Been playing with the response to the THES article over the weekend and
below is the current draft. If anyone is around to comment by early
Monday please do so but we need to get it in fairly pronto to hit this
week's deadline.
Dear Sir
In “Transfers prove costly” (THES 15 September 2006) the results of the
THES survey on Technology Transfer Office (TTO) income versus
expenditure are almost certainly not a reflection of TTO performance but
an artefact of the survey.
While the costs of a TTO will be accurately known, the revenue generated
by the TTO through research contracts, consultancy, licensing and spin
out share sales often goes direct to the University or School, not the
TTO. Exactly how a particular University accrues this income will
significantly affect the answer to the THES’s Freedom of Information
question about income to the TTO, leading to misleading results. Even so
you report only 11 of the 125 UK University institutions as
not covering their costs, contrary to the opening claim that
"many....spend far more than they earn"
The Government is to be congratulated for supporting a long term view
that University technology transfer is essential to the future health of
the UK’s knowledge based economy. Since 1997 it has invested £500m (not
the reported £100m) to support Universities across all areas of
knowledge commercialisation. Already, in spin outs alone, the last three
years have seen 25 University spin out companies listing on
international stock exchanges with a combined market valuation of £1.5
billion. Very little of that value has flowed back to the Universities,
as is also the case with US University spin outs like Yahoo and Cisco.
For Universities here, as in the USA, the primary purpose of technology
transfer is not revenue. It's about fulfilling a responsibility to
ensure that the significant public investment in research is translated
into economic and social benefit for UKplc. As the President of the US
Association of University Technology Managers wrote to Fortune last year
“The number-one goal of academic technology transfer is to deliver the
benefits of innovative research to society, not to generate revenue.”
Far from wasting money, University technology transfer is demonstrating
a significant economic impact from its and the Government's investment.
Yours etc
--
Tony
"Anyone who conducts an argument by appealing to authority is not using
his intelligence; he is just using his memory."
- Leonardo da Vinci