STEM Annual Summit 2015: Empowering Technology Management Professionals
The tenth Annual Summit of STEM was held on November 26-27, 2015 at Taj Vivanta, Hyderabad. The two day event witnessed a host of eminent speakers and panel discussions on Fostering Innovation. The first day began with a Keynote address by Sean Flanigan (ATTP Chair) and the economic impact of the global academic technologies was discussed.
The second session focused on Nurturing Entrepreneurship in the Research/Academic Ecosystem. K.Vijayaraghavan (FSTEM), Hon. President – STEM, spoke about the essential elements of spin out policies. Four critical elements of the spin-out opportunity in Indian context: strategic; legal; economic-funding and ethical were discussed in detail.This enriching session was followed by panel discussions on academic policies to support spin outs chaired by GuhanJayaraman, from IIT Chennai Incubation Center and on Hatch level to seed level funding chaired by Deepanwita Chattopadhyay, Chairman & CEO, IKP. The panel members included prominent academic and industry people from ATUM, Sathguru Management Consultants, Pfizer, Indian STEPs & Business incubators Association (ISBA), BITS, Endiya Partners, WellcomeTrustandIIT Chennai Incubation Center.
The third and the last session of the day was dedicated to asset protection & technology transferof engineering, devices & Biomedical. The speakers discussed about standards compliance for a technology transfer facilitator and intellectual property protection strategies for devices.
The second day of the Summit began with an interesting chat session on Converging global technologies for economic good and a keynote session by Kevin Cullen from AUTM on ‘Tech transfer professional standards – Where we are’. Bio-property technology commercialization aspects were discussed in detail in talks chaired by Dr. Richard Cahoon. Experts spoke about Plant Variety, Human bio-property and Animal bio-property access and application. International Bio property access protocols and tech transfer rights were also discussed.The summit ended with a practical exercise in FTO and drafting of licensing agreements. Dr. Cahoon, Dr. Chinchure and Dr. Gupta, served as mentors to the participants and helped them develop a licensing agreement.
One of the key features at the summit was the technology showcasing session held on the first day. Opening address to the session was by Dr. Jitendar Kumar Sharma(NHSRC, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Govt. of India). This session provided an opportunity for some of the institutions and organizations participating in the summit to showcase their technologies and network with prospective partners. The organizations showcasing technologies and services includedNHSRC, TANUVAS, AAU, IIT Madras, SCTIMST, CCMB, ARCI, IICT, a-IDEA, GRI, NRDC, CFTRI.