Technology Transfer and Innovation: Reexamining and Broadening the Perspective of the Transfer of Discoveries Resulting from Government-Sponsored Research

The Bayh–Dole Act transferred to universities andgovernment laboratories the responsibility for operationalizing the vision ofVannevar Bush's doctrine Science, the Endless Frontier (1945).Twenty-four years later, these organizations seemingly continue to strugglewith incorporating this federally mandated function of "technologytransfer" as an integral component of their operations. This paper examines the decision process involved in formulating andassessing an institution's technology transfer function. Several importantconclusions follow from this analysis. The first is that technology transfer isa subset of the knowledge dissemination mission of research institutions, andis therefore an important part of their core mission. Another conclusion isthat there are different types of new knowledge generated at researchinstitutions that require different dissemination strategies. The five mostimportant functions of an institutional technology transfer office areidentified, three of which fall within the auspices of intellectual assetmanagement. Finally, for institutions to maximize the public benefit of their research,they must optimize their technology transfer process. To accomplish this, eachinstitution must embrace a clear and specific objective for their technologytransfer function, and then implement technology transfer operating tacticsconsistent with the chosen objective. (Publication abstract)