Abstract:

The Hydrobiology Research Group at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) has more than twenty years of experience working on fluvial ecosystems. Specially, expertise on topics of fish and macrobenthic communities has been developed. Also, this group leads long-term research on applied ecology and fluvial management in Spain. For several years, this research group is sharing this knowledge participating in projects dealing with human impacts on aquatic resources, fisheries management and physical habitat evaluation. With the aim of increasing and optimizing technology and knowledge transfer, it was founded ECOHIDRAULICA S.L. as a spin-off linked to the UPM in 2005. The idea of ECOHIDRAULICA S.L. was awarded with the ACTUA UPM 2005 third prize, with 6.000 euros and a training course on Research and Development (R&D) and management of spin-off companies. From this date, ECOHIDRAULICA S.L. developed two main lines of work: R&D and consultancy, with continuous feedback between them. In 2010 ECOHIDRAULICA is a consolidated technological company, with strong focus on R&D, participating in research with several Spanish Universities and other spin-off companies and beginning work in Europe and Latin America. During these five years ECOHIDRAULICA has consolidated a staff of seven R&D oriented technicians, has promoted research contracts at Universities, has effectively transferred knowledge that was stored at academic libraries to the private and public sectors and has collaborated in the formation of University students. Nowadays ECOHIDRAULICA participates as EPO (Observer and Promoting Entity) in national R&D projects, and is also promoting European consortia for collaborating in the Seventh Framework Programme.

Keywords:

Spin-off, environmental engineering, technology transfer, professional training.