Technology transfer, its importance and PlaTCOM’s national role

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 4 — Technology transfer is much discussed and defined in different ways depending on the context. This article focuses on technology transfer in universities and research institutes in the context of the organisation’s efforts to promote the strategic use of intellectual property rights (IPRs) for economic development.

According to the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in the United States, technology transfer is defined as “the process of transferring scientific findings from one organisation to another for the purpose of further development and commercialisation.”

This transfer is generally executed via IP licensing agreements (contracts) between universities and private companies or publicly-owned commercialisation agencies. In the licensing agreement, the research organisation grants permission (a licence) to use the IP in a newly developed technology to a private sector licensee or a “spin off” company in exchange for royalties or other payments.

IP rights permit the university to own and control the use of its research results and so are the basis for technology transfer in this sense.

Recent years have seen a rapid expansion in the number of technology transfer offices set up by universities across the world to manage this process. In some cases, the technology transfer is reciprocal, and the research institution and licensee exchange and co-develop technologies.

Why has it become so important?

Firstly, technology transfer helps develop early stage IP into tools for direct use by the research community themselves or into new platforms, products, or services for public use.

Successful collaborations are formed between researchers across different universities or industries in order to advance the knowledge in a particular field or to further develop a technology.

These collaborations may result in licensing or sponsored research opportunities that benefit both partners. In addition, technology transfer ensures that the interests and rights of the university in the intellectual property are protected. The university is able to retain the IP rights of the technology and issue a license for the conditional use of the technology.

Secondly, successful transfer of technology and its development help promote the research institution and its commercial partners. The university obtains recognition and increases its reputation for their research and innovation potential.

Industry partners can also reduce the costs incurred during their research and development stage by licensing technology from a university in which case the industry partner greatly benefits from not having to develop the technology from scratch.

Thirdly, the university can utilise the licensing revenue to support further research and education at the institution. Universities protect their investments in research by patenting new technologies which gives them an opportunity to reach the stream of business.

The university’s investments in the technology help stimulate local economic development. The ultimate beneficiary of technology transfer is the public, who benefits from both the products that reach the market and the jobs resulting from the development, manufacturing, and sale of products.

PlaTCOM Ventures’ role in supporting national technology transfer

PlaTCOM Ventures Sdn Bhd is the national technology commercialisation platform of Malaysia. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary company of Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM) formed in collaboration with SME Corporation Malaysia under one of its six High Impact Programmes (HIPs) in the SME Master Plan 2012-2020.

PlaTCOM Ventures’ model is designed to discover and support innovations wherever they may be, assess ideas very critically, explore them systematically, and turn the best ones into successful products and services.

Rather than following traditional technology transfer models, PlaTCOM Ventures has designed a model that facilitates any segment of the entire commercialisation process (end-to-end facilitation) from idea to products and services.

The whole approach is market driven in supporting industrial innovation and competitiveness. The model is more suited to the innovation environment in the South-east Asia region in providing commercialisation support for the fledgling businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs including those from academia and public research institutes.

PlaTCOM has helped a number of Malaysian universities and research institutes transfer their innovations to industry either via direct licence deals or via spin off companies. Since its inception in April 2014, PlaTCOM has facilitated nearly 100 licence deals and approximately 61 of these deals have been made between Malaysian research organisations and Malaysian SMEs. This is a remarkable achievement given the inherent difficulties encountered in transfer of technology from research organisations to industry.

A part of the aforementioned success is attributable to the Innovation Business Opportunities (IBO) initiative originally developed and implemented by Agensi Inovasi Malaysia (AIM). IBO is an online platform established to turn inventions into innovations. Facilitating the connection between technology push and market pull is at the core of what this platform does.

IBO consolidates all economically viable inventions residing in universities, research institutes and sometimes backyard-turned-labs in one central user-friendly interface. It provides an easy access for entrepreneurs, businesses and investors (such as Business Angels and Venture Capitalists) to step forward and work towards creating value from these inventions.

Each invention has been screened for its commercial viability, its technical jargon translated into simple value propositions and presented in a way appreciated by investors and industries. Researchers and inventors are great at the ideation and creation of inventions while businesses and entrepreneurs are great at creating and capitalising on the opportunities.

Neither party can work alone, inventors need industry to help them derive benefits from their work, while industry needs the inventors to continue pushing the boundaries and develop products and services that will help to make an industry more competitive on the international market. IBO offers a unique opportunity for both parties to interact and form sustainable business relationships.

IBO deals with commercialisation processes in a holistic approach. PlaTCOM’s team of skilled technology transfer managers that actively facilitate the interactions between technology providers and technology seekers supports this online platform.

These managers provide the human element to this online platform that add value and bridge gaps in the commercialisation processes. Their core activity is to proactively facilitate the transfer of technology across the academic-industry barrier by liaising with key stakeholders while maintaining commercial neutrality, strict ethical and confidential rigour to protect the benefits of all parties.

For accessing the IBO online platform, please visit here and go to Discover Technologies.

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