TTO organization

Paolo Landoni

Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering

Politecnico di Milano

paolo.landoni@polimi.it

© P. Landoni

Introduction

• Knowledge-based society• Firms need to access knowledge generated outside their boundaries

(Open Innovation, Chesbrough, 2003)• Universities want to transfer their research results, technologies and

knowledge

• In order to facilitate knowledge transfer from university to industry, a new organizational entity has emerged at research university: the technology transfer office (TTO) (Siegel, at al., 2004).

2

© P. Landoni3

TTO names

• Technology Transfer Office• (Industrial) Liaison Office• Knowledge Transfer Office• University Industry Linkage• Contract Office• Office of sponsored research• Patenting and Licensing Office• Business Development Office …

© P. Landoni

TTO

TTO objectives (Young, 2007):• facilitate the commercialization of research results for the public good;• reward, retain, and recruit high-quality researchers;• build closer ties to industry;• generate income for further research and education, and, thus,

promote economical growth.

TTO main activities• Intellectual Property protection;• licensing;• support and creation of star up or spin off;• negotiation of research contracts;

4

© P. Landoni

Organizational structures

• TTO can be structured in several ways. • The choice depends on several factors such as objectives, activities,

expected outcomes, scientific base, etc.

• Siegel, Waldman and Link (1999) have noted that technology transfer outcomes may depend on organizational practices

• Limited evidence and research on the topic (e.g., Bercovitz et al. 2001, Fisher and Grosjean 2002, Thursby et al. 2001)

5

© P. Landoni6

Example: ISIS Innovation

Isis Innovation Ltd is the University of Oxford’s wholly owned technology transfer company.  Isis was established in 1988 and in 1997 started a major expansion phase. Isis manages the University’s intellectual property portfolio, working with University researchers on identifying, protecting and marketing technologies through licensing, spin-out company formation, consulting and material sales.Isis provides researchers with commercial advice, funds patent applications and legal costs, negotiates exploitation and spin-out company agreements, and identifies and manages consultancy opportunities.  Isis works on projects from all areas of the University's research activities: life sciences, physical sciences, social sciences and humanities. Isis files, on average, one patent application each week and manages over 400 patent application families and 200 licence agreements.  Isis licenses technologies to companies who invest in developing and selling products in a timely and ethical manner.  Licensees are sought from all technology and business sectors on an international basis.

© P. Landoni7

Modelli internazionali: ISISISIS Innovation

© P. Landoni

Specialized(1:n)

Single(1:1)

8

U

U

U

U

U

U

U U

UU

Hub(m:1)

Network(m:n)

University TTO Collaboration MembershipU

Specialization of work

•Functional/competences•Geographical

•Scientific Field

A theoretical model

© P. Landoni

Ownership note1

Two ownership options (Fisher and Grosjean 2002) :• internal model where the office is fully integrated into the university’s

• external model where the office operates outside the university either as a non-profit or a for-profit corporation.

9

U

U

A study on 62 U.S. research universities by J.G.Thursby, Jensen and M.C. Thursby in 2001 found that the major part of TTOs are internal while 15% of them are separated corporations from their universities and only 4,8% are for-profit.

© P. Landoni

Ownership note2

• Campbell (2007) adds to a binary subdivision (internal vs external) an hybrid structure composed by an internal TTO that has the main objective to support the research development and the technology and knowledge diffusion and some external organization

10

U U

© P. Landoni

Internal growth

11

Status A Single (1:1) Growth

Stato B Specialized (1:n)

U U U

© P. Landoni

External growth

12

Status A

U

U

U

U

U

Status C

Status D

U U

UU

© P. Landoni

The research

Do external growth work ?

Case study analysis in Italy:

13

Project Universities involved Typology

Universitas University of Milano BOCCONI university

NetworkPolytechnic of Milano University of Calabria

NUOVO ILOUniversity of Padua University of Pavia

Network University of Perugia University of Trieste

NOVAuniversity of Siena University of Firenze

Network School of Saint Anne of Pisa

TTPUniversity of Torino Polytechnic of Torino

HUBUniversity of Piemonte Orientale

ILONETUniversity of Sassari University of Cagliari

HUBUniversity of Milano BICOCCA University of Genoa

STRETTO University of Reggio Calabria University of Messina HUB