Responsible Tech Transfer?
The University’s Responsibilities
Dr Kevin Cullen
Director
Research & Enterprise
University of Glasgow
Current Environment
Universities are under pressure to justify themselves and the
funding they receive. Required to:
•
Fulfil academic mission
- excellent, objective research & teaching
•
Fulfil a social mission
- contribute to society and mankind
•
Fulfil an economic development mission
- driver of innovation in the economy
Now these are very big asks and some concerns that this pesky
third one might undermine the others or even harm the academy.
…some questions (you will have heard before)
Some questions
• Do commercial relationships harm our
academic mission?
• Is our contribution to society limited by
commercial relationships?
• Should we make money from licensing
technology?
….let’s look at these in turn – and let’s assume
that EVERYONE is telling the truth.
Do commercial relationships harm our academic mission?
Company 1
wants to fund $1m research project, but insists upon
review of all publications and the right to delay or
veto.
- Should you take their offer?
Company 2
wants to donate old lab equipment to the teaching lab,
provide visiting speakers and take summer students
on placement
- Should you take their offer?
Do commercial relationships harm our
academic mission?
• It depends!!
• In the first case – yes. We lose our right to
publish.
• In the second case – no. We can argue that
they are helping the academic mission.
Next….
Is our contribution to society limited by commercial relationships?
Situation 1
Small local company says: you have IP that would be
hugely useful to our competitors. We want an exclusive
licence to protect our products, even though we are not
ready to use it.
- should you licence it?
Situation 2
Global Pharma says: you have IP which will be the basis of
a life-saving drug. We can only justify the investment
needed to make it into a drug if we have an exclusive
licence. No licence, no drug.
- should you licence it?
Is our contribution to society limited by commercial
relationships?
•
It depends!!
•
In the first case – yes. The company is suppressing
knowledge – buying our silence.
•
In the second case – no. We can argue that our
contribution will be limited WITHOUT a commercial
relationship.
Next…..
Should we make money from licensing technology?
Situation 1
•
Global Pharma company says: we wish to licence technology from
you to develop a drug which we estimate will generate $1bn.
They will pay you a very fair sum for the rights.
- should you do the deal?
Situation 2
•
Small local company says: we want to develop a new product line –
highly risky and experimental for us. We will employ 50 new staff to
work on the project right here in town, but we simply can’t afford to
pay for the IP you own and investors are saying no to royalties. We
need a royalty free licence.
You have no other interested parties
- should you do the deal?
•
Should we make money from licensing technology?
•
It depends!!
•
In the first case – yes you should do the deal and
make money. The company is going to make money
and we are entitled to a fair share.
•
In the second case – you SHOULD do the deal, even
though it will make you no money. We can argue that
our contribution will be a local socio-economic benefit.
Conundrums Abound
These are easy questions to ask and non-practitioners often
think there are easy answers. They get very frustrated:
•
Do commercial relationships harm our academic mission?
It depends
•
Is our contribution to society limited by commercial
relationships? It depends
•
Should we make money from licensing technology? It
depends
….wouldn’t you get frustrated?
…so why is it so complicated?
And note that:
• It’s not simply big companies vs little
companies (big guys bad, small guys good –
or vice versa).
• It’s not simply about the money (are we
licensing to save lives or to make money?)
These questions are difficult for the University
because they are framed in ways that jar
with our mission….
University Mission
• Create Knowledge
• Disseminate Knowledge
– Publication to Science base
– Teaching to students
– Knowledge Transfer to Business and the
Economy
…we must think in these terms rather than
‘commercial’ terms.
If we ask all of those questions again….
….but frame our answers around:
‘ does the proposal help us achieve our mission
of creating and disseminating knowledge?’
…then the answers are fairly straightforward.
Do the deal if it maximises knowledge creation
and dissemination.
Don’t do the deal if it stops knowledge creation
and dissemination.
….and whether it makes money or not is,
philosophically speaking, irrelevant (although
practically speaking it can be very relevant).
Being Responsible
For me, being responsible in TT/KT starts here.
When faced with an opportunity we must ask:
-
Does it help to create and disseminate knowledge
-
Then AND ONLY THEN do we ask:
-
Does it make any kind of financial sense to do it??
….let me give some examples of the types of activities
we get involved in:
Research &
Outreach Activities
Technology Dev.
Licensing
Venturing
Contract Research
•
Public good,
•
Knowledge creation,
•
Financial returns
•
Financial
economic dev.,
IP creation
returns
•
IP protection,
Reasons for
profile
•
Research, tech dev,
marketing & legal
•
IP protection,
doing / Costs
•
People, events,
IP costs
costs
marketing &
Travel
legal costs
Equity gains,
Funding for research
Licence income, up
dividends,
Financial
None – covers
& tech development,
front payments; can
royalties;
Returns
costs at most
overhead recovery
be significant
should be
(cost-plus)
significant
Financial
Negligible
Low/Modest
Modest/Significant
Significant
Risks
Spin-out
Student
Charity or company
Licences with
companies,
Examples
placements, SME
funded research
companies
Start-up
networks etc.
companies
The cost profile changes across this spectrum as well
£
Return to
Institution
Knowledge Creation
Public Good
Profit / Return
Knowledge Transfer Mechanisms
•
Economic Development
•
Student placements
•
Contract Research
•
Collaborative Research
•
Consultancy
•
Licensing
•
Spin-outs
…all of these involve relationships with companies.
…some cost money, some make money.
…in all cases our ‘responsibility’ is to ensure
knowledge creation and dissemination.
So when it comes to ‘responsible Tech Transfer’
We are responsible for fulfilling the University mission –
create and disseminate knowledge.
What about the 9 Points?
- Fantastic!
- We will look at them all in detail in this session
- I am jealous that the US got to this sort of ‘guidance’ first.
…to my mind they are hints and tips to ensure that we don’t
drift from fulfilling the University mission. They are not….
…they are not
….the Nine Commandments.
They are ‘things to consider’, but are not exhaustive
If I had been writing them I would have started with:
•
The University mission is to create and disseminate
knowledge.
•
There are some areas of licensing where this mission
can be inadvertently or deliberately hampered.
•
The following nine points provide guidance in 9 of
these key areas.
• I applaud the authors
• I do not think we can we can write the
exhaustive list of points to consider
• The questions at the beginning of my
presentation showed how subtle some of this
area can be
• We cannot write a process flow chart for
what we do.
so…
Hopefully we now have a framework to think
within and some hints and tips to consider.
But, we still have to ask the same question
of every opportunity we look at:
“What is the responsible thing to do?”
And our answer, every time, is likely to be….
It depends!
But that’s what makes our
job interesting.
I hope that has been of some use.
Thank you for listening
Dr Kevin Cullen
[email address]
