Tech transfer offices are under increasing pressure to generate revenue, but an innovative tech transfer strategy can help them deliver.

Tech transfer offices are still defined by major licensing blockbusters – for example Northwestern’s royalties from epilepsy drug Lyrica or Columbia’s Axel patents, which cover a method of introducing foreign proteins into nucleated cells – but the field is taking on new dimensions as universities increasingly see those offices as critical revenue drivers. As a result, the future looks more dynamic, sustainable and exciting for all involved. While the traditional focus of tech transfer offices has been to license intellectual property (IP) to spinouts, many universities have struggled to generate meaningful revenues from this licensing strategy.  At the same time, tech transfer offices are facing mounting pressure to generate revenue in new and innovative ways.  Rather than licensing their IP at a steep discount, universities are encouraging their top academic talent to develop technologies that have commercial applications capable of generating meaningful licensing revenue for the university.  This shift represents a response to the increasing pressures faced by universities to supplement traditional revenue sources such as public funding, endowments, and tuition, while at the same time fostering a dynamic environment that encourages new ideas and research capable of raising an institute’s profile, attracting new talent and inspiring innovation. Startups on the rise – revenue on the decline Recent research by the Milken Institute illustrates the fundamental change rippling through tech transfer offices. The total number of spinouts launched per year in the mid-1990s was about 200; by 2015, the annual number reached 1,000 – and it continues to rise. Total licensing income, meanwhile, has fallen by almost $1bn since it peaked at about $3.5bn in 2008, despite a steady climb in the number of patents and licences. The quest for blockbusters has not stopped – why would it? – but the number of blockbuster innovations is extremely limited.  This requires tech transfer offices to begin functioning like industrial innovators: efficient and effective units that mold ideas into marketable products all the while generating new innovations. The best research institutes are at the center of economic ecosystems that foster innovation, where the line between academia and industry intersect. As an extension of this, those who excel in the tech transfer field are catalysts for innovation comfortable in operating in both worlds – people who see a synergy between private-sector success and the university’s non-profit mission. The importance of IP Among the many things tech transfer offices have in common with private sector companies is the fundamental importance of intellectual property. Like…

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