Technology Transfer: A Contact Sport

It is fall and football season in the United States. We are still playing soccer too–football everywhere else–but that is another story. American football External Link has long been called a contact sport External Link, meaning the players intentionally collide to move the ball toward the goal line. However, it remains a far cry from rugby External Link, which seems indistinguishable from unarmed combat to my untrained eye.

How, one may wonder, does football relate to technology transfer? For that matter, what do I mean by the phrase technology transfer itself? There are broader definitions External Link, but for the sake of discussion, let’s define technology transfer as the mechanism via which research ideas are communicated to and adopted by companies and their product groups.

The success or failure of technology transfer depends on many factors, from the personalities and skills of the people involved, through the timing and appropriateness of the offering, to the risks and costs associated with the new idea. No single mechanism is guaranteed to succeed, though there are many mechanisms that are likely to fail.

Daniel Reed

Full Story: http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/99627-technology-transfer-a-contact-sport/fulltext