From Science to Growth: Where and How Technology Transfer Fits

Investment in scientific research is correlated with economic growth. More science does lead to more growth but how? What exactly are the mechanisms by which one leads to the other? What is the relative impact of “People Centric mechanisms (entrepreneurs, recruitment by businesses of bachelor graduates and applied development work undertaken by PhDs employed in industry) compared to “Idea Centric mechanisms (technology transfer via licensing and spin-outs). The economic impact of academic research could be substantially increased by using a focused range of People Centric initiatives to complement technology transfer programmes. Understanding the mechanism by which science leads to growth is important. If we know how the mechanism works, we can catalyse it more effectively than we do today and build strong new technology industries. The sums of money at stake are substantial. Whilst interest in and spending on technology transfer is high, spending on research itself is orders of magnitude larger. Yet the real cost could be the missed opportunity to build entire new industries and at the same time use some of the wealth generated to build endowments for Irish universities.

Who should attend?

For policy makers, the talk will outline a simple and structured programme to enhance the economic impact of science.
For university leaders and academics in scientific disciplines, the talk will explain how best to have economic impact and how that varies by subject. Some of the People Centric initiatives are more than self funding.

For Business / University interface professionals, the talk will review some of the relevant academic literature.

For business people, the talk will outline how to obtain value from university interactions.

Stephen will launch Strategic Management of Technology Transfer: The New Challenge on Campus written by Dr. James Cunningham and Mr. Brian Harney published by Oak Tree Press.

Stephen Allott is both a business and a non-profit entrepreneur. After graduating from Trinity College, Cambridge with a degree in law, he practised at the Bar in private practice and then as in-house counsel with Babcock, Rank Xerox and Sun Microsystems. He then worked for McKinsey as a strategy consultant in telecoms and technology before joining Micromuse in 1995. At Micromuse he was President, CFO and a main board director, leading the NASDAQ flotation. From 2001 to 2004 he was a full time Visitor at the Cambridge University Computer Laboratory where he founded the Computer Laboratory Graduate Association (www.camring.ucam.org). In 2004 he co-founded Trinamo Ltd., which has 2 divisions, a management consultancy for software companies and a security software reseller (www.trinamo.com)

Related Priority Research Area: Industry Clustering

All Welcome