can move faster. During the pandemic, BioNTech built the first mRNA vaccine at the speed of light. Regulatory bodies moved in weeks, not years. The entire system shifted because it had to.
So the question isn’t can we move fast? The question is: why do we accept 18 months as normal?
The real cost of 18 months
Every month lost in IP negotiation is not just a delay. It’s a compounding loss:
- Talent lost. The best researchers don’t wait 18 months. They go to the US, to Asia, or into industry.
- Time lost. In deep tech and biotech, a 12-month delay can mean losing first-mover advantage entirely.
- Impact lost. Science that could save lives, create jobs or solve climate problems sits in a drawer while lawyers negotiate.
- Trust lost. Every founder who experiences this tells ten others. The reputation of European research institutions suffers with every painful transfer.
The land of inventors that forgot how to move fast
Germany has a proud tradition of innovation. We invented the car, the MP3 format, aspirin. And yet our university IP transfer system moves at the speed of the 19th century.
The EFI number is Germany, but the pattern is European. 18 months is not an outlier — it’s the norm across most of the continent. Meanwhile, the US Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 let universities own and license IP from federally funded research. The result? Stanford, MIT and others became engines of startup creation. Europe has been talking about its own version for decades. Talking.
What actually works
1. Standardized term sheets.
Most IP negotiations take so long because every deal starts from scratch. Universities that use standardized, founder-friendly term sheets cut negotiation time dramatically.
2. Dedicated tech-transfer officers with startup experience.
The best offices are staffed by people who have built companies — not just lawyers. They understand urgency. They speak the founder’s language.
3. Pre-negotiated frameworks.
Some universities now offer pre-agreed IP frameworks for specific research areas. Founders know upfront what the terms will look like. No surprises, no delays.
4. Time limits on negotiations.
Simple but radical: set a maximum negotiation period of 90 days. If no agreement is reached, default to a standard template. Deadlines create clarity.
5. Political will.
Ultimately this is a policy problem. If governments tied research funding to startup-creation speed, things would change fast.
We’ve done it before. We can do it again.
BioNTech proved that European science can move at startup speed when the stakes are high enough. The stakes are always high enough. Every year of delay is a year of talent lost, companies not built, and problems not solved.
We don’t need to copy Silicon Valley. We don’t need to abandon our traditions or our values. We just need to stop accepting 18 months as normal.
3 months is possible. I’ve seen it happen. The question is whether we want it badly enough to change.