Technology Transfer Trends and Predictions for 2017
Welcome to the first business day of 2017. Here are my predictions for the Australian technology transfer profession this year.
1. Arm’s length university owned commercialisation companies will roll back into universities. There will be further centralisation of technology transfer and enterprise activities within institutions, including the establishment of divisions led by a Deputy Vice Chancellor of Enterprise responsible for technology transfer/commercialisation, corporate partnerships, intellectual property, and entrepreneurship.
2. With over $1 billion of venture capital coming online, there will be a renewed interest in startup/spin out companies as a commercialisation vehicle for university developed IP.
3. Changes to research funding arrangements and the ARC impact and engagement assessment pilot will make industry partnerships a must have for forging academic research collaborations with Australian universities. This will drive the research landscape towards applied rather than fundamental blue sky research.
4. As a result of the changes in funding mentioned above, activities that drive industry engagement will become the major focus of technology transfer offices.
5. Campus and student entrepreneurship will continue to grow as part of the student experience, but universities will start to direct this resource towards academic staff entrepreneurship development and industry engagement.
6. Following the 2016 National Research Infrastructure Roadmap, shared research infrastructure and innovation precincts will become a focus and feature heavily in future NISA announcements.
7. Based upon the success of the US NSF I-Corp program, there will be an increase in local innovation sprints that use Lean Launchpad methodology beyond the ON Innovation program.
8. The Industry Growth Centres will start kicking goals and become major knowledge transformation hubs.
There it is, some obvious and some very bold predictions for 2017. Do you agree with me? What have I missed? Please feel free to respond below..
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1 年Tim, thanks for sharing!
Professor of Aerospace Engineering, Australian National University
7 年I agree with what you have said here, Tim. One additional trend that's going to be interesting is how the drive toward industry/university technology partnership that you describe aligns with the trend towards funding large-scale research projects like CRCs and centers of excellence. Australian innovation-based research has traditionally been small scale, the work of individuals or small groups. Funding, on the other hand, has been trending towards larger centers to try to produce international-scale research outcomes. Given funding limits, decisions will need to be made between which of these factors will be encouraged by Government.
CEO | Director | Commercialisation | Partnerships
7 年Is it too late to add another point? 9. Industrial PhDs will become very topical, and the PhD will evolve beyond training candidates for an academic appointment. Programs will be launched by the ATN, Go8, CSIRO and several universities. Some of these programs will move beyond examination by Thesis. It will be interesting to see the role that TTO's take in this space.
CEO | Director | Commercialisation | Partnerships
7 年No need to be sorry Dean Moss. I think the funding cliff will be a performance driver, but then again not all the IGCs are equal. The new organisations like MTPConnect seem to be heading in the right direction, but its time to review and overhaul the IGCs that rebranded from existing organisations.
Good alchemy Tim. No convinced on 8 sorry Tim. The current IGC funding window is too short for them to kick major goals. Hopefully they will do enough to convince Gov to re-fund them...perhaps. The MRFF will have a major impact on our universities, hospitals and MRIs. It will be interesting to see what role the TTOs play in this domain.