University professors and early stage research commercialisation: an empirical test of the knowledge corridor theory
Jonas Gabrielsson; Diamanto Politis; Joakim Tell
International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 11, No. 3/4 (2012) pp. 213 – 233
In this study, we test the knowledge corridor theory as an explanation of university professors’ involvement in the early stages of research commercialisation. A statistical analysis was made of a sample of full professors from the engineering, natural sciences and medical faculties at a large public university in Sweden. The analysis shows that not only entrepreneurial experience but also private sector work experience significantly influence the ability to identify and develop business ideas based on research. Moreover, the analysis shows that research-based business idea generation increases faster for professors with private sector work experience who as well have more time for research in their positions.

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January 2013
Publication year: 2013
Source:Technovation, Volume 33, Issue 1

The objective of this article is to present a qualitative analysis tool which technology transfer offices (TTOs) can utilize to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Such qualitative tool is one of the novelties presented. The other is information that advances understanding of the processes, procedures and structures required to transfer technology, as a set of best practices. From December 2008 to September 2010 a variety of methodologies (document analysis, participative observation, interviews and surveys) generated data which led to development of a theoretical framework. The theoretical framework, called Master Plan for Technology Transfer (TT), is a reference schema for best practices. The Master Plan contains 271 rules (good practices) referring to 43 facilitators distributed in seven groups. The facilitators and rules were selected from a coding process based on grounded theory, where facilitators are the categories and rules are their properties. Based on the methodologies and development of the Master Plan, we constructed a tool called Best Transfer Practices (BTP) which is a qualitative tool to assess and study TTOs and their host R&D institutions. The collection of rules and facilitators are the soul of our BTP. It is our contribution to the knowledge of actual practices in TT.

Highlights

► We made a qualitative analysis tool to assess technology transfer offices (TTOs). ► We developed a theoretical framework called master plan for this. ► The master plan is a reference schema for best practices in technology transfer. ► The master plan contains 271 rules (good practices) referring to 43 facilitators. ► The facilitators/rules were selected from a coding process based on grounded theory.

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series:International Studies in Entrepreneurship

Technology transfer—the process of sharing and disseminating knowledge, skills, scientific discoveries, production methods, and other innovations among universities, government agencies, private firms, and other institutions—is one of the major challenges of societies operating in the global economy.  This volume offers state-of-the-art insights on the dynamics of technology transfer, emerging …
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January 2013
Publication year: 2013
Source:Technovation, Volume 33, Issue 1

The objective of this article is to present a qualitative analysis tool which technology transfer offices (TTOs) can utilize to improve their efficiency and effectiveness. Such qualitative tool is one of the novelties presented. The other is information that advances understanding of the processes, procedures and structures required to transfer technology, as a set of best practices. From December 2008 to September 2010 a variety of methodologies (document analysis, participative observation, interviews and surveys) generated data which led to development of a theoretical framework. The theoretical framework, called Master Plan for Technology Transfer (TT), is a reference schema for best practices. The Master Plan contains 271 rules (good practices) referring to 43 facilitators distributed in seven groups. The facilitators and rules were selected from a coding process based on grounded theory, where facilitators are the categories and rules are their properties. Based on the methodologies and development of the Master Plan, we constructed a tool called Best Transfer Practices (BTP) which is a qualitative tool to assess and study TTOs and their host R&D institutions. The collection of rules and facilitators are the soul of our BTP. It is our contribution to the knowledge of actual practices in TT.

Highlights

► We made a qualitative analysis tool to assess technology transfer offices (TTOs). ► We developed a theoretical framework called master plan for this. ► The master plan is a reference schema for best practices in technology transfer. ► The master plan contains 271 rules (good practices) referring to 43 facilitators. ► The facilitators/rules were selected from a coding process based on grounded theory.

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Publication year: 2012
Source:World Development, Volume 40, Issue 10
Miao Wang, M. C. Sunny Wong
We study the effect of foreign research and development (R&D) transferred through imports and foreign direct investment (FDI) on domestic technical efficiency using stochastic frontier analysis. Unbalanced panel results from a 77-country sample over 1986–2007 show that FDI- and imports-transferred foreign R&D have a significant impact on domestic country’s technical efficiency. Furthermore, we observe a complementarity between FDI-transferred R&D and domestic human capital. In other words, the domestic country needs to obtain a threshold level of human capital to benefit from FDI-transferred R&D. Other macro conditions such as infrastructure, political stability, and urbanization also help to improve the technical efficiency of a country.

The rest is here: International R&D Transfer and Technical Efficiency: Evidence from Panel Study Using Stochastic Frontier Analysis

genf20.com

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OAK RIDGE, Tenn., Sep. 6, 2012 — A neutron detector developed for studies focused on life science, drug discovery and materials technology has been licensed by PartTec Ltd. The Indiana-based manufacturer of radiation detection technologies is moving the technology developed at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory toward the commercial marketplace.

The Neutron-Sensitive Anger Camera allows researchers to study a wider variety of crystalline structures, supporting studies in biology, earth science, geology, materials science and condensed matter physics.

“This ORNL detector system, developed for DOE’s Spallation Neutron Source, can determine the time and position of the neutrons captured, enabling extremely accurate neutron time-of-flight measurements,” said Yacouba Diawara of the Instrument and Source Design Division at ORNL.

The detector achieves very high efficiency, high timing and position resolution and low background noise at a reduced cost — all characteristics that make it attractive for medical, biological and general scientific research.

“The detector is suited for biological samples because the protein crystals scientists are interested in are very small, about the size of a grain of sand,” said Richard Riedel of the Instrument and Source Design Division at ORNL. “No other neutron detectors are suited for viewing these complex proteins at a pulsed neutron source.”

The ORNL research team optimized an existing technology called the Anger Camera — named after its inventor, Hal Oscar Anger — by improving the detector’s ability to view the atomic structure of crystals, such as those composed of protein macromolecules.

Previous neutron detectors struggled to resolve crystals smaller than 2 millimeters, but ORNL’s system can clearly detect 1-millimeter and smaller crystals. This capability is important not only for biological crystals but also for small crystals that are subject to extremely high pressures using an instrument at SNS called the Spallation Neutron and Pressure Diffractometer.

“It turns out there are a number of proteins and enzymes that don’t form very large crystals,” Riedel said. “The push in neutron science has been to design devices that can detect smaller and smaller crystals — down to half a millimeter.”

PartTec CEO Herschel Workman envisions this technology greatly impacting a variety of scientific fields. The advances in biological research alone could affect the development of novel drugs for many types of disease.

“We are pleased to receive this opportunity to manufacture and market the Anger Camera, which will help researchers expand current medical boundaries,” Workman said. “Their work, in turn, will help those in need to find medical answers and options previously unavailable to them.”

The system was developed by Riedel, Diawara, Theodore Visscher, Lloyd Clonts, Cornelius Donahue Jr. and Christopher Montcalm of ORNL’s Neutron Sciences Directorate.

The project was funded by the DOE’s Office of Science.

ORNL is managed by UT-Battelle for the Office of Science. The Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit http://science.energy.gov.

PartTec (www.parttec.com), founded in 2002, specializes in neutron detection technology and in the design, development, and manufacture of non-Helium-3 neutron detectors for laboratories, as well as Helium-3 replacement technologies for detector manufacturers and their customers. The company is headquartered in Bloomington, Ind. with a manufacturing facility in Linton, Ind.

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From SciDev:

Implementation of the Rio+20 outcome must account for changes in the global innovation landscape, says tech policy expert Ahmed Abdel-Latif.

The UN conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) recently reaffirmed the importance of transferring environmentally sound technologies (ESTs) to developing countries, 20 years after the first Earth Summit had put it under the spotlight.

It also requested UN agencies to identify options for a ‘facilitation mechanism’ that promotes the development, transfer and dissemination of ESTs. The UN secretary-general is expected to make recommendations on the facilitation mechanism at the forthcoming session of the UN General Assembly, which starts next month (18 September).

This result was not easy to reach. In discussions there were recurrent differences about how best to encourage the international transfer of ESTs, not least because there have been significant changes in the global technology and innovation landscape in recent years.

These changes need to be fully appreciated if progress is to be made on the facilitation mechanism envisioned in the Rio+20 outcome.

Road to consensus

Promoting transfer of ESTs, in particular to developing countries, was a chief concern at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. Chapter 34 of Agenda 21, the blueprint for sustainable development, is entirely devoted to this issue.

In the run up to Rio+20, developing countries sought to reaffirm the prominence of technology transfer and called for the creation of a concrete mechanism that would promote it. The G77 group of developing nations and China suggested an “international mechanism” to “implement concrete actions focused on bridging the technological gap between developed and developing countries”. They also underlined the need to consider the impact of intellectual property rights (IPR) in the context of promoting greater access to ESTs. [1]

Industrialised countries stressed the importance of cooperation, innovation and ‘enabling’ environments to develop and disseminate technologies, in particular through markets. But they opposed any reference to IPR in the context of access to ESTs.

Prior to the summit, the president of the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) wrote to US officials, saying that “any references to technology transfer should be clearly qualified and conditioned to include only voluntary transfer of IP on mutually agreed terms”. [2]

The Rio+20 outcome document strives, with some success, to reconcile these different viewpoints. It emphasises the importance of technology transfer to developing countries, but stops short of invoking Agenda 21 in this context, and simply recalls the provisions on technology transfer and IPR agreed in the 2002 Johannesburg Plan of Implementation, a follow-up to the Earth Summit. [3]

It also makes several references to innovation and cooperation, and states that transfer of technology to a developing country is to be “as mutually agreed”.

Next step: the facilitation mechanism

The Rio+20 outcome document requests relevant UN agencies to identify options for a facilitation mechanism to promote technology transfer by assessing the technology needs of developing countries, options to address those needs, and capacity-building requirements.

The facilitation mechanism could be an important step forward — previous commitments on technology transfer tended to lack such concrete follow-up to make them operational. But it needs to take into account the important changes in the global technology and innovation landscape over the past two decades.

So what are the changes? First, the geography of innovation is changing. Emerging economies such as Brazil, China and India are playing a more prominent role in the global economy. Chinese and Indian companies have become world leaders in wind and solar energy. The technological needs of these countries and those of the poorest developing countries are very different.

Second, approaches to technology transfer to developing countries have evolved as a result of the experience gained in recent years. A traditional focus on access alone is giving way to a growing realisation that to succeed, technology transfer needs to be deeply embedded in the ability of recipients to diffuse and use the technologies in question, which is in turn shaped by a country’s innovation system. [4]

Strengthening the capacity to innovate and absorb technologies are thereforekey components of technology transfer.

Fostering partnerships and strengthening technology and R&D cooperation are critical elements in promoting technology transfer. Availability of finance, currently uncertain, is also essential.

At this stage, the most critical factor is to ensure that the follow-up to Rio+20 delivers an ambitious outcome that stands up to the challenges of achieving large-scale diffusion of ESTs — and avoids the fate of drifting into a sterile bureaucratic exercise.

Ahmed Abdel-Latif is senior programme manager for innovation, technology and intellectual property at the Geneva-based International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD). Ahmed can be contacted ataabdellatif@ictsd.ch
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Environmental Law and Sustainability After Rio (The Iucn Academy of Environmental Law) :: Amazon This book examines the development of environmental law in the period since the ground-breaking 1992 United Nations Conference on Environmen

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Publication year: 2012
Source:Technovation, Volume 32, Issues 9–10
Nicholas Theodorakopoulos, Deycy Janeth Sánchez Preciado, David Bennett
The primary aim of this paper is to demonstrate how technology transfer between universities and rural industries in developing countries can be achieved effectively, using independent research and advisory centres as intermediaries. It draws on a longitudinal action research study, which experiments with the process of nurturing and bridging communities of practice amongst recipients of technology and stakeholders concerned with technology diffusion, productivity and economic development. Its empirical evidence is from an academic-related, non-government intervention initiative targeting two small-scale industries, namely fish farming and coffee production, in the Cauca region of Colombia. Results demonstrate how barriers to transfer can be overcome. The intervention is considered as instrumental; its key components and outcomes are discussed in detail.

Highlights

► We illustrate what effective intermediation for technology transfer involves. ► We demonstrate how research and advisory centres can function as intermediaries. ► We discuss how situated learning theory can be applied to technology intermediation.

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University Entrepreneurship and Technology Transfer: Process, Design, and Intellectual Property (Advances in the Study of Entrepreneurship, Innovation ... of Entrepreneurship, Innovation, & Economy) :: Amazon This volume of 12 chapters contains some of the latest research on university-based technology transfer, intellectual property issues, and t

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Abstract

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to shed light on how subsidiary willingness to transfer knowledge is influenced by formal control mechanisms from headquarters, and how this affects knowledge transfer performance. Design/methodology/approach – The study highlights and tests the influence of two formal control mechanisms: formal demand to transfer knowledge from headquarters, and performance evaluation system related to knowledge transfer. This is tested by subjecting a dataset of 149 knowledge transfer processes, to a two-stage least square regression analysis.

Findings – The robust results indicate that formal evaluation systems related to subsidiary knowledge transfer increases subsidiary willingness to transfer, and subsequently knowledge transfer performance, whereas formal demand by headquarters to share knowledge show a negative but not significant impact

.Practical implications – The results highlight the strategic importance of eliminating motivational barriers in order to enhance knowledge transfer performance. By using outbound knowledge as a criterion when evaluating the subsidiary, managers can increase transfer performance by fostering subsidiary willingness to perform knowledge transfer.

Originality/value – The findings indicate that KM in terms of subsidiary transfer willingness and transfer performance can be fostered and enhanced by the introduction of formal evaluation systems related to knowledge sharing. The results also contribute by revealing that formal control mechanisms differ in their degree of influence in terms of fostering subsidiary transfer willingness and transfer performance.
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	Effective Knowledge Transfer in Multinational Corporations :: Amazon This book shifts the debate on knowledge transfers within multinational corporations (MNCs) back to its core: How can we increase the effect
	Global Perspectives on Technology Transfer and Commercialization: Building Innovative Ecosystems :: Amazon As we move further into the 21st century, increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of technology transfer. Through new research

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From SciDev

Technology transfer is a priority for a new phase in China–Africa cooperation — but it needs the right direction, says Linda Nordling.

Africa can learn a lot from China’s booming economy about how science and technology can help to boost development — a fact not lost on either party.

Technology transfer will be a key element of a new phase in the partnership between the two, which was agreed at the fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) that took place in Beijing on 19–20 July.

But China’s track record in Africa has some lessons for technology transfer that both sides need to consider to ensure their partnership proves equitable and profitable for more Africans.

In 2006, the FOCAC agreed to establish similar zones in Africa. Of the eight that have been approved so far, only one, located in Egypt, is operational. Another, in Zambia, is half-operational, and the others are still under construction or have yet to attract investors.

A policy brief published by the South African Institute of International Affairs before the Beijing forum identifies some of the barriers to the success of the zones. These include not only cultural and language barriers, but also a failure to locate African zones near local industrial and knowledge hubs. [1]

The latter point is also made in a paper published last year by Deborah Brautigam, a China–Africa expert at the American University, Washington DC, and Tang Xiaoyang of the New School for Social Research, New York. [2]

“There is no evidence that any of the host governments have made efforts to develop supplier programmes and other close links between the domestic private sector and the zones. Without this, the zones are likely to remain enclaves and the opportunities for technology and skills transfers will be lost,” they write.

Foundations for skills

Other lessons come from successful technology transfer activities outside the flagship economic zones programme.

Chinese telecommunications companies such as Huawei and ZTE are riding on the crest of Africa’s mobile telephony wave. ZTE is laying a fibre-optic backbone in Angola, and Huawei is laying a submarine cable for Libya. The companies are also expanding networks in Algeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

What qualifies this investment as technology-transfer success are the training centres both companies have established in Africa, which produce a local workforce that can operate the technologies and even develop new ones.

In this respect, China’s investments in African telecoms differ significantly from other industries such as mining, where Chinese companies are often criticised for limiting the opportunities for technology transfer by excluding local entrepreneurs and labour.

The take-home message for Africa is that skills development goes hand in hand with successful technology transfer — and should be a key component of the China–Africa partnership.

For example, a Chinese method for making charcoal from bamboo has laid the foundations for a booming cottage industry in Ethiopia, where disastrousdeforestation led to a government ban on wood charcoal.

About 2,000 Ethiopian farmers are growing bamboo for energy production, and the number of Ethiopian companies producing bamboo charcoal is growing steadily. China has benefited from sales of the processing machinery and by charging to train technicians and workers in Ethiopia.

But attempts to introduce the technology in Ghana have not been as successful, despite support from the government. The incentives for farmers and small businesses that made the technology a runaway success in Ethiopia are not yet there — Ghana’s forests are still plentiful, and while deforestation is a problem, trade in wood charcoal remains legal.

There is no one-size-fits-all technology that will work in all African countries.

There is certainly enough money changing hands to boost Africa’s industrial competitiveness by transferring technology. In 2011, trade between China and Africa was worth a staggering US$166 billion. The Financial Timesestimated that in 2009, 800 Chinese corporations were doing business in Africa.

But China has been criticised for doing business with corrupt regimes, not investing in local industrial capacity, and failing to create business opportunities for ordinary Africans.

Improved technology transfer performance would help China’s reputation in Africa. It would also show that the ‘dragon economy’ is serious about wanting to build up African industry by applying lessons from its own rapid development.

Journalist Linda Nordling, based in Cape Town, South Africa, specialises in African science policy, education and development. She was the founding editor of Research Africa and writes for SciDev.Net, Nature and others.
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China and Africa Development Relations (Routledge Contemporary China) :: Amazon China is among a number of large developing country or new powers on the ascendance in the international system, all of which are deepening

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The Encipher INYE tablet is a 7inch tablet mobile internet device which runs Google™ Android 2.1 and allows for consuming services from the internet, watching movies and listening to music.

The company behind INYE is Encipher. Encipher, founded in 2008, is an IT product and service delivery company which provides products and computing infrastructures for different types of companies ranging from start-ups to large corporate organizations.

One of the co-founders, Saheed Adepoju, has over 6yrs experience within the software development industry and very proficient in Java development. He is a SUN certified Java programmer and a Microsoft certified Business solution specialist on Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009. He is responsible for charting the innovation trend within Encipher to ensure it adheres to recent development within the ICT industry

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University technology transfer office success factors: a comparative case study
Anne S. York; Mark J. Ahn
International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 11, No. 1/2 (2012) pp. 26 – 50
This study reviews the literature involving critical factors contributing to university technology transfer office success and then examines those factors within a stratified sample of four comparative case studies of peer university technology transfer offices. Two models of relative success and failure emerged, based on similarities and differences along the eight factors identified in the literature. Two additional success factors emerged during the course of the research. The ways in which technology transfer offices organised the commercialisation process, along with the degree of focus on both internal and external website utility, also seemed to play a significant role in university technology transfer office success.

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A balancing act: IPRs and public agriculture research
Lois Muraguri
International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 11, No. 1/2 (2012) pp. 88 – 109
International Agriculture Research Centres (IARCs) and other public research organisations increasingly find themselves exposed to intellectual property rights due to inter alia the advent of the intellectual property system, privatisation of research and increased collaboration with the private sector. There is an inherent theoretical conflict in the application of private rights for the provision of public goods given that intellectual property rights (IPRs) introduce excludability to a good. But there is a distinction between the existence and exercise of IPRs. The latter, conducted creatively, can mitigate the excludability effect brought about by the former. Examples of the creative exercise of IPRs illustrate that IP capacity is vital. IARCs and other public research organisations particularly those in developing countries must invest in IP capacity in order to formulate creative IP policies and strategies and implement them in a manner that ensures their public goods mandate is not compromised.

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Emerging metrics in technology transfer I. Case studies in the life sciences
Varun Y. Vaidya; Amar P. Kadaba; Alex Nieves; Fumin Shi; Limin Wang; Yi-Ling Chen; Shuqian Yu; Lei Gao; Kenneth P. Moritz; Kathleen M. Czupich; Allen B. Reitz
International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 11, No. 1/2 (2012) pp. 110 – 136
Technology transfer (TT) from academia to industry is one of the key components that is required in the translation of basic research discoveries into commercial opportunities that benefit humanity. This paper examines the TT process at four premier universities and research institutions across the USA: Harvard University, Emory University, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and The Scripps Research Institute. In this inaugural publication in a series of related publications studying multiple aspects of TT, we develop a variety of initial metrics and ratios measuring critical factors contributing to the success of TT and provide a generic model that can address certain bottlenecks in the process and enhance its efficiency.

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A framework for government support mechanisms aimed at enhancing university technology transfer: the Norwegian case
Einar Rasmussen; Mark P. Rice
International Journal of Technology Transfer and Commercialisation, Vol. 11, No. 1/2 (2012) pp. 1 – 25
This paper presents a conceptual framework for overcoming the gap between academic research and commercial application, including the mechanisms through which government support can facilitate the transfer of research-based technologies into commercial application. The efforts made by the Norwegian Government to promote commercialisation of university research are presented and analysed. Based on the Norwegian experience, we describe three mechanisms for promoting the commercialisation of university research: 1) extending academic research into development 2) extending the role of commercial actors and investors who are ‘receivers’ of technologies developed on the basis of academic research 3) supporting the development and engagement of intermediators. The three mechanisms are not mutually exclusive, and implemented together can result in synergies that improve the yield from efforts to bridge the gap between academic research and commercial application.

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Managing the Research University :: Amazon In recent years, the federal government and private industry have entrusted universities to manage a considerable portion of their research

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