University Technology Transfer Offices Research Articles

University technology transfer offices' capabilities in responding to societal challenges: lessons from an exploratory study during the COVID-19 pandemic

University technology transfer offices' capabilities in responding to societal challenges: lessons from an exploratory study during the COVID-19 pandemic

Opinion: Do universities help or hurt innovation?

Opinion: Do universities help or hurt innovation? Do Universities help or hurt innovation? Find out in this 25-year academic entrepreneur’s anecdotal perspective of starting companies and developing implants. Thomas J. Webster shares his opinion here. Top research U.S. Universities and others worldwide, sometimes along with respective government funding agencies (like the NSF and the NIH in the U.S.), have spent billions of dollars trying to translate their faculty’s research to industry to develop real commercial products. Whether establishing University technology transfer offices (whose objective is to foster faculty research translation), paying IP lawyer fees for patents, establishing incubator spaces for University faculty spin-out companies, or issuing grants aimed at research primed for industry adoption, it is clear that U.S. Universities are in the high stakes and high funding game of entrepreneurship, and have been so for the last several decades.

Commercializing University Innovations: A Sense-Making Perspective to Communicate Between Academics and Industry

Technology transfer offices (TTOs) play a key role in helping universities commercialize research and distribute knowledge. Nonetheless, there remains an incomplete understanding of the communication, which takes place between academics, industry partners, and TTO staff. The aim of this article is to examine, with the use of sense-making theory, strategies used by TTO employees as they work with academics and industry partners to commercialize intellectual property. In order to achieve this aim, an ethnographic exploratory case study was undertaken at a university TTO. The collected information then became the basis for qualitative interviews with TTO staff from 13 universities in Scotland. The study contributes to the sense-making theory by explaining how, during the commercialization conversations, TTO employees can deliberately interrupt the sense-making process through “dumbing down.” Our research introduces the TTO employee as a mediator and examines the role of the TTO staff in facilitating the sense-making process. The findings illustrate how someone who is not an expert in the field can add to the sense-making process. The study suggests that TTO employees intentionally engage in a “dumbing down process” to make complicated conversations easy to understand.

FOSTERING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AWARENESS IN ACADEMIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP

The importance of Intellectual Property (IP) in academic entrepreneurship, emphasises a need for specialised knowledge of IP law in university Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), and general awareness of IP rules amongst university researchers, research assistants, and other university personnel. This helps not only in preventing the inadvertent loss of valuable IP, but also the infringement of IP owned by other parties, which could result in costly law suits. Equally, knowledge of IP law is indispensable to the effective negotiation of licences, and the drafting of contracts that cater for the interests of both universities and industry. The objective of this article is, accordingly, to provide academic entrepreneurs with insights into IP regimes. This should help them in identifying valuable IP, and in ensuring that protection is not compromised. It will also help in determining the modes of protection suitable for particular forms of IP, how to manage acquired rights, and tackle infringements. In the following sections, we discuss these issues from the perspectives of several jurisdictions. Traversing our discussion is an examination of university IP policies, and relevant case law, which should enhance understanding. The last segment of the article concludes and reiterates the importance of IP awareness in academic entrepreneurship. Therefore, this article aims at fostering awareness of IP regimes amongst academic entrepreneurs.

Evaluation of the main technology valuation methods applied to intellectual property

The Technology Licensing Office (TLO) face several challenges, and one of them is related to the commercialization of technologies created by Scientific and Technological Institutions (STI), specifically regarding the valuation of technologies with market potential. This involves assigning a monetary value to the technologies to enable their negotiation for transfer to the productive sector. The objective of this study was to evaluate the main methods or valuation models of technology applied to intellectual property as a means of supporting the commercialization and technology transfer processes in TLOs. The research methodology used to conduct this study on valuation methods applicable to TLOs was a systematic literature review. As a result, a guide was developed, consisting of a few questions, which allows for a quick review to select, in a clear and objective manner, the most appropriate technology valuation method to be applied, taking into account the interests of the evaluator. In this way, the main technology valuation methods were identified, as well as the main advantages and disadvantages of each of the models addressed in this study.

(Invited) Iron Flow Battery with Slurry Electrode for Large Scale Energy Storage: Scale-up, Commercialization, and IP Challenges in an Academic Environment

Large-scale energy storage is required to meet a multitude of current energy challenges. These challenges include modernizing the grid, incorporating intermittent renewable energy sources (so as to dispatch continuous electrical energy), improving the efficiency of electricity transmission and distribution, and providing flexibility of storage independent of geographical and geological location.Through efforts supported by ARPA-E and the Department of Energy Office of Electricity, one technology we are developing utilizes an approach based on sustainable, low cost iron electrolytes in an iron flow battery (IFB). Advantages of the IFB include abundant, non-toxic, and non-corrosive materials that are used to provide an energy storage solution that has inherently safe operation and is environmentally friendly. In our approach to the all iron RFB, we introduced a flowing carbon slurry as the negative electrode as a substrate for plating iron during charging allowing storage of the plated iron in a tank external to the stack. This configuration decouples energy and power capacities. The work supported by DOE allowed us to address challenges encountered in scaling up from small laboratory cells to a large commercial size slurry IFB single cell. 1 In this presentation, we will address some of the challenges we encountered for demonstrating the technology within an academic environment in order to position it for commercial development. Even with funding to overcome the valley-of-death and technology-to-market assistance given by ARPA-E, we faced many challenges including hiring expertise to address scale-up, design and testing. We will discuss challenges faced with identifying partners and licensees for moving discovery to product. Also, we will describe the many types of interactions we had with the university Technology Transfer Office including patent disclosure, IP protection, and negotiating licenses. Acknowledgements: This research was supported by ARPA-E contract DE-AR0000352. Partial support also was received from the DOE Office of Electricity Award #1111358,0 under Dr. Imre Gyuk. 1N.S. Sinclair, R.F. Savinell and J.S. Wainright, MRS Energy & Sustainability, 2022; doi: 10.1557/s43581-022-00046-8

Factors, Routes, and Existing Theories of Technology Commercialization in University: A Conceptual Framework

<p>Technology commercialization in universities which consists of three phases, namely basic research, commercialization feasibility, and commercialization runs non-linearly and goes through licensing and spin-off creation. To achieve commercialization success, there are eight influencing factors, namely academic entrepreneur, role of technology, availability of market, availability of finance, intermediaries' support (i.e. University Technology Transfer Office (UTTO), university's incubator, and proof of concept center), role of collaborative research center, policy support, and regional infrastructure and environment. Meanwhile, the existing management theories that discuss the commercialization of technology in universities mostly use a resource perspective such as Resource-Based View (RBV), resource orchestration theory, and dynamic capabilities with university and spin-offs as unit of analysis. This literature study provides several recommendations for future studies. First, it needs to expand the analysis not limited to licensing and spin-off, and second, it is suggested to develop a resource perspective by enriching what dimensions influence the success of a technology commercialization in universities or provide alternative new management theories in understanding technology commercialization in university.</p>

Expired patents: An opportunity for higher education institutions.

Patent protection typically lasts about 20 years from the filing date and is in exchange for sufficiently disclosing the invention. The disclosure aims to enrich technical knowledge globally, promote creativity and technological innovation and contribute to sustainable socio-economic development. After this protection period, the patent expires, and in principle, any person may begin practicing the specific subject matter previously protected by the patent. Since the invention originally met all the patentability requirements, it was disclosed sufficiently to stimulate further innovation by others through a thorough understanding of existing developments in the patent literature. Thus, in addition to scholarly research articles, this makes patents potentially valuable sources of technical information in research and academia, unlocking new technology opportunities. We use the exploratory research method to study a potentially genuine and vital research stream that uncovers the overlooked yet valuable scientific and technical information sources that higher education institutions could utilize to complement academic research articles. This work establishes a necessary research agenda that critically challenges researchers to tap into the immediately available and promising technology opportunities presented by patents in the public domain. Using case studies to gain in-depth, multi-faceted explorations about the impact of these patents, we find that technologies contained in expired patents, abandoned patents, and technologies not protected by IPRs, resulting in improved research quality and increased collaboration with industry, if adequately exploited and integrated with other technologies. Moreover, this could lead to increased academic patenting and commercialization with support from the university's Technology Transfer Office.

A multi-criteria decision framework for IP valuation method selection: “Valuation case” matters

This paper explores the applicability of IP (Intellectual Property) valuation methods in the university TTOs context by using multi-criteria decision-making frameworks. The IP valuation methods are evaluated for their usage in university IP and Startup valuation, patent or patent-pending technologies, and different Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Data was collected through in-depth structured interviews and a Delphi survey with 17 experts. By descriptive analysis of responses and consensus rates, we proposed a combined multi-criteria decision-making model of Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) for university Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) to be utilized in selecting appropriate IP Valuation methods. Findings reveal that more than one method should be used to make well-supported estimates for patent value. DCF method is the most suggested method. Income methods are most favourable on University IP, Startup's IP, non–patented or patent-pending, TRL 1–6 technologies. Findings can help valuation practitioners, especially from TTOs, design roadmaps for IP valuation.

Technology Transfer Offices and Their Role with Information Mechanisms for Innovation Performance in Firms: The Case of Ghana

Research into formal and informal technology transfer between universities and industry in economical developed counties is well-documented. However, such studies are limited in number in developing economies. In the context of developing economies, this study analyses technology transfer offices’ role in university technology transfer to Ghanaian firms. We incorporate informal mechanisms as a moderating variable to explore the role of human interaction in the technology transfer value chain. In a cross-sectional survey in Ghana, using structural equation modelling with 245 firms, our research finds a negative moderating effect of informal mechanisms on the effect of technology transfer offices on innovation performance in firms. The findings are of significance to universities and corporate bodies in economically developing nations such as Ghana. Policies to improve the effect of informal mechanisms of university technology transfer offices are proposed in developing economies.

Academic stars and licensing experience in university technology commercialization

AbstractResearch SummaryWe examine the process by which university technology transfer offices (TTOs) allocate internal resources, which provides insight into technologies offered for commercialization to the private sector. Using detailed administrative records of patenting decisions and outcomes by one prominent U.S. research‐based university's TTO over a 30‐year period, we analyze the performance of invention disclosures by academic stars and by inventors with prior licensing experience. We find that the lead inventor's academic prominence (but not licensing experience) predicts patent application filing, while licensing experience (but not academic prominence) predicts patent impact and commercialization success. We supplement this descriptive analysis with follow‐up interviews and empirical evaluation of possible mechanisms for this seemingly outsized role of academic stars.Managerial SummaryIncreasingly prevalent hybrid organizations are expected to fulfill multiple objectives. University technology transfer offices (TTOs) are an example of a hybrid organization and are charged with disseminating academia‐originated technology for the public good as well as for economic benefit. We study how one TTO allocates internal resources, using comprehensive in‐house administrative data over a 30‐year span. We find that while the TTO tends to put resources behind inventions by academic stars, the commercial returns from licensing inventions from such individuals are no different than inventions by non‐stars. By contrast, inventors' prior licensing experience highly predicts commercial returns. These results illustrate the challenges inherent in internal resource allocation inside a complex hybrid organization.

Not just numbers! Improving TTO performance by balancing the soft sides of the TQM

PurposeThis study investigates the role of “soft” factors of total quality management – in terms of empowerment and engagement of employees – in facilitating or hindering organizational performance of the university technology transfer offices.Design/methodology/approachThe authors developed an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), multiple regression model to test if empowerment and engagement affect organizational performance of the university technology transfer offices.FindingsThe authors found that “soft” factors of total quality management – in terms of empowerment and engagement – facilitate the improvement of organizational performance in university technology transfer offices.Practical implicationsThe authors’ analysis shows that soft total quality management practices create the conditions for improving organizational performance. This study provides practical implications by showing that, in the evaluation of the technology transfer office, not only the “hard” variables (e.g. number of employees and employee experience) but also the “soft” one (e.g. empowerment and engagement) matter. Therefore, university technology transfer managers or university technology transfer delegates should take actions to promote not only empowering employees but also create a climate conducive to employees' engagement in the university technology transfer offices.Originality/valueWith regards to the differences in organizational performances of university technology transfer offices, several studies have focused their attention on technology transfer professionals in technology transfer offices, but only a few of them have examined the “soft side” of total quality management. Thus, this study examines the organizational goals of technology transfer offices through “soft” factors of total quality management in terms of empowerment and engagement employees.

Governance of entrepreneurial universities in the context of entrepreneurial ecosystems: the perspective of the university technology transfer offices

ABSTRACT Governance of universities toward the entrepreneurial university and the link with the organizational role of University Technology Transfer Offices (UTTOs) are studied. A double novel approach is adopted: first, analyzing the visibility of the entrepreneurial strategy followed by the different universities in the system, with a Web Content Analysis of all Spanish universities (seventy-six), and extracting data from official reports; second, with a survey to UTTOs managers (sixteen valid answers). Key aspects of entrepreneurial universities, such as their organizational structure, links between entrepreneurship and research, entrepreneurship education, and the relationships with the ecosystem were analyzed. In addition, the views of UTTOs’ managers about the implementation of the entrepreneurial university in their own institution were studied. As a result, it emerges how the entrepreneurial university strategy is made visible in specific actions such as transversal initiatives, awards to entrepreneurship and initial support. In addition, it has been found that UTTOs managers think that the impact of the entrepreneurial university should be further assessed in order to know the real results of the implementation of such strategy.

An Overview on patenting trends and technology commercialization practices in the university Technology Transfer Offices in USA and China

The Technology Transfer Office is critical in translating university research into commercial value. This research paper analyzes the performances of university Technology Transfer Office models as well as their technology transfer mechanisms. The first step of this research project involves conducting patent information searches on databases to investigate academic patenting activities in the USA and China. Many Technology Transfer Offices, have similar intellectual property licensing practices and the involvement of industrial partners throughout the commercialization process. However, during the comparison it is found that the Technology Transfer Office working models varied in several ways. The main difference is that the pace at which patenting is accomplished in the USA and Chinese universities is far more sophisticate. Because of substantial resources and government support, Proof of Concept funding at various stages of technological maturity is steadily developing at universities in the USA and China. Furthermore, both USA and Chinese universities are very active in teaching and incentivizing their faculty and students about the importance of academic entrepreneurship and are well-versed with skilled technology transfer professionals who have all the necessary skills to transfer technology.

Barriers to university–industry collaboration in an emerging market: Firm-level evidence from Turkey

University-industry collaborations (UICs) are one of the main sources of external knowledge and technologies for industrial firms, particularly in the context of emerging markets (EMs) and firm development. It is thus highly relevant to identify potential barriers internal to the firm as well as in the regional innovation system that might prevent firms from using UICs for innovation, in particular in an EM context. In order to address this issue, we conduct a firm-level study of the R&D-related segment of the manufacturing industry in Istanbul. Logistic regression analysis is used to test the effect of potential barriers on using UICs for innovative activities. With this approach, we are able to identify barriers that prevent innovation-related UICs and thus form a bottleneck to collaborations in the first place. Our findings show that lack of information about UIC opportunities as well as lack of financial support for UICs are the most relevant barriers that inhibit firms’ usage of UICs for innovation. This firm-level evidence points out the importance of university technology transfer offices in regional innovation systems and for fruitful UICs. We further find that administrative barriers have no significant effect, while barriers related to trust and skill matching with scientific partners even have a reverse effect to what we would have expected from the literature. This finding might point towards an effect of perceived versus deterring barriers that has been observed in innovation studies before and might be relevant for studying UICs as well.

Optimizing biomedical discoveries as an engine of culture change in an academic medical center.

Academic discovery in biomedicine is a growing enterprise with tens of billions of dollars in research funding available to universities and hospitals. Protecting and optimizing the resultant intellectual property is required in order for the discoveries to have an impact on society. To achieve that, institutions must create a multidisciplinary, collaborative system of review and support, and utilize connections to industry partners. In this study, we outline the efforts of Case Western Reserve University, coordinated through its Clinical and Translational Science Collaborative (CTSC), to promote entrepreneurial culture, and achieve goals of product development and startup formation for biomedical and population health discoveries arising from the academic ecosystem in Cleveland. The CTSC Office of Translation and Innovation, with the university's Technology Transfer Office (TTO), helps identify and derisk promising IP while building interdisciplinary project teams to optimize the assets through key preclinical derisking steps. The benefits of coordinating funding across multiple programs, assuring dedicated project management to oversee optimizing the IP, and ensuring training to help improve proposals and encourage an entrepreneurial culture, are discussed in the context of a case study of therapeutic assets, the Council to Advance Human Health. This case study highlights best practices in academic innovation.

University technology transfer: Contacts and connections at the origin of licensing agreements

Technology diffusion and licensing agreements between universities and industry enhance the application of research results and ensures further outcomes for the university stakeholders that take part on the technology transfer process. To this end, University technology transfer offices (TTOs) work with researchers and businesses to bring new technologies into commercialization. To get to know the Portuguese University TTOs underlying interactions and factors at the origin of licensing agreements that can create wealth for people and organizations, data has been collected among TTOs head of offices using a semi-structured survey. The most frequent knowledge exchange interactions were identified, which include: meeting with researchers to discuss the innovation potential of their work; contacting companies to discuss the development of new projects; contacts with companies known by the researchers and the researchers contact with R&D people from companies is also key on reaching licensing agreements, as well as existing collaborations with industry. The conclusions have been reached using a descriptive and exploratory approach to convey information regarding interactions at the origin of licensing agreements.

Emergence and Scale-up of Frugal Innovations: The Relevance of University-Industry Interaction

This article analyses the emergence and scale-up of frugal innovations supported by university-industry interactions in the Colombian context. We conducted semi-structured interviews with eight researchers from the National University of Colombia, who participated in activities to transfer technology to society through frugal innovations. Results highlight the social role of the Colombian university and the motivations of the participating researchers to develop frugal innovations. Three benefits of the university-industry interaction to develop and upscale frugal innovations were identified and described: a) the exchange of specialised knowledge that helps to do incremental improvements on frugal innovations; b) the strengthening of distribution and marketing strategies of innovation, supporting its implementation in different contexts; and c) advantages in scaling up production. The relevance of these findings to understand frugal innovation processes and their implications for designing support services by university technology transfer offices are discussed.

Exploring the Factors Affecting Technology Transfer in Government-Funded Research Institutes: The Korean Case

Based on the resource dependence theory and the resource-based view, this study examined the impact of the resources and capabilities of government-funded research institutes (GRIs) on technology transfer. Panel analysis was performed on 21 GRIs in South Korea representing three mission types—basic future leading, public infrastructure, and industrialization—for the 2015–2019 period. The analysis confirmed that the factors affecting technology transfer performance differed among GRIs depending on their mission type. For basic future leading GRIs, the number of technology transfer cases was strongly associated with the number of research personnel, while there was a negative relationship between technology transfer and the total budget, the number of research publications, and the number of patent registrations. None of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Researchers at these GRIs appear to have a strong motivation for technology transfer, but the priority for resource allocation at the institutional level is the production of papers and patents rather than technology transfer. For public infrastructure GRIs, the number of patents held and the number of technology licensing office (TLO) personnel had a positive impact on the number of technology transfer cases, while none of the variables affected the revenue from technology fees. Thus, the number of patents is more favorable for technology transfer at this type of GRI compared to those that pursue a mission of basic future leading, possibly because their research focus is more related to engineering than to basic science. For industrialization GRIs, the number of TLO personnel affected the number of cases of technology transfer, and the number of patent registrations and TLO personnel affected the revenue from technology fees. The speed of technology development and industrial application is thus much faster in industrialization GRIs than in the other GRI types. The results of this analysis show that mission attributes are important drivers of technology transfer performance. This study thus offers policy implications by illustrating those different resources should be provided to different types of GRI to optimize their technology transfer performance.

The Technology Transfer Office (TTO): Toward a Viable Model for Universities in Morocco

The link between the enterprise and the university in Morocco is positioned within the framework of what is commonly known as the “University’s Third-Mission”. This relationship is primarily concerned with continued education, consultancy, collaborative research and development (R&D) and technology transfer from the university to the enterprise. This third mission has been promoted by the university through the establishment of specialized structures such as university enterprise interfaces, incubators and technological information centres for invention patents. Also, several strategies and programs of incentives for innovation have been promoted by the public authorities to create a national system of innovation in Morocco. However, all these efforts failed to unleash and activate the potential of Moroccan universities. In this work, we will propose an effective and efficient institutional Technology Transfer (TT) policy backed up by a complete repository related to the establishing of the University Technology Transfer Office (UTTO). This proposal complements the work done in a previous paper, which assesses the different policies and programs within Moroccan universities, related to TT activities, and proposes a remodelling of the value chain of the process of technology transfer in the universities.