STEM Annual Summit 2017

There is a need for public research institutions and universities to accelerate the opportunity for commercialisation of technologies in the quest for accelerated economic growth, according to a survey.

The Society for Technology Management (STEM) survey on status of transfer of academic technologies for commercialisation in India finds that less than one per cent of protected technologies from the academia has reached the enterprises to take them to market.

According to the survey, released at the STEM annual summit 2017 here today, there is a significant dearth of technology management professionals engaged by the public research institutions and the publicly funded universities to protect innovations, manage the IP portfolio and engage in transfer of technologies with due validation of their relevance for markets.

The survey further finds the lack of institutional policy that encourages the institutional engagement in technology transfer and their subsequent stewardship through the commercialisation phase.

Indian public research investment is in the range of one per cent of GDP and the research investment has grown significantly over the last decade. The focus on intellectual property management and the reach of technologies to commercial enterprises will contribute significantly to accomplish accelerated economic growth, it said. However, this would require significant focus on creation of needed institutional frameworks within defined policies, professional skill enhancement and creation of dedicated functional teams that would steer the technology transfer within institutions, it said.

According to STEM president K Vijayaraghavan, the founder of Sathguru Management Consultants, a Hyderabad-based consulting organisation, “Indian public research institutions and the universities generating market relevant technologies are urgently required to focus on creating institutional framework and engage competent professionals to accelerate technology transfer.

“International companies are filing for more patents in India. So far Indian public research institutions have been very restrictive in reaching out to commercial enterprises to take technologies to market. Thanks to ‘Make In India’ lot of companies have gone into the campus itself to validate technologies. Incubators are helping to take public technologies to market”.