Keywords
Research commercialization, entrepreneurship, intellectual property, technology transfer, disclosures, patents, license, start-ups
Research commercialization, entrepreneurship, intellectual property, technology transfer, disclosures, patents, license, start-ups
Research is a vital component of the mission of universities, and indeed academic institutions conduct a substantial volume of research that is funded by government, industry and philanthropic agencies. Development or the commercialization of research should also be a key component of the research mission such that novel ideas, techniques and products can enter the marketplace for the consumption and benefit of society. In order to facilitate academic-based commercialization, legislation, such as the Bayh-Dole Act, provides universities the legal framework for commercializing the research that is developed within university settings1,2.
In a commercialization survey conducted by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), in 2013, United States-based institutions obtained over 5,000 new patents, executed over 5,000 licensing agreements, formed over 800 start-up companies and generated $2.75 billion in license income3. Despite this overall success, academic researchers experience many issues that obstruct the commercialization of research within higher education settings. Previous studies at academic institutions have documented the challenges to the commercialization process that include, but are not limited to: risk aversion; constraints on faculty time; lack of financial support; policy/regulation barriers; infrastructure insufficiencies; lack of a common understanding of the value of research commercialization; lack of entrepreneurial thinking among faculty; and lack of interaction and collaboration between universities and industry4–10. A previous study at the University of Kentucky found that expense, time constraints, insufficient infrastructure and lack of industry partnerships were the most common factors experienced by cancer researchers that impede research commercialization11. Ultimately, challenges to the effective and efficient commercialization of research inhibits obtaining the maximum benefit of university research in that such barriers can prevent university-based innovation from progressing to the marketplace for the benefit of inventors, universities and society.
The University of Kentucky commercializes its research through the Intellectual Property Development and Technology Transfer Office, a unit of the Office of the Vice President for Research. Through this office, the university’s research commercialization activities are historically modest compared to its benchmark institutions. The university currently ranks last among its benchmark institutions in regard to several commercialization metrics including in staffing, invention disclosures, patent applications and license/options executed (Table 1). And, growth in commercialization activity has been relatively flat from 2010–2013 with the exception of a recent increase in license income (Table 2). These data could suggest that the University of Kentucky may experience additional commercialization barriers as compared to its benchmark institutions and/or a higher magnitude of common barriers among institutions.
The study herein focused on understanding the impediments to commercializing research at the University of Kentucky from the perspective of a single faculty member that has been successful in the continuum of commercialization through successfully obtaining multiple patents, licensing intellectual property and forming multiple start-up companies. The rationale for conducting the study with one successful academic entrepreneur was that we believed that such a serial entrepreneur could provide more insight into the commercialization process versus someone that had more limited or no experience in commercializing research.
The study herein is modeled closely after a similar, larger scale study conducted at the University of Kentucky specifically among cancer researchers11. The methodology and design of this study was qualitative in nature and was based on two modules: an online survey (included as Supplementary materials S1) followed by a face-to-face interview. The selection criteria for inclusion in the study was that the selected participant must be a faculty member, have an active research program and be a successful academic entrepreneur based on having obtained patents, licensed intellectual property and created start-up companies. The research subject for this study was identified through searches of publically available databases containing information on the selection criteria. For module one, data were collected and managed using the Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap) tool. REDCap is a secure, Internet-based study-support application12. Module two data were recorded in written format during the face-to-face interview.
This study was determined to not require review by the University of Kentucky Institutional Review Board. The research subject consented to participate in the study electronically via engagement with the online survey and chose to participate in both modules of the study. The participant chose to remain anonymous beyond interaction with the investigators involved in the study.
The first series of questions aimed to assess the subject’s category of research, professional productivity and the perspective he has on research commercialization. The subject classified his research as “translational;” he felt satisfied with his level of professional productivity in terms of publishing research manuscripts, obtaining grant funding and other means of academic productivity; and he indicated that he intends to commercialize additional research in the future. Despite believing that research commercialization is important in the academic setting and that his research field values such work, he feels that the University of Kentucky places little emphasis on and thus does not greatly value research commercialization (Table 3).
The second set of questions addressed the research subject’s perceived impediments to commercializing research. The subject responded that risk, lack of investors, commercialization infrastructure, unsupportive university and federal policies, and “other barriers not listed” prohibited his efforts to effectively and efficiently commercialize research (Table 4). In the face-to-face interview, the subject indicated that the “other barriers” included major prohibiting factors such as the lack of university support in areas of market analysis, grant development, and navigating legal matters including conflict of interest and intellectual property ownership issues. Of these “other” items, we had anticipated that such factors could be captured under the commercialization infrastructure and/or policy categories of answer choices in the survey. Ultimately, the subject indicated that infrastructure issues are the most significant factors that impede research commercialization at the University of Kentucky. The subject also discussed how some of these barriers are more challenging and more difficult to overcome and that he felt that the barriers he has encountered are different at other universities. Thus, similar to the previous study among cancer researchers11, these data suggest that this faculty member experiences multiple barriers in the commercialization process. Additionally, in comparison with previous studies4–11, the data may suggest that not all barriers are consistent or common between individual faculty members (for example, expense, time constraints, insufficient infrastructure, and lack of industry partnerships were the most common barriers experienced among University of Kentucky cancer researchers11).
The final set of questions were meant to determine which impediments would need to be overcome in order to increase faculty participation in research commercialization. Interestingly, the subject indicated that the barriers in the commercialization process do not deter him from attempting to commercialize his research, however, he believed that reducing/mitigating all the potential barriers surveyed, other than addressing royalty pay to inventors, would enhance research commercialization activity at the University of Kentucky (Table 5). The subject also indicated that he would utilize outside (off campus) commercialization resources to lower the barriers he faces in order to improve his commercialization efforts. These data are similar to the feelings reported by cancer researchers11 in which respondents believed that a greater number of mitigating factors compared to the identified barriers in the previous set of questions would presumably increase commercialization activity.
This case study investigated the mindset of one successful academic entrepreneur at the University of Kentucky in relation to research commercialization and in context with the university’s general commercialization activity. The general status of the institution’s commercialization activity is modest relative to its benchmark institutions and stagnant in growth over time. The research subject identified several factors that generally impede research commercialization and that mitigating many factors may increase commercialization activity. Infrastructure was pinpointed as the major issue impeding research commercialization at the university. While generally fitting with the impediments found at other universities and among cancer researchers at the University of Kentucky4–11, the results suggest that not all barriers are common or consistent between faculty and that some impediments may be more prohibitive than others.
These data can be shared with the University of Kentucky’s Intellectual Property Development and Technology Transfer Office and the Office of the Vice President for Research and used as a guide to make changes that will improve the research commercialization process. The research subject’s comments regarding commercialization infrastructure may be particularly important to address in order to enhance commercialization activity at the university. Additionally, similar work could be conducted at and among other institutions. For example, a survey similar to the one herein and that used in the prior study11 could be incorporated into the yearly AUTM licensing survey in order to gauge, on a much broader scale, the impediments to academic research commercialization as well as to understand how other institutions are mitigating such impediments. Understanding how institutions that are highly successful in commercializing research mitigate barriers in the process would be greatly beneficial to institutions that have low to modest commercialization activity.
NLV and EM conceived and designed the study; conducted the study; analyzed the data; and wrote the paper. This research project was completed, in part, to fulfill the requirements of EM’s Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Biotechnology.
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Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
Competing Interests: No competing interests were disclosed.
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