FERN.Lab: Bridging the gap between remote sensing academic research and society

Technology transfer (TT) between academia and industry is an important source of innovation and economic development and is becoming increasingly relevant across a diversity of research fields. Successful TT depends on effective communication between academic and external partners. This is best facilitated by an academic intermediary who can provide meaningful interactions. An academic intermediary can ensure expertise and knowledge are communicated using a common language and that goals and expectations are clear between partners. In the field of remote sensing where complex technologies, datasets and analyses are required to develop user friendly products, intermediaries play a particularly essential role. The rapid expansion of the remote sensing sector over the last decade, including sensor technologies and the volume of freely available data, has created a bottleneck between available data and technology and ready to use products. In an effort to address this bottleneck and establish a long-term innovation platform and thematic TT infrastructure, FERN.Lab, Remote Sensing for Sustainable Use of Resources Helmholtz Innovation Lab was founded at the Geodesy Department of the German Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) in January 2020. FERN.Lab is funded by the Helmholtz Association, the largest scientific organization in Germany. The goal of FERN.Lab is to facilitate TT and deliver remote sensing products to commercial and non-commercial partners by acting as an expert intermediary platform. FERN.Lab will improve the TT activities of GFZ from two distinct approaches. The first is a "pull" approach where tailormade technologies are developed for and funded by external third parties. The second is a "push" approach where existing departmental technologies with high market potential are promoted. The pull and push of technologies to external partners is accomplished by a set of competencies and services delivered by the core FERN.Lab team. Competencies include business development, scientific development, software development, and public relations which directly address institutional, financial and skills gap that can cause the TT process to fail. By implementing a robust TT framework for remote sensing products, the impact of research has the potential to be much broader and farther reaching. Additionally, these efforts can improve the acceptance of remote sensing outside of academia improving and modernizing methods used in diverse sectors which in turn can benefit not only individual partners but also politics, society, and the environment. As application-oriented innovation platform, with a close interaction with partners and customers, FERN.Lab will be a crucial part of modern TT at GFZ.