
Take our Tech Transfer Gender Data Survey to contribute to the national conversation involving gender diversity. We’ll share results later this month at our session on incorporating equity, diversity, and inclusivity (EDI) data into TTO metrics at the AUTM 2022 Annual Meeting in New Orleans. We’ll examine data trends and cover the challenges of acquiring EDI data and securing the buy-in of university administrators.

As we head into the new year, now is a good time to revisit and prioritize tech transfer best practices—that is, efficiently and effectively moving technologies out of university, government, and even corporate labs and into the marketplace. Today we’ve gathered together 10 of our key posts to give you easy access to these tech transfer best practices. Happy reading, and contact Fuentek to learn more about how we can help your technology transfer office (TTO) apply them.

For university Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), a review of performance, structure, and functions—particularly in comparison to peer organizations—provides the opportunity to optimize internal operations, enhance engagement with internal and external customers and stakeholders, and revise policies and procedures to better align with current goals.

Garbage in, garbage out. It’s a bit of a cliché, but it’s also a truism for data integrity, as Becky Stoughton and I discussed at a recent webinar. Both of us know firsthand the importance of establishing and maintaining data integrity for TTOs. Since we had some valuable insights to provide to TTOs, let’s consider the tweets @fuentek sent out during the webinar in a little more depth.

In providing technology transfer services to R&D organizations, Fuentek has developed strategies for maximizing team strengths and skills, solving organizational pickles, and communicating value to leadership. Today’s post can help significantly improve your capabilities and operations. For example, when it comes to understanding how your IP management team is performing, metrics are your greatest ally. They help you get where you want to go by accurately revealing where you are.

Our regular readers know that metrics for technology transfer offices (TTOs) is a frequent topic for the Fuentek blog. Today I’m going to provide some how-to tips for getting the most out of your tech transfer metrics tracking efforts — specifically, gathering, analyzing, and using metrics.

As Laura Schoppe noted in her post about the key direct metrics for technology transfer offices (TTOs), there are important indirect metrics to track as well. These are factors that the TTO can influence, but others have more control over the ultimate outcome. Some feed into the early stages of the tech transfer pipeline in terms of the quantity and quality of invention disclosures.

Last month there was a series of posts on the AUTM members discussion group on the topic of metrics. Metrics is a topic that Fuentek has thought about before. And we’ve recently completed several organizational analysis projects with a heavy metrics component. So I wanted to chime in with some context and best practices. Then I offer some specific recommendations for TTO metrics.

Most technology transfer offices (TTOs) want to — or have to — respond to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about the technology portfolio. Whether they are routine or ad hoc, these FAQs often come from key stakeholders and focus on TTO performance. As the F in FAQ suggests, these questions are asked frequently. Yet if a TTO frequently is scrambling to answer and struggles to generate the needed reports, then this indicates something is amiss.

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…