From Concept to Commerce: The Challenge of Technology Transfer in Materials

Abstract

Many millions of dollars are invested annually in materials science research and development in U.S. universities. Both the universities and the sponsors, either government or private industry, have enormous incentives for the R&D efforts to become commercial. For private industry a successful development means new or improved products or processes and ultimately more profits. For the government, successful materials development can lead to improved hardware or operations efficiency and lower costs. For a university the payoff can be more than economic.Ideally, successful commercial development leads to royalties paid to the universities in the form of the most precious of assets — Unrestricted or flexible income. Students and faculty can benefit from the additional income, both privately, depending on university policy, and through their departments. However, benefits can also accrue in the form of experience and knowledge gained while participating in the technology transfer process from university to corporation. Students who take part in such efforts gain invaluable experience in preparing and defending patent applications, designing and developing prototypes, and they are exposed to economic and legal issues that are seldom taught in the classroom. They become more valuable graduates. Taking part in a technology transfer case history is a far more effective form of learning than reading about it.These benefits to a university are offset by a number of potentially negative factors. The space, time, personnel, equipment, and deadline pressures involved in commercialization are often beyond the capabilities of a university program. However, these limitations may not be realized until the effort has begun, and it is costly to stop in midstream, as is discussed below.