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.

Most research universities proclaim that one of their primary goals is to quickly move early stage technologies into commercial enterprises in the effort to create economic prosperity and generate new jobs. In practice, however, many universities are trapped in a technology transfer model that promotes out-licensing practices that fall far short of expectations.

In recent publications by the Center for Technology Innovation at Brookings, analysis shows that only a few universities actually generate enough revenue from their technology out-licensing efforts to cover the direct administrative costs associated with their technology transfer offices. There are only a few universities in this exclusive club.

Further analysis by SpanJump LLC shows that healthcare related technologies are the most likely to generate any substantial licensing income for universities. Typical examples include blockbuster drug discoveries and advanced medical and diagnostic devices. Yet, healthcare related technology is only a small component of university research output. What about all the other technologies created under university research – how can universities generate more activity around these technology opportunities?

One of the ideas advanced by one Brookings paper is to create a more robust entrepreneurship platform at the university level to facilitate new enterprise creation around these emerging technologies. University startups offer an energetic focus on the technology and financial incentives to the participants to advance commercialization opportunities.