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The Office of Naval Research (ONR), Technology Transfer Office and the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Technology Transfer and Transition offices exist to execute the mission of technology transfer between federal labs and industry or academia. In their toolbox, they have various contract vehicles for research and development, and licensing. They also create training opportunities, identify best practices, and gather information for the ONR and AFRL annual report of technology transfer activities.

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The university-industry contractual research collaborations to solve complex problems jointly and create social and economic impact have long existed. Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) constitute formal technology intermediaries established to strengthen university-industry collaborations. However, the differences in needs and capabilities, individual and organizational backgrounds, and innovative learning modes inhibit effective partnerships. We develop a conceptual framework that explains how TTOs can catalyze these collaborations in Botswana. We use the grounded theory approach to examine the TTOs' challenges and opportunities in strengthening university-industry linkages. Notably, we employ inductive analysis to synthesize interview data and analyze it using domain analysis and componential analysis. Data were extracted from the university and industry policies and documents and interviews with 102 participants from two universities (42.2%) and three industry firms (57.8%) involved in technology transfer. We found 71.6% had excellent knowledge and experience and 28.4% had varying degrees of experience. While individual or independent consultancies (44.1%) lead, TTOs facilitate collaboration through contractual research agreements (32.4%), technology licensing (22.5%), and joint ventures (10.8%). This demonstrates entities' significant access to each other's financial and technological resources. This allows entities to generate new knowledge, equip each other with tools and competencies required to produce commercial products and new revenue streams. Most significantly, while Botswana has displayed remarkable progress toward strengthening its institutional support systems for technology transfer and commercialization, there is a shortage of IP expertise at universities and industries, possibly leading to low levels of IP awareness. Also, most institutions have incomplete IP strategies, and there is inadequate administration and enforcement of intellectual property rights systems at the national level, possibly contributing to low national IP filings. Therefore, we recommend entities fully engage in vigorous IP activities, review and finalize their IP policies and make them flexible yet equitably based on the needs of the collaborating industry firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GeSec: Revista de Gestao e Secretariado is the property of Sindicato das Secretarias e Secretarios do Estado de Sao Paulo (SINSESP) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Background: Universities globally face challenges of becoming entrepreneurial, delivering third mission activities, including the support of academic entrepreneurship. Abundant research exists on academic entrepreneurs in the United Sates (USA) and Europe. Limited research exists on understanding pathways of academic entrepreneurship in South African Universities. Aim: The aim was to critically review the pathway of research commercialisation of academics at a research-intensive university. Setting: This single case study focuses on one research-intensive university; a pioneer in the field of academic entrepreneurship in South Africa. Methods: A qualitative research approach following a single-case study design was selected to investigate a phenomenon within its natural setting, using purposeful sampling and semi-structured interviews. The data were thematically analysed. Results: The nature of research outputs takes a hybrid form, the awareness of the commercialisation of research is ineffectively communicated, supporting mechanisms Technology Transfer Office (TTO) are in place, factors hampering research commercialisation include time constraints and academics’ willingness to partner with the university. Conclusion: Context is bi-modal, meaning the institution is orientated towards basic research, Mode 1, while there is a transition of the research culture towards commercialisation of research, Mode 2, contributing to ineffective communication within the institution. Commercialisation extends the life cycle of research, and the recognition for publication in ranking metrics contributes to tension between commercialisation and publication of research. Contribution: Theoretically, this baseline study provided insights into the pathway of Academic Entrepreneurship in the context of an intensive-research university. Managerially, this article reflects that ineffective communication of transition from Mode 1 to Mode 2 leads to internal tension.

Copyright of Journal of the Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences is the property of Cukurova University Institute of Social Sciences and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Technology transfer offices play a valuable role in protecting and commercialising intellectual property developed at universities, for social and economic benefit around the world. University College London (UCL) Business Ltd is a technology transfer office that commercialises technology arising from the world-renowned research at UCL. PRINCE2 and agile approaches are amongst the popular choices of project management methodologies, however current frameworks are rigid and do not work very well within the technology transfer space, specifically in the biotechnology sector, due to the unpredictable nature of the projects. More organisations are adopting a flexible approach to delivering projects and becoming more agile in their management style. In a translational environment specifically, having a flexible response to change is highly encouraged. Current agile frameworks such as Scrum and Kanban, work extremely well within the IT and engineering-based projects, however for technology transfer projects (TTPs) they are slightly out of scope or too rigid in their methodology. An alternative agile framework is proposed to better suit the biotechnology sector and academic-research environment. This focuses on the breakdown of the project plan in separate work-packages, to manage the deliverables in separate development cycles using a system that splits the management into three gears based on the type of work and the length of time required to reach the deliverables within the project plan. This allows for the management of projects in stages against the original project plan, which in turn de-risks the project in stages. This framework is proposed as an alternative project management tool for biotechnology TTPs within a technology transfer office as well as the biotechnology industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of the regional competitiveness of the Spanish Autonomous Communities (CC.AA.) based on the companies that transfer university knowledge, the Technology Transfer Offices (TTO) and the Scientific Parks from Universities, as well as the business incubators. This research analyzes in depth, through a participant observation methodology and qualitative techniques, the case of the innovative and entrepreneurial ecosystem of public universities in the Community of Madrid, and compares it with Andalusia. In the case of Madrid (uniprovincial region), together with the TTO, the role played by the Madri+d Foundation for Knowledge and its Technology-Based Entrepreneur Support Office as coordinator of a regional university network stands out, while in Andalusia the role of the regional TTO Network and the 10 science or technology parks that exist in the multi-provincial macro-region. The SWOT comparative diagnosis is complemented, as a conclusion, with a CAME strategy proposal for sustainable support for innovative ecosystems of university spin-offs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Science Technology & Industry is the property of Chinese Society of Technology Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The university's role in reaping the benefits from research by transforming knowledge and technology into commercially usable forms is becoming increasingly important. In this article, we seek to deepen the understanding of the technology transfer office (TTO). TTOs are primarily responsible for the protection of university created intellectual property (IP) and the management of the commercialization process. The aim of this study is to determine which internal efficiency factors are statistically significant for the efficiency of TTOs, and which barriers cited in literature are experienced by TTOs, and to, furthermore, compare these between developed and developing economies. To achieve this objective, we created a survey that was sent to 103 TTO's distributed in 21 countries. Our results demonstrate that it is apparent that developed economies (EU and UK) have overcome certain barriers experienced by developing economies (BRA, ISA and SA). Additionally, this paper has shown that TTOs have a built-in conflict with researchers. The results also emphasize the important role of networking and industry links. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Gestão & Tecnologia is the property of Revista Gestao & Tecnologia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper addresses a critical research gap in the field of university-industry knowledge transfer, with a particular focus on the often-neglected initiation stage from a failure analysis perspective. A workshop and follow-up interviews were conducted to systematically explore the motivations and abilities of both the knowledge senders and the recipients for initiating knowledge transfer processes in the field of intelligent mobility. In contrast to conventional approaches, our study does not presuppose successful knowledge transfer initiation; instead, it offers a unique opportunity to investigate the phenomenon of its omission. The intricate interplay among actors and their differing perceptions of research applicability, which leads to specific tasks for intermediaries in initiating knowledge transfer processes, is analyzed. The findings of this study indicate that both internal and external intermediaries encounter challenges in fulfilling their roles, particularly in initiating the utilization of public research. The key challenges identified include a flawed understanding of scientific research , a lack of initiative spirit , and a disregard for actual responsibilities. This study offers valuable insights that can inform the development of evidence-based policies aimed at initiating the utilization of public research. • Workshop reveals key challenges in university-industry knowledge transfer initiation. • Intermediaries show a flawed understanding of public research, lack of initiative, and disregard for actual responsibilities. • Ineffectiveness in initiating utilization of public research, stressing the gap between academic and industry expectations. • Calls for a reevaluation of intermediary funding, questioning their impact on successful knowledge transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is shown that the vast majority of foreign researchers consider university structures to be an important and economically sustainable mechanism for the transfer of new industrial technologies, that these structures accelerate the economic development of territories by creating new knowledge-intensive (high-tech) jobs, and increase tax revenues to local budgets. Thanks to government funding and public support, university research structures demonstrate higher survival rates compared to firms affiliated to corporate organizations. The structures affiliated to universities are very active in using state aid programs, remain residents of business incubators for longer, and are beneficiaries of funds supporting research and development. Private venture funds are more likely to finance them. University-affiliated structures are more innovative than firms associated with corporate organizations. These structures have a greater number of patented inventions, demonstrate a higher survival rate and a higher liquidity rating, but have lower profitability. University-related structures are innovative firms and can commercialize both specific inventions and more implicit knowledge obtained as a result of scientific research. It is noted that the biggest challenge for such a firm is the transformation of technological assets into marketable offers.

At present creation of specialized organizational structure, the technology transfer office (TTO) in higher education institutions (HEIs) becomes increasingly important for establishing communication between scientists, business, and the state and for implementation of the results of scientific and technical activities of higher education institutions in the real sector of the economy. Surveys of domestic and foreign scientists show that the issues of creating project offices (which in fact are TTOs) in HEIs remain insufficiently explored. Given this, the authors conducted a study of project management to create a TTO in a HEI. Efficient organizational project management requires the presence of Organizational Breakdown Structure. This article proposes an Organizational Breakdown Structure template, which clearly demonstrates the project team structure targeted at TTO creation in a HEI, the subordination and basic functions of each team member. In addition, the article proposes a model of organizational structure of the newly created TTO, which is also a template for HEI, and which defines the structure of the office staff, their subordination and main functions. To determine the location of the TTO in the structure of HEI, the article proposes a corresponding model that shows the subordination and connection of the office with other functional units of HEI. Using the models presented in the article, any HEI will be able to effectively manage the project of creating a TTO and as a result to create a project product – a TTO.

Over the last 20 years, universities and Public Research Organizations have increased their efforts to transfer their research results towards industrial applications in order to generate economic and social impact. Among many different actions, new technology transfer offices (TTOs) have been set up and existing ones strengthened. The present paper intends to evaluate the effects of a specific policy action launched by the Italian Patent and Trademark Office (UIBM) within the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE), aimed at increasing the number of employees in TTOs to foster technology transfer in general and the valorization of intellectual property rights more specifically. Our results suggest that the impact of the UIBM policy action has been positive and that in some specific situations the impact was stronger. Our results therefore contribute to the technology transfer literature and can have implications for both academic research and decisions regarding investments in human resources in university TTOs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has been designed with a dual goal. On the one hand, the paper aims to examine the role of management teams, industry agents, and university agents as providers of a series of key resources and capabilities for academic spin-offs (ASOs) to develop a strategic entrepreneurial orientation (EO). On the other hand, the paper also examines the influence of EO on ASO performance. To this end, an extensive review was conducted based on Resource Based View (RBV), EO, and ASO literature. The assumptions of these frameworks were explored in an empirical study involving 107 Spanish ASOs backed by the Spanish Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs). The findings from multilevel linear regression suggest that the presence of non-academic managers within ASO management teams, the achievement of external funding through VC firms, and the TTO efficacy exert a positive influence on the exhibition of higher levels of EO by ASOs. Regarding the relationship between the EO and the performance exhibited by ASOs, the results of multiple regression analysis reveal that ASO performance is strongly and positively influenced by the level of EO exhibited by the firm. The contributions of the paper expand the traditional focus of EO research and attend to the demands of both EO and ASO research, thereby offering a contextualized analysis of both the factors that enhance the EO of ASOs as well as the impact of EO on ASO performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ratio of academic scientists to the labor force in Malaysia has increased. However, the contribution of academic scientists to commercialize research discoveries remains limited. Successful research commercialization or university technology transfer requires entrepreneurial effort that may involve skills beyond the traditional roles of academics. The ability to identify the commercial opportunity of research, i.e. entrepreneurial opportunity recognition, has been proven to be a critical skill for an academic entrepreneur. Earlier findings in this area would have been far more useful if the antecedents of entrepreneurial opportunity recognition were recognized. Although self-regulated learning has been inferred to as informal entrepreneurship education for academic entrepreneurs, there has been a lack of evidence on how it influences their academic entrepreneurship performance. This paper examined the characteristics of academic entrepreneurs and the key success factors, whether academics' opportunity recognition ability is influenced by their self-regulated learning behavior. A quantitative research design was employed based on a case study of a technological university in Malaysia involving 115 academic entrepreneurs. Structural equation modeling analysis results revealed that academics' opportunity recognition and social capital are the most important determinants of their academic entrepreneurship performance. The efficiency of the Technology Transfer Office and the ease of securing funding play influential roles too, but to a smaller extent. Most importantly, opportunity recognition is strengthened by self-regulated learning, through frequent deliberate practices in information and knowledge seeking that enable scientists to be more creative and innovative in translating research into marketable products and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universities show an increasing commitment to stimulate science- and technology-based entrepreneurship with the aim of contributing to societal and economic development. The provision of science and technology entrepreneurship education (STEE) and the operation of technology transfer offices (TTOs) share the objective of improving university capabilities and output in science-based entrepreneurship. The literature has addressed STEE initiatives and TTOs separately. This paper reports the first comprehensive study of TTO involvement in STEE. From a sample of 176 university TTOs across 28 European countries, we found that 71 percent of TTOs were involved in the provision of STEE. The extensive involvement in STEE indicates that TTOs play an active role in stimulating universities' entrepreneurial capabilities beyond specific licensing and spin-off cases. We analyze how the characteristics of TTOs and universities potentially influence the scope of STEE involvement in terms of breadth of contents, target audiences and duration. We find that older, strategically autonomous TTOs that are located in universities attributing strong relevance to technology transfer activities are particularly active in STEE. The active role of TTOs in STEE has implications for understanding the entrepreneurship education ecosystem of universities and offers interesting opportunities for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Korean government has provided various policy devices to boost technology transfers between academia and industry since the establishment of the Technology Transfer Promotion Act in 2000. Along with the enactment of the law, the Korean government mandated the establishment of a technology transfer office at national and public universities and encouraged technology transfer activities. Despite the quantitative expansion of technology transfer offices (TTOs), operational inefficiency was brought up. As a supplementary policy, the Korean government implemented a line of projects to support the labor and business expenses of leading TTOs. This research questions whether the project greatly affected the technical efficiency of TTOs. We analyze publicly available university panel data from 2007 to 2015 using a one-step stochastic frontier analysis. The results suggest that the program was marginally effective at shifting the technical efficiency distribution to the right on average, but it failed to maximize its impact by diversifying the policy means based on targets. The marginal effects of the program on technical efficiency differ according to the research capability and size of each school. We also compare technical efficiency against the licensing income at the start and end of the program. Technical efficiency increased for the leading TTOs, and both measures show improvements for unsupported TTOs. Our empirical results imply that diversifying the program for universities with different characteristics may have improved the effectiveness of the policy.

We investigate whether university technology transfer offices, that is, divisions responsible for the commercialization of academic research, imitate their industry peers when designing their commercialization strategy. We borrow from information-based theories of imitation and the literature on academic entrepreneurship to argue that given a technology transfer office's autonomy to strategize independently from its parent university, information from within and outside the technology transfer office affects its propensity to imitate the commercialization strategy of the "most successful peers," that is, those with the largest live spinoff portfolio and greatest revenues from spinoffs in the industry. We contend that a technology transfer office's experience, that is, a function of its age, represents a key internal source of information for the technology transfer office when deciding whether to imitate or not; we also consider the technology transfer office's embeddedness in a network where the most successful peer is also a member as a key external source of information. From data on 86 British university technology transfer offices and their commercialization strategies between 1993 and 2007 that were drawn from both secondary sources and in-depth interviews with technology transfer office managers, we find that there is a negative relationship between technology transfer offices' autonomy and their level of imitation of the most successful technology transfer office's strategy, and that this relationship is moderated by the technology transfer offices' age and by their membership into an association where the most successful technology transfer office is also a member. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Dialogue: East-West is the property of International Center for Slavic Education- Sveti Nikole and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Objective of the study: The main objective of this research work was to analyze the importance of a Technology Transfer Office (TTO) as an innovation promoter in regional development in Mexico. Methodology/Approach: An analysis bibliographic was used, application of surveys and generation of indexes. In 2014, a survey was applied to 131 TTOs to measure their impacts. Originality/Relevance: To perform this analysis, we used a self-generated indicator, an index that measures the degree of specialization by geographic region and economic sector, using indicators of regional agglomeration as a basis. The agglomeration model generated was composed of national patent applications, international patents, utility models, industrial designs, and trade secrets. Main results: The results by geographical area in Mexico, were the Northwest, specializing in aquaculture, fisheries, aeronautics and agriculture; the Northeast, in biotechnology, chemistry and metallurgy mechanics; the Center, in automobile, energy, and software; the West, in aerospace, automobile, chemistry and metallurgy mechanics; the Southeast, in food industry, construction, and mining. Theoretical/methodological contributions: We found that the specialization of the TTOs among the various productive sectors in Mexico has contributed to the highest rates of growth in patent registration in the Latin American region. Social/management contributions: Although contributions generated in protecting intellectual property at international level are still insufficient, we believe we are on the right track. At least Mexico started to generate the innovation ecosystem that other countries began four decades ago. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]