Organizations across STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and healthcare sectors face a dual pressure to innovate faster while managing tighter R&D budgets. At the same time, vast volumes of intellectual property and early-stage research remain underutilized. According to research, between 75% and 95% of patented technologies remain dormant, and around 50% are never commercialized. For Patrick Deconinck, CEO of TeraOpenScience, those figures represent not only inefficiency, but opportunity.
"Many companies own patents, research, or technologies that are just sitting unused and not generating revenue," Deconinck explains. "With the right structure, evaluation, and execution, those ideas could become real business opportunities. At the same time, companies tell us that developing new innovations internally is becoming more complex and expensive. TeraOpenScience was created to help solve both of those challenges."
TeraOpenScience is an AI-powered open innovation platform designed to connect students, researchers, universities, and industry leaders within a single, collaborative ecosystem. Through a SaaS-based infrastructure, corporations can launch virtual R&D projects, either publicly within an open science framework or privately under NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) protection, and assemble multidisciplinary teams to develop commercialization-ready business plans.
The company originally began with a focus on supporting students and graduates. Deconinck, who has more than 35 years of experience in innovation and operational leadership across global enterprises, observed that many capable STEM graduates struggled to demonstrate experience before entering the workforce.
"Students are eager to engage," he says. "The bigger hurdle is helping companies recognize that this is not just a networking site, it's a practical tool to execute innovation projects economically and globally."
According to Deconinck, the platform allows organizations to post projects tied to specific technologies, invite collaborators, and leverage AI-generated descriptions, use cases, and open research questions to accelerate early-stage structuring. "Teams can then work asynchronously in a secure, 24/7 virtual R&D environment, with the goal of producing launch-ready business solutions," he says.
From a commercial standpoint, Deconinck explains that TeraOpenScience operates as a multi-stream revenue model, while students sign up for free. "Professionals can access the platform through annual subscriptions, while corporations launching private R&D initiatives pay setup and participation fees," he says. "In addition, the platform captures exit fees, up to 10% of the five-year net present value, on successfully commercialized projects." According to Deconinck, this structure aligns incentives across students, professionals, and enterprises, while maintaining flexibility for companies that prefer to fund projects independently.
The broader market context further underscores the platform's positioning. According to research, the global higher education market is projected to reach around $1.56 trillion by 2030. While TeraOpenScience remains in its early operational phase, moving from beta in late 2025 to full launch in early 2026, the scale and growth of the sector reflect increasing demand for structured, digitally enabled collaboration between academia and enterprise.
Deconinck emphasizes that the platform's value is not confined to one geography. "Roughly 60% of early graduate sign-ups have come from outside the United States and Western Europe, reflecting strong engagement from regions where STEM talent is abundant but local R&D infrastructure may be limited," Deconinck says. He notes that there is tremendous ambition in parts of Southeast Asia and the Global South. "Enterprises can tap into a large pool of upcoming talent, thus creating a two-way bridge; businesses gain access to motivated contributors, and graduates gain meaningful exposure," he explains.
The strategic focus remains firmly on enterprise outcomes. Deconinck explains TeraOpenScience as a virtual R&D hub that fosters multidirectional engagement across sectors and geographies. For corporations, he believes this translates into the ability to revamp product portfolios, improve internal processes, or explore new commercialization pathways in an economical form without immediately expanding fixed overhead.
"Innovation does not have to be confined to internal teams or physical labs. With the right digital infrastructure, companies can collaborate globally, structure projects efficiently, and convert dormant intellectual property into executable business plans," Deconinck says.
With a planned capital raise dedicated largely to platform upgrades, AI enhancement, and global marketing, Deconinck explains that TeraOpenScience is positioning itself for scaled expansion across the United States, India, Europe, Asia, and Africa over the next four years.
For Deconinck, the long-term objective is straightforward. "We are building infrastructure for collaborative innovation," he says. "If we can help organizations unlock value that is already within reach, and connect it to the right talent, we create measurable impact for both business and society."
