Last week I had the distinct privilege of serving as a panelist for the Lab-to-Market Inter-Agency Summit, sponsored by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Designed to obtain insights from experts in industry, academia, and finance about federal programs working to accelerate their labs’ rate of technology transfer, the discussion was productive and surprisingly candid. (Perhaps the latter begat the former!) I for one was encouraged by…

I was recently asked for my insights about technology transfer office (TTO) use of external advisory boards or committees. Such boards have been frequently cited in reports and the press as a useful tool — or even a required element — for improved tech transfer operations. The thinking is that external boards provide a means to obtain objective industry/market opinions about new technologies and/or to tap into technical expertise not available within the TTO. I am all in favor of…

Despite the beautiful weather we’ve been enjoying here in North Carolina the last few weeks, I have frequently found myself online reading interesting posts about technology transfer. So here’s what I’ve been reading. How about you? Send me a private message or post a comment below.

This Friday, April 19th, at 1pm EDT I will be a panelist in a webinar called “Open Innovation Best Practices for University Tech Transfer.” Sponsored by Technology Transfer Tactics, this 1-hour webinar is designed to help universities be successful in open innovation partnerships. A paradigm shift toward open innovation is underway among universities. This shift has been coming for a while, as R&D budgets have been cut year after year. Universities had to employ concepts like open innovation in order to streamline processes.

This month’s worth reading list includes quite a few items that relate to each other. So I’m going to do some categorizing. Our topics this month are: Senator Wyden’s letter to NIH concerning collaborations with industry, internship programs for technology transfer offices (TTOs), the need for nondisclosure agreements (NDAs), and a few items from the “Now That’s a New Perspective” desk.

Over 50 teams are at the Regional Tournament at Dorton Arena, and 41 of them are from North Carolina! This year the robots have to fling a flying disc through a slot in the boards at the ends of the field and then climb a tower, one rung at a time. As in the past, each round starts with the robots in autonomous operation. All the teams arrived on Thursday with working robots and nearly all made it through inspection. Great accomplishment! Meeting Woodie Flowers on Thursday evening: He is one of the co-founders of the FIRST Robotics Competition and professor emeritus at MIT. His being at this year’s event is a big deal for the kids. They really like him!

Well, we made it through the first half of the AUTM® annual meeting. It’s been a great conference so far, and I expect the next two days to be likewise. It’s a little bittersweet for me, as this meeting marks the end of my tenure as VP of Strategic Alliances. I am grateful for the many people who contributed to all that’s been accomplished in the past two years, particularly the successful development and launch of AUTM’s Global Technology Portal. Speaking of the GTP,…

Today we have another installment of technology transfer-related items that I think are worth reading. Perhaps you’ll want to read them during your travels to San Antonio for the AUTM® annual meeting. Check them out during your airport layovers or on the plane, depending on your on-board wifi access. Or, if you’re really the plan-ahead type, download these items before takeoff.

Just before Christmas, I had the privilege of attending the annual conference of the University Technology Enterprise Network (UTEN), an organization dedicated to (in their words) “professionalizing and advancing science and technology commercialization in Portugal.” As the AUTM® vice president for Strategic Alliances, I was invited to participate on a panel discussing technology transfer networks. I have to say, it was an enlightening meeting, and the lessons learned and best practices shared have value beyond Portugal. So brace yourself: this is a long post, but there was lots of good information to share!

One of the items in my last “worth reading” post — Stefan Lindegaard’s blog post “Are Universities, Tech Transfer Units Open Innovation Losers?” — is getting a lot of attention, including a Technology Transfer Tactics blog post. Given the discussions in several tech transfer groups across LinkedIn (including AUTM, Techno-L, and Technology Transfer – Valorisation), I’d like to offer some further thoughts here. Open innovation refers to the spin-in as well as the spin-out of ideas, technology, etc. Approaching these two “directions” in concert and proactively — what we’ve called Symbiotic Innovation — is an essential component for revolutionizing technology transfer.