Technology Transfer from University to Industry

The present national technology transfer policy suffers from the limited focus on structural barriers, as well as the reluctance of American business to invest in precommercial research and development. A growing consensus from the national debate suggests that policy attention be reoriented, thereby giving a greater emphasis to precommercial technology development (TD) research. This paper examines whether the nation's research-intensive universities, a reservoir of virtually unlimited scientific and technological resources, can possibly go beyond basic research and produce economically viable technology efficiently. To this end, the paper introduces key principles that help organize TD research within the research-intensive university. It also presents the results of a large-scale TD experiment being carried out by a research-intensive university under federal sponsorship. The midterm result strongly indicates that with modest financial support and some internal cultural adjustment, research-intensive universities can break through their ideological barriers and efficiently translate new scientific advances into commercially viable, cutting-edge technology. This is possible because, among other factors, the research-intensive university can build on its awn comparative advantage of strong fundamental research.