In my last post regarding the Israeli
Technology Transfer Company (TTC) and the potential change due to the recent
call for tender for a TTC to attend the needs of the colleges in Israel, the
discussion ended with the question regarding the universities’ TTCs, should
they unite or not.
In order to discuss this point in a meaningful
way one has to consider the following points regarding academy- industry
commercialization:
·
Academic knowledge is seldom “ready for use”
for the intended industrial purposes and requires additional development and
sometime complementing technologies.
·
Due to the nature of academic competition,
competing technologies will be found at different research groups. That
knowledge if packaged together could present a valuable IP block for the
industry.
·
Locating the required academic knowledge can be
problematic as a result of the complexity of research interests that do not
necessarily fit faculty division. A single point of contact could help the
industry locate the knowledge faster and easier.
·
Ethics – all research center technologies
should get an even chance to be protected and marketed – there should be not
preference to competing technologies, unless from the market side. Different institutes may demand preferences.
·
Centralizing the activity would reduce
overhead, duplication and infrastructural cost (e.g. annual accountant audit,
administration etc.).
·
In Israel the TTCs are funded by university
funds which are public funds, so the organizational structure of the TTCs in
all universities is a matter of public interest. Same applies to the revenues
gathered by the TTCs on behalf of the universities using the knowledge
developed by university trained and paid for personnel and using university
infra-structure.
The points regarding distances, distribution of
expertise etc. are very general and in any case would not have a big influence
in specific regions or small countries.
Reviewing the points above it would seem that
the universities in Israel would only benefit from the merger of their TTCs.
The administrative, management and general costs would be reduced, the
knowledge could be packaged containing complementary knowledge from several
universities, and the management and ethical questions could be resolved (e.g.
TLB solution, or the French SATT). The main benefit would not be the saving in my
opinion, as there would be travels and offices etc. in each campus, but the
ability to form a joint commercialization strategy and package the knowledge
better.
The main obstacle would be the sunk cost each university has in its TTC and the complex agreements and exclusivity issues stemming from about 50 years of activity.
