Tech Transfers: Turn-Offs or Start-Ups?

"We never want to work with anyone who won’t put a little skin in the game. If a faculty member comes into my office with any idea, but doesn’t want to risk anything, I don’t see that as a promising start. On the other hand, if an entrepreneur comes to us and expects everything to be free, that’s a problem too."

Recently, Donna Rounds, the Director of Technology Development at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York noted that "the dirty little secret for starting a new business is that you can get most things out of a tech transfer department pretty damned cheap." This December marks the 30th anniversary of the Bayh-Dole Act which in effect gave birth to the idea of tech transfer.

In response to a sluggish US atmosphere for innovation, the law was passed to give ownership of inventions, developed with the aid of federal research funds, back to the universities that created them; it also allowed research institutions the freedom to negotiate whatever license terms would encourage development of the technology. The act was immediately dubbed by The Economist as "the most inspired piece of legislation to be enacted in America over the past half century."

Angela Haines

Full Story: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-haines/tech-tranfers-turn-offs-o_b_766793.html