Recent Trend on Technology Transfer Process
Technology transfer can be defined as a process to develop practical applications that come from a scientific research. Although theoretically it has been used for many years, high research volume and many past failures have changed the focus on the process instead.
Many profit institutions, university technology transfer and organizations owned by government have a “Technology Transfer Entity” with a special purpose to identify the kind of research that may has potential commercial interest and to develop necessary strategies to exploit this business opportunity. For example, a research is usually focused on scientific and commercial interest, but unfortunately patents are issued only for practical application, therefore someone - not only the researchers - should find a way to bring this scientific result into a practical and real-world application.
Commercial value is also an important consideration, for example, even there are many ways to achieve successful nuclear fusion, only those that produce more energy than needed to sustain the fusion, can be considered to have commercial value and can be applied for practical commercial purposes.
The process to utilize commercial value of research result can take many forms. These may include licensing agreements or establishing partnership cooperation and joint ventures to share the risks and benefits of putting new technologies on the market.
Currently, there is a noticeable trend on technology transfer services with their own specialized fields. They are owned by or work with research agencies, governments and big companies. The usual clients are usually start-up and spin-out companies; the fee for technology transfer is often traded for a share in the business stake. This has often increased the complexity in the technology transfer process, technology transfer entities are often employ multidisciplinary staffs, which may include lawyers, economists, business executives, engineers and scientists. The process of transferring technology has invited considerable attention, which is covered in many papers and journals.