Paul O’Reilly, Dublin Institute of Technology
Maeve Henchion, Ashtown Food Research Centre
Deborah Kelly, Ashtown Food Research Centre
Creating the Innovation Island
InterTradeIreland Innovation Conference
June 9th, 2009





About TOOLBOX
Technology transfer defined
Technology transfer prioritised
Success and failure factors in technology
transfer from publicly funded food research –
case study findings
Overall TOOLBOX findings

TOOLBOX Project
◦ Development of a technology commercialisation
toolbox for publicly funded food research

Project partners
◦ Dublin Institute of Technology
◦ Ashtown Food Research Centre, Teagasc

Funded by Department of Agriculture,
Fisheries and Food - Food Institutional
Research Measure of the National
Development Plan



Document and evaluate the existing food innovation
system
To understand the incentives, barriers and obstacles for
successful research commercialisation and technology
transfer from the researcher and industry perspectives
To identify success and failure factors facilitating
research commercialisation and technology transfer in
public research projects
4 focus groups
Researcher survey
Industry survey
20 case studies
International best practice case studies
2 workshops







Increasing the stock of useful knowledge;
Training skilled graduates;
Creating new scientific instrumentation and
methodologies;
Forming networks and stimulating social
interaction;
Increasing the capacity for scientific and
technological problem-solving
Provision of social knowledge; and
Creating new firms.
GENERATING ECONOMIC
RETURN FOR CITIZENS

Low levels of R&D investment in Irish food industry
◦ Large numbers of SMEs without capability or expertise to
invest in R&D
◦ Limited engagement with public research centres




Global competition and adverse market conditions
Growing interest from policy makers in achieving
economic returns from public investment in
research
Societal benefits (e.g. food safety)
Underdeveloped technology transfer functions in
public research organisations,

Definition:
◦ Technology transfer is the “movement of knowhow, technical knowledge or technology from one
organisation to another” (Bozeman, 2000)





Rogers et al. (2001): a difficult type of communication process,
spanning the stages from R&D to commercialisation.
Feller et al (1987): an extended series of “interactive relationships
that connect the functional activities of basic research, applied
research, development, diffusion, adaptation, and dissemination into
an overall technology delivery system”.
Levin (1997): socio-technical learning and development process,
where the technology is perceived as a social construction where
human choice and values influence the result.
Autio and Laamanen (1995): Planned, deliberate, goal-oriented
relations between two or more persons, groups or organisations to
exchange technological knowledge and/or objects and rights.
Power and McDougall (2005): Process by which technologies
developed in universities are transformed into commercial and
marketable products.
Building Ireland’s Smart Economy
A Framework for Sustainable Economic
Renewal
December 2008
Department of the Taoiseach
“The key objective of Ireland’s Smart Economic Growth
framework is to make Ireland the innovation and
commercialisation capital of Europe – a country that combines
the features of an attractive home for innovative
multinationals while also being an incubation environment for
the best entrepreneurs from Europe and further afield.”
“Ireland has already laid the foundations of the ideas
economy by investing heavily in education, skills
training and R&D under the National Development
Plan, which includes delivery of the Strategy for
Science, Technology and Innovation involving
major investments in basic research through the
PRTLI, SFI and other funding programmes. €8.2
billion has been committed to research,
technological development and innovation.
Business expenditure on R&D is targeted to grow to
about €3.8 billion per annum by 2013.”







Industry-led Competence Centre Programme;
Active management of Intellectual Property;
Implementation of the Strategy for Science,
Technology and Innovation (e.g. PRTLI);
Promotion of commercialisation of opportunities
through relevant funding programmes;
Attract to Ireland a premium cohort of world class
researchers that will drive up the international
visibility;
Instil a commercialisation culture in third-level
institutions; and
Summer schools with an emphasis on innovation
and commercialisation.

Promoting Enterprise-Higher Education
Relationships
(Forfás, 2007)
◦ “The two key constraints to the deepening of enterprisehigher education research collaborations in Ireland are the
low absorptive capacity of enterprises for research and a
gap in the availability of applied research capability that
enterprises can readily access. “
◦ “Research commissioned by the Council indicates that HEIenterprise collaboration operates at a very low level in
Ireland, and that the structures for encouragement and
support of the process have failed to achieve the level of
contribution appropriate to Higher Education Expenditure
on Research and Development (HERD)”.


European Commission (2005) notes that sub-optimal
research collaboration and knowledge transfer between
public research organisations and industry are one of
the weaknesses of the European research and
innovation system that must be overcome if there is to
be development of a sustainable knowledge economy.
The 1994 White Paper Growth, Competitiveness,
Employment. The Challenges and Ways Forward into the
21st Century noted that the “greatest weakness in
Europe’s research and industrial base is the
comparatively limited capacity to convert scientific
breakthroughs and technological achievements into
industrial and commercial successes”.

20 case studies
◦ Projects that originated as FIRM funded initiatives
◦ Scientific objectives achieved and validated by
multiple peer review publication

All cases had technology transfer objectives
◦ 12 cases achieved technology transfer
◦ 8 cases resulted in no identifiable technology
transfer

Approach
◦ Semi-structured interviews with principal
investigators
Technology Transfer
√
Technology Transfer
╳
Dissemination
Person-to-person
communications;
industry-oriented
documentation; ongoing throughout
project
Reliance on traditional
publication; academic
audience; end of
project; compliance
with funding
requirements
Validation
Industry and academic
recognition sought;
personal motivations
Academic recognition
sought
Research scope
Focus on issues of
specific enterprise(s)
Tendency to focus on
industry level issues
Performance
measurement
Will become a barrier in A major deterrent from
future
investing time working
with industry
Technology Transfer
√
Technology Transfer
╳
Industry
relationships
“good”
“informal and personal”
“mutually beneficial”
“established”
“weak”
“formal”
“awkward”
Frequency of
interaction
Very frequent; “part of
what we do”
Limited (by researcher
choice)
Origin of research
ideas
Tended to be validated
by industry; market
demand
Researcher own idea
from previous research;
no evidence of market
demand
Perspective of
industry
Considered industry to
have incompatible
expectations –
innovation system must
adapt
Considered industry to
have incompatible
expectations – industry
must change



Motivation of the researcher is critical
Overarching importance of personal relationships
between researchers and industry
Benefits from focusing research efforts around
needs of specific enterprise(s)
◦ Aids more regular communications and interaction
◦ Closer relationships
◦ Availability of tacit information

Importance of industry buy-in to projects from
outset

Implications for public research
organisations
◦ Significant changes required in researcher
performance measurement systems
◦ Need to reconfigure how technology transfer is
managed as a process within public research
organisations

Implications for funding agencies
◦ Potential role for collaborative research
programmes





Communication : Need for increased and improved
communications between researchers and industry.
Socialisation: Need to break down boundaries between
the public researcher community and the food industry
community that inhibit knowledge sharing, collaboration
and ultimately technology transfer.
Enabling researchers: Need to enhance organisational
supports in public science providers to enable technology
transfer and industry collaboration.
Strategic management: Need for increased strategic
management of research project programmes.
Industry capabilities: Industry needs to develop
capabilities to make strategic use of and leverage publicly
funded research, and research organisations need to
recognise the diversity of capabilities that exist within the
industry.
www.dit.ie/toolbox
www.dit.ie/toolbox