At the risk of stating the obvious, all universities are similar, but each one is different. Just when you think you’ve got a key piece of university tech transfer strategy figured out — like peeling the proverbial onion — you unearth another layer you haven’t even considered. (Actually, in this case, onions are much too stolid and predictable – maybe raking leaves on a windy day would be a better analogy.) That’s why formal “one size fits all” tech transfer education isn’t always productive once you get beyond the outer layers of the onion, I mean the basic mechanics of the process.
Why am I thinking about onions, university technology commercialization strategy, and education? Last week, half a dozen tech transfer directors and administrators and I, plus Utah’s TechVenture’s staff spent two days hunkered down in a classroom in Utah’s business school. This was not one of those somnolent, pedantic tech transfer seminars we’ve all sat through at professional meetings. We spent most of our time in intimate, free-wheeling conversations about the university technology commercialization process. Utah’s TechVenture’s vice president Jack Brittain and technology transfer director Bryan Ritchie, plus licensing staff led a few brief, formal sessions. Prescriptive best practices weren’t part of the curriculum, though people shared solutions that worked for them.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Peeling the research commercialization onion: all universities are the same but different « Triple Helix Innovation
