Societal impact is always claimed for world-class research, but rarely benefits the local community that funded the researchers. In London UK we developed a network to help businesses commercialise ideas from half the world class research in the UK.

1. How a regional broker can
improve industry demand
for university interaction
A case study of the London Technology
Network
Peter Reid and Matt Schofield
Abstract: UK university research produces highly cited publications (DTI,
2004), but demand from UK business for commercial ideas from
academia is weak (HM Treasury, 2003). This paper reviews factors in the
development of one regional UK technology broker, the London
Technology Network (LTN), which has achieved significant and audited
business demand. The authors highlight the implications of LTN’s
experience for future practice and further research.
Keywords: knowledge transfer; innovating regions; technology
management; industrial research
Peter Reid is founder and Chief Executive Officer and Matt Schofield is Head of Client
Services and Technology Consultant, Informatics and Design, London Technology
Network, 17 Linhope Street, London NW1 6HT, UK. E-mail: m.schofield@ltnetwork.org.
The London Technology Network (LTN) is a non-profit However, the final design emerged from iterative
joint venture of University College London (UCL) discussions with the LTN board, which includes
and the London Business School, whose mission the heads of technology transfer for Imperial
is to ‘stimulate the transfer of technology-based College London, King’s College London, UCL and the
innovation’. Founded in July 20021 with funding from London Business School. The design can be
the UK government’s Higher Education Innovation summarized in a few basic, well-documented
Fund, LTN is based on the idea that a network assumptions:
providing standardized operation to aggregate the
capabilities of thirty universities and research institutes • Direct contact with academics is more attractive to
across London and South East England (including industry than contact with intermediaries, such as a
four of the largest research-intensive universities in the technology licensing office (Thursby and Thursby,
UK) will improve contacts between businesses and 2000) or review of a published directory (Cohen
these universities. LTN has since received funding et al, 2003).
from the European Union, the London Development • Industry engages with academics through a wide
Agency, the South East England Development Agency, range of mechanisms, including research or
the East of England Development Agency and the teaching, rather than principally through licensing
Higher Education Funding Council for England. (Agrawal and Henderson, 2002; Thursby and
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006 413

2. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Table 1. Research-active staff (full-time equivalents) in the UK.
Discipline Some world-class Some No Total
London SE England East England Other UK world-class world-class
Medicine (1–11) 2,529 579 278 3,147 6,532 1,403 7,935
Biological sciences (12–17) 560 599 343 2,437 3,940 737 4,677
Physical sciences (18–24) 673 742 493 3,041 4,949 753 5,701
Engineering/design (25–34, 64) 1,193 866 488 3,999 6,545 1,866 8,411
Technical disciplines 4,955 2,786 1,601 12,624 21,966 4,758 26,724
Humanities (35–63, 65–69) 2,920 2,246 1,223 9,837 16,226 5,070 21,296
Total 7,875 5,032 2,824 22,461 38,192 9,828 48,020
Note: World-class=a grading of 5*, 5 or 4 in the Research Assessment Exercise.
Source: Research Assessment Exercise, 2001.
Thursby, 2004; Allott, 2006). Even for licensing, the Research scientists liaise directly with
introduction of prospective licensees by the filtered technology acquirers
academic inventor (Jansen and Dillon, 1999)
LTN helps technology-acquisitive businesses to gain
leads to more completed deals than push
direct access to research-active scientists. Its Business
marketing by an intermediary (Thursby and
Fellows (BFs) are recruited from tenure-track research
Thursby, 2000).
scientists in departments with well-regarded research in
• Industry engages differently with the life sciences
broadly defined ‘technology’ disciplines (see Table 1)
than with other disciplines because the life science
across universities in London and the South East and
industry typically seeks to start projects with
East of England, and are paid and trained to consult for
academics, while other industries typically seek
half a day per week as liaisons for industry in their
academic support to complete projects (Cohen et al,
departments. LTN identifies departments with
2003). Life science disciplines have a narrow
world-class research in universities in the region and
industry appeal for pharmaceutical and
contacts both department heads and technology liaison
biotechnology companies compared to the broader
offices (TLOs) to ask for candidates for fellowships.
appeal of physical sciences and engineering
Candidates are then interviewed to identify
disciplines – such as material science, computer
research-active professors, readers and lecturers with the
science and mechanical engineering (Cohen et al,
time to help their colleagues improve business contacts.
2003).
Most BFs are recommended by their university
• Both industry and universities have scale
technology transfer office, and all have their contract
economies in technology transfer. Large
countersigned by their head of department to ensure that
in-licensing business units can afford regularly to
they have institutional support.
canvas universities for technologies (Thursby and
LTN does not publish the contact details of either
Thursby, 2000). Large universities with high
BFs or the senior executives in technology-acquisitive
expenditure on research and development are
companies, so all parties receive only filtered and
statistically likely to generate enough exploitable
appropriate technology opportunities, and can choose
intellectual property to make technology transfer
whom they want to contact. However, LTN does offer
economically self-sustaining, according to current
two mechanisms to bring together industry executives
UK government guidelines based on US experience
and academics who share technology interests. First, it
(NHS, 1998).
provides free monthly evening networking events on
Based on these assumptions, the final design includes specific technology topics (see, for example, the
four basic tenets: (1) allow research scientists to liaise 2005 events listed in Table 2) with around fifty invited
directly with filtered technology acquirers, (2) be senior executives from technology-acquisitive
agnostic about the mechanism for engagement, (3) split companies and fifty leading academic technologists.
life sciences from physical sciences and engineering and BFs present posters summarizing their departmental
(4) capitalize on regional scale economies. We now capabilities in a standard format – as they do for any
examine each of these more closely. LTN event – and may also bring senior academic
414 INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006

3. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Table 2. 2005 events.
Event title Speaker organizations
‘Vascular health: how do we detect, treat, and avoid University of Oxford; King’s College London; Pfizer; Lombard
cardiovascular problems, thrombosis, and vascular disease?’ Medical
‘Grid computing and Web services’ Imperial College London; University College London; Fujitsu
Laboratories; BT group
‘Technology developments and drug discovery: advancements Birkbeck College, University of London; Imperial College
and challenges in structural biology’ London; Astex Therapeutics; AstraZeneca
‘Ensuring food safety through traceability and shelf-life control London South Bank University; Institute of Food Research;
systems’ Simmons of Hatfield; Leatherhead Food International
‘Sensor technology: new applications for cost-effective systems’ City University London; SELEX Sensors and Airborne Systems;
University College London; Philips Electronics Nederland
‘Emerging technologies for waste management: technological Imperial College London; DEFRA; BIFFA Waste Services;
solutions for solid and liquid waste’ University of Greenwich; BP Remediation Management
‘Assessing the technologies driving the take-up of digital media’ Royal College of Art; Electronic Arts; Queen Mary University of
London; Symbian
‘Micro-electronics in medical devices: innovation and application University College London; Unipath; Brunel University; BT
in medical practice’ Group; Zarlink Semiconductor
‘Targets, molecules and medicine: assessing the interface Imperial College London; University College London;
between industry and academia’ GlaxoSmithKline; Agilent Technologies R&D
‘Exploring the latest technology developments that support PSA Peugeot Citroën; Rolls Royce; Horiba; Imperial College
environmentally sustainable transport’ London; Brunel University
colleagues. LTN sometimes also funds BFs’ travel costs value when the deal is concluded. This includes direct
to present at other meetings with strong industry interactions with industry covering a wide range of
attendance. Second, LTN generates technology inquiries teaching, research and commercial interactions, and also
from industry executives via a central ‘Technology indirect activity between academics that improves their
Team’ of former industry executives and recent doctoral readiness to engage with industry. These activities are
graduates. These enquiries are passed to BFs and their reported by LTN only at an aggregate level to protect
TLOs through an electronic bulletin board. BFs are confidentiality, but comparison among BFs is used to
prompted and helped to develop appropriate short prioritize coaching by the Technology Team.
responses that are aggregated and provided in a BFs are also supervised by the Technology Team to
consolidated report to the industry executive, who then produce a technology map for their departments,
considers them and identifies those BFs and their resulting in a database with keywords covering all
colleagues he or she wants to meet. LTN staff members technologies across the base (see Table 3) which LTN
follow up with both sides to ensure that meetings occur staff can search to prompt activity by the relevant BFs
and that deals progress to conclusion, but they do not in relation to events and other opportunities.
negotiate for either side. Technologies include facilities (such as testbeds or
toolsets) and experts as well as intellectual property
advice. For each technology, the BF documents existing
Keeping the mechanism agnostic industrial applications, the lead academic, the number of
LTN does not direct university departments to any staff involved, past publications and other details that
particular kind of interaction, but instead trains, help the Technology Team to present its capability
monitors and coaches BFs to support whatever kind of honestly to industry.
interaction is most appropriate for their peers.
All BFs are trained initially for three and a half days
on the risks and opportunities of all teaching, research Split life sciences from physical sciences and
and commercial mechanisms for engaging with engineering
industry. Subsequently, they can attend refresher There is a split within the LTN Technology Team
sessions on spin selling, negotiation, time management between life sciences and physical sciences and
and other topics. engineering. Staff is recruited with relevant technical
BFs regularly report activities with industry that they and industry experience. BFs are coached by
have helped stimulate with their departmental Technology Team staff from the sub-team familiar with
colleagues, along with the mechanism used and the the mechanisms normally used for their technologies.
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006 415

4. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Table 3. 2005 LTN technologies.
Physical sciences and engineering technology Number Life sciences technology Number
Electronics, microelectronics 100 Cardiovascular 47
Information processing and system workflow 58 CNS 140
Information technology and telematics applications 50 Dental/cosmetics 17
Multimedia 126 Dermatology 3
Telecommunications, networks 52 Gastrointestinal 3
Industrial manufacturing, material and transport 150 Immune/autoimmune 36
Other industrial 35 Infectious diseases 66
Energy 45 Metabolic 7
Physical and exact sciences 23 Musculoskeletal 28
Biological Sciences 21 Oncology 113
Measurements and standards 41 Opthamology 10
Protecting man and environment 11 Pain 10
Reproductive medicine 7
Respiratory 7
Veterinary sciences 7
Agri/food/environmental 13
Various applications 161
Other applications 82
Total 712 757
However, all LTN events and LTN inquiry-handling research-active staff in departments with well-respected
are interdisciplinary. Events are organized by a single research in technology disciplines, about 43% of the UK
marketing team using a single database of industry and university research base in this type of academic
academic contacts, since businesses often seek department in the UK government’s 2001 Research
technology expertise unrelated to their core capabilities Assessment Exercise (see Table 1).2
(for example, a major pharmaceutical company may be All LTN events are held in central London
looking to establish an information systems architecture locations with excellent public transport links for
for medical image storage and analysis). Inquiries are these academics as well as businesses across the
taken by the most appropriate Technology Team Greater South East (London, South East England,
specialist (this would be, for instance, an information East England) – which accounted for more than half of
technologist in the case of the above pharmaceutical UK business expenditure on R&D in 2002 (Owens,
company inquiry) and are published on an electronic 2004).
bulletin board accessible to all BFs and TLOs. An The build-up to this scale from 2002 to 2005 was
integrated technology map covering capabilities critical, because LTN, while reliant upon well-trained
across all BFs (Table 3) is used to identify potential BF liaison academics, had to show early results and an
academic partners and to pursue responses from attractive concentration of technologies. BFs were
particular BFs. recruited in waves of fifteen to forty for training and
This interdisciplinary focus increases the chance coaching to form a cadre of like-minded academics who
of novel connections compared to the complete life could support one another. These waves were scheduled
science/other disciplines split in industry-facing to coincide with the university trimester, starting with
activity sometimes observed in UK universities’ the most broadly-demanded disciplines (material
TLOs. science, computer science, biological sciences – Cohen
et al, 2003), to create an interdisciplinary core that
would attract many businesses to attend events and
Regional scale economies submit inquiries. Complementary disciplines
LTN offers technology-acquisitive businesses from (mechanical engineering, electrical and electronic
anywhere in the world a simple way to meet academics engineering, medicine, design, etc) were then added in
from one-third of the UK university research base. It later waves. The success of early events led to
offers fellowships to researchers in all departments with recommendations from attending academics and
highly-regarded technology research across London and executives, and these were critical to the signing-up of
the South East and East of England, one or two each BFs in more departments and the viral marketing of
for 124 departments. This covers about 9,340 events to more executives.
416 INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006

5. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Data gathering Table 4. Region of business for concluded business–
LTN requires standard reporting across all BFs, and the university transactions, July 2004–June 2005.
combination of close follow-up by the Technology
Region of Physical Life
Team and anonymity ensure that this is complete. business sciences/engineering sciences
All BFs are required to report their business-facing
London 85 30
activities, without prescribing which kinds of activity to
South East England 22 6
perform and with the assurance of anonymity. They are East England 18 5
contracted to provide activity reporting on a monthly Other UK 24 8
basis for interactions with industry of their colleagues in Europe 15 9
which they have played a role. This activity reporting North America 19 8
Asia 9 2
covers both direct interactions related to a specific
NA 23 1
industry negotiation and indirect interactions, such as
encouraging colleagues to engage in negotiations or
arranging for industry attendance at departmental
new to the department. This suggests that the
seminars. It also covers non-cash-denominated and
business community does value the research
goods-in-kind interactions in addition to those that have
capabilities available from the departments of
a cash value. The BFs report explicitly if the industrial
research-active BFs.
client is new to the department in order to establish a
• Research, consulting and teaching mechanisms are
baseline. Industry-facing activities in which the BF has
more widely used than licensing. Fifty-five per cent
not played a direct role in introducing, negotiating or
of negotiations and 46% of closed deals were for
completing the work are excluded from the reporting.
research collaborations, 16% of negotiations and
LTN Technology Team staff review activity reports
23% of closed deals were for consulting and 8% of
and coach BFs to report completely and accurately: the
negotiations and 15% of closed deals were for
accuracy and completeness of all activity reports are
education – but only 4% of negotiations and 3% of
confirmed verbally by the Technology Team during
closed deals were for licensing.
each six monthly aggregation exercise and externally
• BFs in physical science and engineering disciplines
audited annually. However, the reports are kept
report three times as many industry interactions (215)
confidential between LTN and the BF concerned to
as their life science peers (69), but the total value of
encourage full disclosure.
interactions is comparable, with physical science and
Between September 2002 and January 2007, LTN
engineering generating approximately £6·4 million
recruited and trained over 250 academics as BFs. It now
and life science generating about £5·8 million.
covers over 120 academic departments. However, the
• Aggregation across London and the South East of
data analysed here are drawn from the 97 BFs who
England appears to be highly attractive to industry,
reported activity for the period July 2004–June 2005, the
and most deals happen with companies located in
second year in which activity was gathered. As the next
the local Greater South East region (see Table 4).
section will show, the results of this analysis confirm
LTN’s invitation-only events have attracted a senior
factors identified by researchers elsewhere. Full-year
group of executives, and most of the concluded deals
results for the third year, ending in June 2006, confirm
have been local. Since February 2003, LTN has
the same trends and scale, while quality control and
attracted 2,374 event attendees, 1,151 from
auditing did not allow us to include the data in this paper.
businesses. Of these business attendees, 43% were
from the R&D function, 16% were chief executive
Results officers or managing directors, 15% were from
business development/licensing, 10% were from
LTN has experienced strong demand from senior
operations, 9% were from engineering and 7% were
executives in industry for interaction with academics
from other functions. Attracting such local
through a wide range of mechanisms across all
executives to regular meetings seems worthwhile,
technology disciplines:
since more than half of the concluded deals were
• Direct contact with academics appears to be effective with companies based in London, South East
in generating new interactions. Ninety-seven BFs England and East England, while fewer than a
handled 1,294 negotiations and closed 297 deals quarter were outside Europe (see Table 4). Overall,
which generated more than £12 million in income small and medium-sized enterprises with fewer than
for their departments from July 2004 to June 2005. 250 employees account for 41% of deals – except in
More than 70% of negotiations were with businesses London, where they account for 57%.
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006 417

6. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
These aggregate results show the scale of new contacts, networks of the BFs themselves. We know that such
but a few detailed cases in which both parties have deals are concluded, both through direct discussion with
agreed to public disclosure may illustrate the sources of BFs and external audit, but we do not have direct
leads for a few of the major mechanisms listed above contact with the companies concerned and have not
(further cases and more detail are available at negotiated for case studies.
www.ltnetwork.org). This raises the question of whether these deals would
have occurred anyway, without LTN intervening.
Industry enquiry resulting in collaborative research: Interviews with the BFs responsible for many such deals
Kodak and the University of Greenwich. Kodak suggest that they would not have had the time or would
executives had attended an LTN event on displays and not have assumed that they had institutional permission
had requested help in extending the lifespan of to pursue the leads without the half day per week
electroluminescent phosphor powders in a range of contracted to LTN to work on behalf of their department
displays for use in cameras or handheld games. LTN on industry liaison, and that the continuing training and
presented work from a number of units, including the coaching of LTN staff has improved their ability to
University of Greenwich, a London university that was conclude deals. Perhaps it is the ‘warm’ nature of many
not familiar to Kodak. Within three months, Kodak of the leads which LTN BFs have with industry that
agreed to provide £300,000 of funding as part of an explains why 23% of negotiations result in deals.
overall programme costing more than £1 million.
Industry enquiry resulting in testing: Carbonate Ltd and Implications for practice and further
Queen Mary University. Carbonate Ltd, a product research
design company, had designed a new intravenous pump LTN has extended its service across approximately
that was expected to reduce the costs of infusions by one-third of the UK university research base, with
more than 50%, but needed extensive testing. LTN put auditable results. It is, therefore, worth examining how
company executives in touch with a range of clinical other practitioners can achieve the same results, and
units around London, and it concluded an agreement whether this large-scale trial throws up further issues for
with St Bartholomew’s Hospital and Queen Mary research.
University. In addition, LTN helped Carbonate to secure
local government funding through the Jump Start Limitations of the study
programme. As a result, four new jobs were created in This is a case study, not a controlled experiment. The
the company and its product improved in clinical trials. authors are practitioners seeking to establish a model
Event meeting resulting in a consultancy: University of that adds value, rather than dispassionate scientific
Westminster College and Bromcom. A BF at observers. Some obvious factors may raise concern in a
Westminster College met the chief executive of researcher seeking to replicate these results.
Bromcom, an information company, at an LTN event First, the four basic tenets of the LTN – the direct
and discovered that he needed expert-witness support in contact approach, agnostic mechanisms, the split
a patent case. Within a month, the BF had found a between life sciences and the physical sciences and
colleague who completed the consultancy for Bromcom engineering, and regional-scale economies – were all
within two more months. tested at once. Therefore, it is impossible to tell which
caused the measurable success of LTN, and so it is
Event meeting resulting in a joint venture: Canesis and difficult to propose direct causality.
University College London. A BF at University College Second, the authors actively selected the best-suited
London had invented a textile for infection control in available academic volunteers to become BFs, trained
hospitals and, meeting an executive from Canesis, a and coached them to generate a wide range of
company which researches new textiles for industry, interactions, and supported them with the best available
presented the opportunity for the joint development of a central event marketing and technology staff. It is,
product to market in only eighteen months. therefore, hard to say that this would work with a
random selection of academics without strong central
LTN’s indirect contribution. Obviously case studies are support.
available when LTN is the direct source of the lead, Third, LTN collaborates actively with TLOs in all
either through an event or an enquiry. However, around the universities where it has BFs, and in some where it
two-thirds of the leads resulting in negotiations between does not. It would, therefore, not be right to claim that
BFs and industry come from other sources, either university interaction works with a regional broker
introductions by academic colleagues or personal alone.
418 INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006

7. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Finally, LTN covers two-fifths of the highly-regarded posit that LTN’s success relative to the other regional
university technology research base of the UK, one of brokers is due in part to its standard contracts, reporting,
the most productive academic populations in the world and auditable results – all of which required careful
(with 11% of world academic citations in 2004). While negotiation with the many universities involved.
UK business spends less on R&D than other countries,
more than a half of the R&D spent in UK industry is Further research
also concentrated in the Greater South East. It is hard to
Based on our limited reading of the academic research
say that a regional grouping of universities in a
in this field, some key questions emerge for further
randomly selected area of the world would be as
research:
attractive to industry.
• Can better filters be put in place using ontologies
that properly link academic disciplines with
Implications for practice commercial technology applications? Technology
Despite the limitations of a single case study, the ontology is constantly changed by both academics
measurable success of LTN and its rapid growth to and business people. Academics need novelty to
cover more than 120 departments and a significant publish in specialist journals and find funding under
proportion of the UK university research base are new government programmes. Business people
promising. We believe some key lessons emerge. re-label their technologies to evoke different benefits
Paying academics part time to represent their for particular customers (relational databases became
colleagues is an effective way of generating a wide data mining, which in turn became customer
range of teaching and research as well as commercial relationship management). We have adopted a coding
interactions with industry. By contrast, the practice of system (see Table 3) based on standards established
making the TLO or business development office (BDO) by the European Union and Websites offering life
the initial contact point for all business enquiries may be science technologies. Would more academics and
less effective. The high rate of success enjoyed by the more industrialists engage if they had a clearer
BFs suggests that they are well-connected to common understanding of what was relevant?
research-active academics and their capabilities, and • What combinations of interactions normally build up
complement their TLOs. to a serious engagement with a company? Our
Measuring all forms of interaction with companies limited dataset shows some sequences from low-cost
encourages academics to build serious relationships and low-commitment interactions to high-value
with a company via low-risk and straightforward relationships, with the majority of interactions
interactions. By contrast, short-term financial goals for falling into very standard mechanisms (for example,
research services and licensing may lead to push funded doctorate students, student placements,
marketing of services that companies really cannot faculty consulting). Could universities set
evaluate because they do not yet know and trust the academics’ discretionary powers more appropriately,
academics concerned. and could academics follow up more effectively to
Interdisciplinary events and enquiry forwarding build relationships if we had a better understanding
identify novel academic–industry matches and of the bundles of interactions?
emphasize the great advantage of working with • What is the maximum distance that a regional
academics who are constantly applying techniques from network can cover? Analysis of our limited dataset
one discipline to another. By contrast, the widespread shows little fall-off in attendance at events by more
practice of separating life sciences, even to the point of distant industry executives (Chapman et al, 2005),
having an independent TLO (for example, as at Harvard and yet our dataset shows that most concluded
or UCL) may add few novel connections to established transactions are local (see Table 4). Perhaps this is
relationships with major pharmaceuticals, which fund because many interactions require visits by students
many doctorates in life science departments anyway. and academics with limited travel budgets and the
Regional aggregations of university expertise may time overhead of long-distance travel prevents the
attract new industry interactions and improve the low-cost and low-risk interactions that are precursors
commercialization of university ideas. However, other of serious engagement. Could government better
regional brokers were funded by the UK government at evaluate the local commercial impact of university
the same time as LTN to cover other regions, and yet research and set appropriate technology transfer
recent reviews of knowledge transfer effectiveness in boundaries if we understood more clearly the
these organizations have shown that formal reporting is significance of distance for different types of
very limited and results are hard to find. This leads us to interaction?
INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006 419

8. How a regional broker can improve industry demand for university interaction
Conclusion Chapman, D., Besussi, E., and Weber, P. (2005), ‘Assessing the
geographical dimensions of London’s innovation networks:
One regional technology matchmaker, LTN, has grown consultancy report for the London Technology Network’,
paper presented at the British Academy of Management,
quickly to cover one-third of the UK’s university base Oxford.
to ‘stimulate the transfer of technology-based DTI (2004), Autumn Performance Report, Licensing Division,
innovation’, and has generated more than £12 million in Department of Trade and Industry, London, pp 2–16.
HM Treasury (2003) Lambert Review of Business–University
industry income from July 2004 to June 2005, 70% of it Collaboration: Final Report, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office,
from businesses new to the department concerned. London.
These audited results are in clear contrast to the general Jansen, C., and Dillon, H.F. (1999), ‘Where do the leads for
licenses come from?’, Journal of the Association of
lack of evidence of university interaction from UK University Technology Managers, Vol 11, pp 51–56.
business stimulated by other UK government-funded NHS (1998), The Management of Intellectual Property and
initiatives in this area. We believe that these results Related Matters, National Health Service Executive, London,
pp 53–55.
derive from the consistent implementation of four basic Owens, J. (2004), ‘Research and experimental development
tenets for technology transfer matchmaking – the direct (R&D) statistics 2002’, Economic Trends, No 610.
contact approach, agnostic mechanisms, the split Research Assessment Exercise (2001), www.hero.ac.uk/rae/
Results/.
between life sciences and the physical sciences and Thursby, J., and Thursby, M. (2000), ‘Industry perspectives on
engineering, and regional-scale economies. This has licensing university technologies: sources and problems’,
obvious implications for other practitioners, but we have Journal of the Association of University Technology
Managers, Vol 12, pp 9–12.
also endeavoured to identify further questions for Thursby, J., and Thursby, M. (2004), ‘Are faculty critical? Their
research in light of our dataset. role in university industry licensing’, Contemporary Economic
Policy, Vol 22, No 2, pp 162–178.
Wesley M. Cohen, W.M., Nelson, R.R., and Walsh, J.P. (2002),
Notes ‘Links and impacts: the influence of public research on
1
industrial R&D’, Management Science, Vol 48, No 1,
Co-author Peter Reid founded LTN based in part on his pp 1–23.
experience of contracting university researchers while managing
three engineering businesses. Co-author Matt Schofield, in his
role as head of client services for LTN, planned much of the
operations of the network based on his experience as an The authors would like to thank the UK Department of Trade and
organizational consultant and his research on technology Industry, the Office of Science and Technology, the Higher
transfer between a major UK semiconductor design licenser, Education Funding Council for England, the European Union
ARM, and its global network of partner companies. Innovation Relay Centre Network, the London Development
2
The Research Assessment Exercise is a peer-reviewed audit of Agency, the South East England Development Agency, the
publications and is used by the UK government for funding East of England Development Agency, and their many
decisions. academic collaborators for their active participation and ongoing
support. They also acknowledge the AUTM Journal editorial
team for its patience and support in the original publication
References process.
Agrawal, A., and Henderson, R. (2002), ‘Putting patents in
context: exploring knowledge transfer from MIT’, This paper was first published in the Journal of the Association
Management Science, Vol 48, No 1, pp 44–60. of University Technology Managers, Vol XVIII, No 1, Summer
Allott, S. (2000), ‘From science to growth’, City Lecture, Hughes 2006, pp 45–60, and is reproduced here by kind permission of
Hall, Cambridge, www.trinamo.com/articles/ the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) and
City_Lecture_060306.pdf. the authors. © 2006 Peter Reid and Matt Schofield.
420 INDUSTRY & HIGHER EDUCATION December 2006