A new academic journal was recently launched that focuses on the early stage commercialization of technologies in the healthcare and biotechnology industries. The journal is titled “Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship” and is published by Bentham Science of the Netherlands. Best of all, the first year of the journals’ articles will be made available for free at the publishers website.

According to the journal’s publisher, the publication is directed to “a broad range of topics that underlie the business of biomedical and research, specifically translating basic scientific discoveries into commercial opportunities. This includes understanding of the technology transfer process and entrepreneurship in academia, the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries; directed towards economic development, better healthcare, and long-term job creation.

The publication looks promising for those interested in the dynamics of bringing new technologies from acedemia to market.

As federal research dollars decline and university budgets come under increasing pressure, university-industry collaboration becomes a hot topic at research universities. Some fear the influence of industry sponsored research, suggesting that industry interests negatively impact research scope and access to the technologies that emanate from such research. A recent article published in Nature titled “Industry-funded academic inventions boost innovation” (Nature, March 20, 2014, Vol.20) challenges these fears.

The analysis shows that industry funded research generates more patents than government-funded research and that those patents were more likely to generate licenses for the university. These licenses, however, are equally likely to be granted to third party companies as they are to be granted to the sponsoring company. Either way, the university benefits from increased research funding and additional licensing revenues. In turn, the sponsoring company gains insight into areas of technology that they most likely have little expertise. The whole research community benefits as well from the dissemination of information in the patent literature.