When the deal flow from the laboratories to the technology transfer office (TTO) is optimal, technology transfer officers are susceptible to receive many inventions with commercial interest. A lot of early-stage inventions require substantial human and financial resources to be developed into marketable products. In order to establish whether or not the resources of the TTO should be spent to seek a commercial exploitation, a first-stage evaluation is often performed shortly after an invention has been identified. The complex decision process that technology transfer officers go through in this regard is introduced below. www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu

1. Evaluation of Transfer Projects
FITT
– Fostering Interregional Exchange in ICT Technology Transfer –
www.FITT-for-Innovation.eu
Except where otherwise noted, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

2. The context
46% of resources are allocated to the conception, development
and launch of products which will never reach the market or fail
after the release.
Robert G. Cooper, 2000, Ivey Business Journal
How to reduce the risk of spending time, money and
efforts of technology transfer officers on non-
valuable projects?
2 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

3. Evaluation of Transfer Projects
• Need for a first assessment of the disclosed
inventions on:
 technical & commercial potential
 the interest of the research organisation to
Credit: Microsoft Office
allocate resources to the transfer
• Necessity to be quick and simple.
To be followed by a more in-depth analysis later.
• Always performed internally whereas further investigation for
protection/exploitation of the invention can be outsourced (patent attorney,
marketing studies...)
3 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

4. Objectives
In the context of public R&D, this first-level assessment has the following
objectives:
• To provide a first view on the possibility of transferring the research
results, making the best use of all kind of transfer
• “Return on research” i.e. financial returns that will reinforce the research
capacity
• Responsibility to ensure the dissemination of the research outputs in order
to optimize their socio-economic impact (including employment creation)
aside from a strictly financial, return-on-investment perspective
• Given the transversal nature of ICT, commitment to a broad perspective
and to consider all possible fields of applications in order to ensure the
widest possible dissemination
4 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

5. Elements of the process
• Methodology for evaluation (criteria, process…)
• Stakeholders (technology transfer officers, jury, external
experts, researchers...)
• Outcome of the assessment (internal procedure for follow-up
of the projects, guidance for inventors)
5 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

6. Practices available in the toolbox
IDENTIFICATION OF TRANSFER OPPORTUNITIES
CREATION OF
DETECTION &
TRANSFER
MONITORING
AWARENESS
• Quick assessment
tool for business
ideas (NABC)
EVALUATION
• Evaluation criteria
• Technology transfer
follow-up committee
6 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

7. Quick assessment tool for business ideas
(NABC)
• Easy framework to quickly analyse and develop value propositions for
projects targeting a transfer:
N Customer/Market Needs
A Compelling Approach
B Customer Benefits/cost
C Worldwide Competition
• Useful for researchers: support them into making a pitchy Value Proposition
showing their distinctive advantage
• Useful for technology transfer officers : support them into structuring ‘wild’
business ideas and easy framework for dissemination and creation of transfer
awareness
7 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

8. Evaluation criteria
• Review of evaluation criteria used in research organisations to assess
technology transfer projects
• Focus on a set of criteria for maturation projects & their condition of use
Pre-incubation Incubation entry eval
Early-stage eval entry eval
Development Proof-of-concept
Market
Research
8 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

9. Technology transfer follow-up committee (1)
• INRIA has set up a Technology Transfer Follow-up Committee to supervise all the
transfer operations conducted in the organisation and provide guidelines as well as
a clear process for researchers
• This committee is in charge of:
 Startup creation projects
 Industrial partnerships with transfer of assets (license or assignment)
 Industrial partnerships with transfer of competences (expertise)
 Participation to standardisation actions within a transfer action
 An open source diffusion of an important code base
• The practice will provide information regarding it composition, functioning and first
results
9 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

10. Pros & Cons
PROs CONs
• Early evaluation allows the • Difficult to choose the experts, who
establishment of a real transfer strategy must be legitimate to “kill” the projects
in case of go/no go decisions.
• Increased formalization of the
process leads to the diminution of “oral • Risk of excessive formalisation of
tradition”, more transparency. the process. Some flexibility should
remain, to support great, “out of scope”
• More visibility for the projects that
projects.
go through the first-level assessment.
Even if the result of the assessment is
negative, the TT officers/ experts of the
jury are aware of it, leading to possible
re-orientation or developments of the
project in the future.
10 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects

11. Suggested Readings
 Link to code book
Assessment, criteria, detection, inventor, (transfer) opportunity
 Link to relevant websites
11 March 2011 Evaluation of Transfer Projects