In 1980, the United States Congress passed the Bayh-Dole Act--also known as the University and Small Business Patent Procedures Act--which was intended to help universities and national laboratories bring technology to the marketplace. Thirty years later, and with $30 billion spent annually by the federal government on research and development, "technology transfer" to industry lags behind. Senators Birch Bayh and Bob Dole had hoped to open the floodgates on pent-up entrepreneurial energy in universities and laboratories. The reality, though, looking at the connection between the academy and industry today, is that the gushing waters of innovation appear to be more of a slow trickle.
Why does technology transfer lag so far behind? George Mason University social scientist Edmund J. Zolnik recently surveyed postdocs in the Washington, DC, metropolitan region, and found that the DC-area population represented "one of the most highly skilled pools of human capital in the world," in "one of the best urban areas of the world for generating wealth." His findings were published in the International Journal of Knowledge-Based Development.
To read the full, original article click on this link: What's Delaying the Fruits of National R&D Dollars? | Fast Company
Author: David Zax
