Tech transfer community seeking out new models, metrics to boost industry engagement

CECRs new kids on the block

Models for commercialization abounded at the recent ACCT Canada meeting as Canada's technology transfer professionals gathered to take stock of their evolving role in Canada's innovation system. Despite stagnant revenues from licensing and spin-offs, limited resources and a dearth of early-stage financing, Canada's academic institutions are forging ahead with new approaches to stimulate and facilitate industry interaction with universities and colleges.

From the pooling of intellectual property (IP) to creating university start-ups that feed into existing market channels, ideas for increasing commercialization are emerging to address the changing nature of the technology sector and confront the withdrawal of private sector financing from key gaps in the commercialization process. Add to that the financing strains faced by tech transfer offices across Canada, and the quest for new workable models becomes particularly urgent.

"If you're only seeking a return on IP and licensing, you're chasing nothing," says Angus Livingston, managing director of the Univ of British Columbia's University-Industry Liaison Office (UILO).

New players have recently joined tech transfer offices in the tech transfer space including the Centres of Excellence for Commercialization and Research (CECR). While they don't possess the IP expertise of established tech transfer offices, CECRs are relatively well funded and are operating under a wide range of models that are only now becoming better understood.

The UBC UILO is in the middle of a five-year transition plan that will provide more offerings across the various channels developed to move discoveries from lab bench to market. Livingstone acknowledged the emergence of colleges and polytechnics as mechanisms for industry engagement and encouraged other university tech transfer offices to utilize their growing expertise through collaboration.

UBC's UILO is one of the largest in the country but not all institutions have comparable resources to fully pursue their mandates. Many such as the tech transfer offices in Atlantic Canada have banded together through Springboard Atlantic Inc, although its core funding through the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency runs out in 2011.

The fiscal situation of tech transfer offices has been made even tighter with the discontinuation of the Intellectual Property Mobilization (IPM) program. Tech transfer offices were the major beneficiaries of IPM, the tri-council initiative that fell victim to a 2008 strategic review. The review required that all affected agencies to surrender 5% of their funding by axing programs considered low in priority. The last IPM awards ran to November/09.

push to improve metrics

Inevitably, metrics are a key part of the equation in determining the effectiveness of technology transfer. But the conference heard that, not only is Canada not measuring the right aspects of industry-academic engagement, the metrics now being used are in danger of being terminated.

Statistics Canada conducts three surveys to track the research and commercialization activities of the university sector: Survey of Intellectual Property Commercialization in the Higher Education Sector, the survey of business incubation and the survey of higher education R&D (HERD). Of the three, only HERD is considered a so-called foundation survey while the others must find sponsors to cover their cost.

Anik Lacroix, section chief of StatsCan's Business Special Surveys and Technology Statistics branch, told the ACCT Canada conference that the IP commercialization and business incubation surveys will not be continued unless funding is secured. In the past, Industry Canada has financed many of the StatsCan surveys related to R&D and technology.

Lacroix said StatsCan has begun working with the polytechnic and colleges to include the data in the IP commercialization survey, adding that the agency could also do a better job on research contracts. In the last IP commercialization survey, problems gathering adequate data prompted StatsCan to drop the number of research contracts conducted by universities, even though research contracts generate more revenue and represent greater industry engagement than licensing or spin-offs (R$, October 26/09).

StatsCan maintains close contact with the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and the National Science Foundation, both of which are actively pursuing new metrics

Dana Bostrum, AUTM's VP of metrics, says a recent AUTM report indicates that it is pursuing the wrong metrics and has little idea what new metrics are required. The National Science Foundation are re-tooling its higher education R&D survey and has prepared a new report on tech transfer to be published this spring.

CECR model compelling

The emergence of the CECR program has had a significant impact on the thinking of commercialization, with each CECR pursuing a distinct model tailored to its specific field. The ACCT Canada conference heard from several CECRs including MaRS Innovation, GreenCentre Canada, Centre of Excellence for the Prevention of Organ Failure (PROOF) and the Pan-Provincial Vaccine Enterprise (PREVENT). The model's sustainability came under scrutiny, however. Since the five-year funding is not renewable, each centre must achieve self-sustainability in a relatively short period of time.

Some CECR representatives argued that licensing revenue, industry contributions and other sources would help them to replace federal funding. But at least one CECR acknowledges that self-sufficiency is next to impossible. Raphael Hofstein, the recently installed president and CEO of MaRS Innovation, says the IP pooling strategy he's implementing shows great promise with a huge portfolio and potential deal flow stemming from affiliated universities, hospitals and research institutes. But MaRS Innovation is unlikely to become self-sustaining within five years, particularly given the scarcity of VC and the market downturn.

Hofstein says he plans to lobby Ottawa for extension funding and approach the province of Ontario to help pay for costs of proof-of-principle work.

There are 17 CECRs to date, with the potential for another three or four when the next CECR competition is held, with an expected announcement next week.

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