Head of Knowledge Transfer & Contracting, Netherlands Cancer Institute

Koen Verhoef is a molecular virologist by training, having obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam in 1999. During his post-doctoral scientific career, he received two EMBO fellowships that allowed him to conduct research at the University of Heidelberg (1998-1999) and at Oxford University (2000-2001). In 2001 he started as a technology transfer manager with MRC Technology (now: LifeArc), the commercialization company of the Medical Research Council in London, UK. In 2003 he moved back to the Netherlands where he founded the Technology Transfer Office at VU University Medical Centre (Medical Faculty) in Amsterdam, which soon expanded its activities to the other Faculties of VU University Amsterdam. In April 2009 he was recruited to become the head of the Technology Transfer Office of the Netherlands Cancer Institute – Antoni van Leeuwenhoek hospital (NKI-AVL), where he grew the TT team, realized a steady stream of license income of 4-5M€/year and spun out an average of 2 companies/year. Koen is an active member of ASTP-Proton, the European professional association for Knowledge Transfer, and served on its Board between 2010 and 2014 and on its Survey Committee between 2014 and 2020 and has made various contributions as a speaker to ASTP courses/conferences since becoming a member in 2002.