What better way to study the pros and cons of a major shift in strategy than to examine its impact on a similar organization that took the plunge? In 2005, the University of Utah’s new president Michael Young, in response to the state’s investments in Utah’s knowledge economy, plucked the technology commercialization office out of the research administration division and handed its oversight to Jack Brittain, then Dean of Utah’s business school. The university combined three previously independent units under Brittain into a new division called “Technology Ventures” whose mandate was to accelerate the rate of start-up formation, connect the technology transfer office to the university’s Lassonde Entrepreneur Center, improve the university’s industry research partnerships, and streamline its technology licensing strategy.
Most universities house their technology transfer units inside an administrative division that oversees research functions, such as managing the paperwork around grant funding and providing lab animal care. At many universities, the head of this research administration is a former faculty member who had a solid career as a research scientist, but typically has no exposure to the industry product development process, nor the way businesses think and operate. There are many solid reasons for housing the management of a university’s patent portfolio inside the research division. However, there are equally compelling reasons to move the university’s commercialization efforts into greater alignment with other entrepreneurial activity on campus.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Blogging Innovation » Utah’s Great University Technology Commercialization Experiment
Author: Melba Kurman
