Abstract
Technology commercialization is now one of the cornerstones of the experience in the academic environment. Universities and colleges are now highly dedicated to understanding and giving priority not only to creating new technologies but also to commercializing them. This chapter describes some of the experiences and empirical evidence that we received as we were building the Runway Startup Postdoc Program at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech. It explains three broad steps of technology transfer experimentations and flips the traditional technology and transfer office (TTO) model. Experimenting should be a natural component of incubator programs and the most effective way of producing meaningful change in technology transfer systems. Our recommendation to academic incubators and TTOs is to embrace experimentation and build a technology transfer culture that is less concerned about the traditional output metrics (i.e., patents, licenses, revenue) and is more geared toward providing people with the resources, connections, and knowledge they require to create a start-up.
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Notes
- 1.
Selected content in this chapter has been used from https://tech.cornell.edu/programs/phd/startup-postdocs/. Used with permission
- 2.
The content of the Runway Startup Postdoc Program example section has been used from https://tech.cornell.edu/programs/phd/startup-postdocs/. Used with permission.
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Gómez-Baquero, F. (2023). Experimentation in Academic Technology Commercialization. In: Bader, M.A., Süzeroğlu-Melchiors, S. (eds) Intellectual Property Management for Start-ups. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16993-9_14
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