Researchers at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) are increasingly seeking to protect their inventions not only in Greece but also in major global markets, including the United States, China and India, marking a shift towards international commercialisation. Over the past five to ten years, patent activity at northern Greece's largest university has shown a "clearly upward and steadily strengthening" trend, with at least 50% of filings now submitted outside Greece.
According to Vice Rector for Research and Innovation Ioannis Rekanos, AUTh currently manages 108 active patents through its research committee (ELKE), corresponding to 55 distinct inventions protected across multiple jurisdictions. Of these, 52 have been filed in Greece, 32 in European countries and 24 in other international markets, "mainly in the United States, China, India and others". This geographical spread, he notes, "reflects the extroversion and the strategic international protection of the institution's research results".
The most patent-intensive fields are health, advanced materials and energy, alongside biomedical devices, pharmaceuticals and drug-delivery systems, nanotechnology, sustainable technologies, agri-food innovation, artificial intelligence, robotics, photonics and advanced sensors. Applications have also emerged from the School of Music Studies and the Faculty of Philosophy, pushing research "outside the walls" of academia.
Since 2020 alone, 80 successful patent applications have been filed, an acceleration compared with the previous decade. On average, 12 to 13 applications are submitted annually, including three in January 2026 alone. However, Rekanos cautions that year-on-year comparisons can be misleading, as filings are often tied to the lifecycle of national and European-funded research programmes.
Commercialisation remains a work in progress. Around 20% of patents over the past five years have been linked to spin-offs or licence agreements, an important figure for a public university. Most inventions are at the proof-of-concept stage or seeking funding, particularly in capital-intensive sectors such as medical technologies, where regulatory compliance can slow market entry. A new pilot model now connects AUTh inventors with external market professionals to enhance targeted industrial uptake. "At the end of the day, the biggest challenge is not simply the patenting, but the real integration of inventions into production and society," Rekanos concludes.
Adapted from ANA-MPA
