We encourage reading of the full text as it provides insight into how professionals learn but also how they put learning into practice individually and as a team or organisation; essential if practice is to change (in this case, from transactions-based to relationship-based). Learning and sharing good practice is at the heart of PraxisUnico’s activities and this article also points to new ways in which we can continue to support our members and their professional development.
By Dr Dagmara Weckowska, Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex
University Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) need a wide and constantly evolving range of capabilities to facilitate commercial exploitation of academic research outputs, including the ability to evaluate technological inventions, to manage Intellectual Property (IP) Rights, to identify commercial partners and manage relations with them and to establish new ventures. These capabilities are not easy to develop yet play an important role in enhancing knowledge transfer between academic and non-academic communities. The recent Dowling review points out that further work is required to improve UK TTOs’ approaches to contracts and IP agreements, which suggests a need for learning.
My research article about Learning in University TTOs published earlier this year in Technovation highlights what and how TTOs learn, what challenges are encountered during the learning process and how they may be overcome. The article presents insights from a four-year research project which entailed in-depth case studies of practices at six university TTOs across the UK. Selected TTOs differed on a range of knowledge transfer metrics published in the HEBCI survey and included TTOs in large and small universities with different degree of research-intensity. Recognising that knowledge transfer encompasses a broad range of activities, the focus of my research was on commercialisation of science and technology-related research outputs.
How do university TTOs learn?
My interest lies in informal learning in practice, or by doing, which takes place as we engage in everyday work practices, often without a conscious effort on the part of the learner. We adjust our actions to account for changing situations and our evolving understanding of the environment. I find three modes of learning in practice in university TTOs: (1) learning through interactions within communities of practice – that is through engagement in shared practices with colleagues in a TTO; (2) learning in networks of practice – through interactions with technology transfer managers working in other universities, e.g. through university groupings or regional networks and (3) learning across communities of practice – that is through interactions with professionals who are engaged in different but related practices e.g. patent attorneys, venture capitalists and academics.
Learning in communities and networks of practice – which typically entails exchanges with like-minded people - predominantly leads to incremental changes to commercialisation practice and development of new activities that fit well with the existing practice. Learning from practitioners who hold different perspectives on commercialisation is more difficult but can result in significant changes to a TTO’s approach. For example, interactions with commercial organisations can spark ideas for more business friendly practices.
What do TTOs learn?
There is plenty of room for interpretations in how to competently undertake commercialisation activities and what is considered a competent practice varies from one TTO to another. There is a danger that TTOs develop ways of working that their staff believe are competent, but which in reality may be relatively ineffective in stimulating innovation.
My research found that two different approaches to commercialisation emerge through informal learning. The first approach - ‘transactions-focused commercialisation practice’ – is characterised by treating the outputs of scientific research as tradeable products, a focus on completing a one-off IP transaction rather than building a relationship, emphasis on sales skills, mainly sequential commercialisation activities and an implicit belief that the innovation process is linear and the IP (like a commodity) can be transferred from an academic, to the TTO, to industry with no or little need for feedback loops or complex long-term relations. The second approach - ‘relations-focused commercialisation practice’- is distinguished by a focus on building and managing complex longer term and mutually beneficial relations between academics, commercial organisations, and university TT managers throughout the commercialisation process, concurrent commercialisation activities and a recognition that the innovation process is not linear, but interactive, that scientific discovery must match industry needs and capabilities, and that two-way communication between academia and industry and the collaboration of market and research and development experts are crucial.
Some TTOs learn to perform predominantly a relations-focused practice to commercialise early stage technologies and a transactions-focused practice in relation to technologies that are more market-ready, such as a software package or audio CDs. In these TTOs both approaches to commercialisation co-evolve through all three modes of learning in practice. Other TTOs learn only a transactions-focused practice and perform it irrespective whether technologies are at the very early stages of development or more market-ready.
What challenges are encountered during learning and how are they overcome?
Technology transfer managers learn to makes changes to their work practice that are consistent with their understanding of competent commercialisation and the innovation process. Consequently TTOs in which both types of commercialisation practice co-exist learn to evolve both approaches, but developing a relations-focused approach through informal learning in TTOs with a prevailing ‘transactions-focused practice’ is a big challenge.
Learning a relations-focused practice involves developing new approaches to assessing IP, identifying partners, negotiating and managing partnerships. The ideas for more relations-focused approach undermine the validity and sufficiency of the established ways of commercialising academic research in TTOs with only transactions-focused practices and it is not surprising these ideas received little attention and backing from colleagues who invested in establishing transactions-focused ways of working. Although it’s difficult, the development of a relations-focused approach to commercialisation in transactions-focused TTOs is possible if senior managers set the strategic direction for change, engage with TTO staff to re-negotiating the work practices considered acceptable and remove sources of resistance such as policies and procedures that reinforce the old way of working or individuals who resist change.
Recommendations for policy and practice on how to support learning in university TTOs
On the basis of my research, I developed the following three recommendations:
1. University and TTO management should create environments conducive to the emergence of communities and networks of practice by providing space and time for social interaction, ensuring continuity of relations, allowing staff to make decisions about work practices on the basis of their learning, and encouraging them to develop and maintain networks of contacts with their peers in other TTOs. In TTOs where a transactions-focused commercialisation practice prevails, university and TTO management should provide strategic direction for the development of relations-focused approaches.
2. Training and networking organisations, such as PraxisUnico, can help TTO professionals to understand the interactive nature of the innovation process and the place of a university in innovation systems in order to challenge the sufficiency of a mere transactions-focused approach and promote the development of a relations-focused practice[T1] .
3. Government should provide funds for initiatives that enable sharing knowledge and good practice across university TTOs and support peer-to-peer learning.
An open access copy of the full version of this research paper was published in Technovation, Volumes 41-42, July-August 2015. It is also available in the PraxisUnico repository.