Analytic Tools: Ensuring industry relevance for university-based R&D projects intending transfer

Corporations routinely conduct projects that link internal research, development and production activities to generate new or improved products and services for the marketplace. Similarly, national governments frequently... [ view full abstract ]

Corporations routinely conduct projects that link internal research, development and production activities to generate new or improved products and services for the marketplace. Similarly, national governments frequently sponsor technology-based projects led by university investigators to stimulate innovations with beneficial socio-economic impacts. However, the latter approach creates a gap between the rigorous R&D outputs generated by faculty, and the evidence of market relevance that industry requires to acquire external intellectual property. The less faculty investigators know about these industry requirements during project planning and implementation, the larger the subsequent gap -- and therefore the greater the challenge for technology transfer intermediaries.

The Need to Knowledge (NtK) Model resulted from a U.S. government-sponsored effort to acquaint university-based investigators with the full range of activities and decisions involved in R&D projects that intend to transfer their outputs to industry. Necessary due diligence involves much marketing and business analyses, to ensure the project will yield outputs with attributes valued by external stakeholders (i.e., novelty, feasibility, utility). Because many faculty are unfamiliar with the tools for validating business and market relevance, the University at Buffalo and Dublin Institutes of Technology, collaborated to populate the NtK Model with profiles outlining the key elements of appropriate tools.