In her Wall Street Journal article “Universities Push Harder Into Realm of Startups,” reporter Ruth Simon observed that “universities are stepping up efforts to create ‘spinouts,’ or business startups born from some of the cutting-edge research of their students or faculty. Some schools are creating funds that help cover startup costs.” She mentions several schools’ efforts to support their spinout/startup companies, …
Having first-hand experience with starting up a brand new technology transfer office (TTO), I have watched with great interest as universities and other institutions have formed (and reformed) their TTOs. In the past few years, it seems that new TTOs have been popping up like wildflowers. (Can you tell I’m a gardener?) And reorganizations of already-established TTOs are just as commonplace. This flurry of activity is not surprising given the increased focus on tech transfer in the media and policy discussions both on the national stage and at the state level. Yet little has been written about the experiences of those establishing new (or renewed) TTOs.
So we are conducting a short survey (<10 minutes) on these offices’ challenges and successes. We'll share the results on the Fuentek blog early in 2015.
Researchers at NASA’s Glenn Research Center have developed a patent-pending method for fabricating aerogel composites for thermal insulation applications — and NASA is now making this technology available for licensing. NASA’s award-winning engineer Frances Hurwitz developed the technology in collaboration with Ohio Aerospace Institute (OAI). In fact, the two organizations have a joint-ownership agreement (JOA) in place for the intellectual property (IP). The JOA specifies the roles and responsibilities for patent prosecution and technology marketing, and it authorizes NASA Glenn to represent OAI during license negotiations. Quite frankly, this agreement is a big win for potential licensees:…
Today brings us to my final Metrics Monday post on metrics for new — or newly reorganized — technology transfer offices (TTOs). Today’s focus is on how you are doing on those all-important final steps to commercialization: marketing and licensing. The TTO at virtually any university, non-profit, or government R&D lab is striving to maximize the benefits of the institution’s research to the public. This overarching, long-term goal is coupled with maximizing the “return” to the institution and perhaps the larger community. Of course, the metrics used to calculate that return can…
I’m back with another Metrics Monday post about the types of metrics that new (and newly reorganized) technology transfer offices (TTOs) can monitor while waiting for the long-term metrics to make sense. Ensuring that invention disclosures and your technology portfolio are being processed effectively is key to keeping the office running efficiently. As your office matures, the TTO’s productivity in processing cases should increase. So this is a key short-term goal to focus on. One of the general metrics for monitoring for case processing productivity is the percent of…
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