While there are good role models, many of the successful technology transfer-driven innovation ecosystems have developed organically, over decades. The challenge for others is how to catch up quickly.
US high-tech clusters like those around Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston and Stanford University in California’s Silicon Valley have long benefited from commercialising innovations coming out of nearby universities and national labs, spurring regional economic growth, boosting institutional wealth, and providing a magnet for excellent researchers and students.
The benefits can be substantial: in the case of the University of Wisconsin, technology transfer has generated nearly $1.25bn since the inception of the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (Warf),…
