Jean E. Schelhorn and Joan M. Herbers - Beyond Discovery

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Library of Congress Control Number: 2021951290

ISBN 9780197512715 (hbk)

ISBN 9780197512708 (pbk)

ISBN 9780197512739 (epub)

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197512715.001.0001

Our friendship goes back to the 1970s, when we were graduate students at Northwestern University (go Vitamin Bs!). We reconnected in 2007 at Ohio State and developed several collaborations there. Most importantly, we came to realize that our complementary backgrounds allow us to offer a new perspective on the discussion about commercialization of academic research.

This book is the product of many years gestation. Our own experiences are woven throughout, and the result incorporates advice from colleagues, students, mentors, and protgs. We are especially grateful to those who reinforced our conviction that we have something valuable to offer.

We thank those who shared their stories with us, both the triumphs and the disappointments. Watching a researcher catch fire about the potential of their discovery to move into the marketplace is incredibly inspiring, and working with emerging inventors has been a source of great professional satisfaction for us. Similarly, working with the legions of people and organizations that support academic inventors has honed our perspective. We hope that our realistic descriptions increase the odds that you will be the next success story.

We are particularly indebted to Mike Geggenheimer Esq., who freely shared his expertise, time, and words. He was instrumental in helping us sharpen our presentation of intellectual property. In addition, conversations with Mary Albright, Erin Bender, and Michael Mireles clarified key issues. Our experiences as members of X-Squared Angels gave us a behind-the-scenes understanding of how investors think and of common mistakes that start-up companies make in their pitches. Any errors that remain, of course, are our own.

Finally, we thank our families, who provided role models of creativity and inventorship, as well as consistent support and encouragement for anything we wanted to try.

Youve probably heard a lot about innovation from leaders at your institution; its certainly in the news a lot. Why? Simply put, innovation fuels the economy. How on earth is that connected to your work as researcher, teacher, mentor, colleague?

Since the 1950s, science and technological innovation has produced more than half of the growth in the United States Gross Domestic Product, a national consortium of business titans, university leaders, labor leaders, and national laboratory principals. Across the world, entire ecosystems that nurture cultures of innovation have developed in places like Silicon Valley in the United States, Zhongguancun in China, and Bangalore in India.

Yet there is a major disconnect: in colleges and universities where much innovation is spawned, academics rarely describe their work as facilitating job creation or economic growth. Higher education is a crucial partner for the competitiveness agenda, but relatively few academic researchers aspire to move their work into the world of commerce. In our experience, they are both intimidated by and uninterested in learning about translating their scholarly work to the marketplace. Leveraging academic innovation to the marketplace remains the exception rather than the rule in most institutions of higher education, and we want to change that.

Commercialization is the process of transferring potential and actual intellectual property and related technology/intellectual assets to third parties for use in improving existing products/services or as the basis for new ones.We will deconstruct that definition soon. For now, however, you can think about commercialization as a way to move your discoveries/inventions into the world of selling products and services.

We have worked with many academics who are astounded to learn that their research might have commercial potential; most are intimidated by the strange land known as technology transfer.