As Nannette Stangle-Castor and I get ready for Fuentek’s new webinar on implementing open innovation best practices in technology transfer offices (TTOs), I am reminded of conversations I’ve had with a wide range of tech transfer professionals over the years. What has struck me time and again in these discussions is the broad applicability of open innovation concepts to tech transfer and the value of implementing these concepts in a proactive manner. Despite the fact that government, university, and corporate TTOs vary in their missions, perspectives on innovation, goals/metrics, and economic and entrepreneurial climates, they all have the potential to benefit from implementing sound principles related to open innovation. Continue reading →
Most of you who have read my posts know that I am a strong advocate of open innovation innovation and its application in conjunction with tech transfer efforts. I truly believe it is through the combining of diverse interests and capabilities that meaningful innovations are developed and important impacts can occur. So today I want to summarize what to me are the most important things to keep in mind as you consider open innovation partnerships in your tech transfer work. 
I always read a lot about open innovation and innovation—mainly sourced from my Twitter® and RSS feed—and then leverage the best practices and lessons learned in my work with our clients as they try to build partnerships and relationships to support innovation. Lately I’ve run across a few things that I think are worth sharing with our readers. 
Fuentek president Laura Schoppe and I are putting the finishing touches on a new webinar that will provide technology transfer offices with specific solutions for securing open innovation-style collaborations and partnerships. It’s called Implementing Open Innovation: Symbiotic Success for Tech Transfer Offices (TTOs). We’ve blogged before about how Symbiotic Innovation is the notion that technology spin-out (commercializing technology) and spin-in (technology sourcing, collaborative R&D partnerships) are interdependent activities that are best pursued simultaneously. Every R&D organization has technologies or expertise that might meet the needs of external users (spin-out) as well as needs that might be solved by external technologies/expertise (spin-in). Spin-out asks, “Who needs what I have?” Spin-in asks, “Who has what I need?” Symbiotic Innovation recognizes that the “who” in both questions is the same. 
There have been a lot of articles recently about universities giving away IP rights for free. The specifics of each vary, and most seem to have advantages that will help accelerate the transfer of technology. But some go further than others. 