07
/ November
2011
How can technology transfer answer the President’s call for an expedited timeline?
After the President’s call for expedited transition of federal research to innovation and commercialization, technology transfer officers were left to reexamine process. Gene Quinn of IPWatchdog dusted off an invention-to-innovation continuum for illustration:
- It’s a classic role of government to fund much of basic research.
- Some basic research will “show promise,” demand more applied research, and, of course, the requisite funding.
- The goal is to get the research/invention to a point where it can be used by a licensee for a commercially viable endeavor.
- That timeline is unique to each invention, but unfortunately what research institutions provide is not off-the-shelf technology. As Quinn states, we’re not talking about “plug and play” here.
- What the administration is calling for is an expediting of this timeline; unfortunately, incentives already exist for moving it along as quickly as possible.