The Regional Biotech Forum has held a panel to discuss the positives and negatives of university tech transfer offices creating partnerships with private corporations, according to BizJournals.
The Regional Biotech Forum, a two-day conference, was held last month. The event brings together the companies, federal labs and academic research institutions that make up the biotechnology cluster in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, DC.
In an afternoon panel discussion, entitled “Innovative and effective ways of developing and commercializing inventions”, five panellists and a moderator discussed the current environment for collaboration by reviewing success stories and lessons learned.
The panel included Christy Wyskiel, senior advisor to the president of Johns Hopkins University, Michael Straightiff, executive director of licensing and ventures group Virginia University, and three representatives from industry.
Outcomes from the panel discussion included how tech transfer has become more important to universities as they now need to compete for researchers and students that are looking for places that will support their commercial aspirations for their research.
Another point was how communication is key to making academic and industry partnerships work because of the differences in culture and how the two partners operate.
