Research Commercialization Academy (BETA 0.01)

Imagine the challenges we face in the U.S. of taking early-stage research from the lab to the marketplace, and combine those with the infrastructural and economic hardships faced by many African nations.  Recent reports published on BioMed Central describe some of the challenges African nations experience when trying to turn local discoveries into drugs and other health-care inventions.

• Scientists in Africa have no incentive to commercialize results
• African nations have scant institutional support for knowledge transfer
• Venture capital is scarce
• Existing weak regulatory frameworks inhibit innovation and intellectual property protection

Read more here.  http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101212/full/news.2010.666.html 

Last week at the Tech Transfer Society conference in DC, Julia Lane shared an update about the STAR METRICS project.  The project will collect and analyze existing data to quantify and prove the effect of federal investment in science, particularly with respect to job creation and economic growth.  Right now, only a handful of universities are on board but hopefully more will join in the near future.

STAR METRICS is an inter-agency initiative (NSF, NIH and OSTP).  It's goal is to not impose additional reporting metrics onto already overburdened universities, but to collect what's already there and synthesize it to assess impact.  Measuring the economic impact of new university technologies is tough -- right now, the primary input is patents but that will likely be refined and expanded as the project continues.  Phase I just ended.

This is a video of a discussion between Randall Rader and host UCLA law professor, Doug Lichtman.

http://www.ipcolloquium.com/current.html

The UA is creating a non-profit entity to better handle technology transfer functions and bring research-generated ideas to market.  The initiative will combine technology transfer and new business development with improved and coordinated support for businesses, colleges, faculty and others.  The tentatively named University of Arizona Research Corporation, or UARC, will, over the next six months, include the functions of the existing Office of Technology Transfer, add new functions for new venture formation and will run under the auspices of the UA Foundation.

See the full story. 

The first-ever Open Hardware Summit 2010 is this Thursday in Queens, NY.  Here's the press release:

"Bug Labs, MakerFaire, Creative Commons, The New York Hall of Science and littleBits will present the world's first comprehensive conference on open hardware. The Open Hardware Summit will be a venue to discuss and draw attention to the rapidly growing open source hardware movement."

The schedule looks fantastic, with presentations by some visionary technologists and scholars, including Bruce Perens, Eric Von Hippel and Chris Anderson.  Here's the schedule.  http://www.openhardwaresummit.org/schedule/

This group is leading an initiative to create an open source hardware commons, license and culture based on the success of open source software.  It's a fledgling movement but a fascinating one to watch develop.

I'm attending and will write more later this week.

Melba Kurman
Triple Helix Innovation
www.triplehelixinnovation.com
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it