Building Technology Transfer within Research Universities: Fostering cross-campus entrepreneurship – Building technology transfer within UCD to create a start-up environment

In this chapter we discuss the emergence of commercialization activity, and specifically the TTO and ILO functions, in University College Dublin (UCD). This case emphasizes (1) how a public university has sought to encourage commercialization activity and the organizational structures developed to support commercialization; (2) how, over a period of twenty years, the TTO and ILO functions and commercialization activity evolved in the absence of what might be considered many of the university attributes, such as high levels of funded research, typically associated with high levels of commercialization; (3) how policies aimed at encouraging the commercialization of university research were embedded within a broader industrial development strategy associated with both attracting inward FDI (foreign direct investment) and developing indigenous entrepreneurial activity in emerging sectors; and (4) how a new president in a traditional public university has sought to emphasize the contribution the university makes to economic development as a means for engaging in a significant restructuring of the university and the adoption of policies that seek to maximize research activity, in particular in emerging sectors such as biotechnology and ICT, to develop external linkages with industry, and to promote commercialization.