Office of Technology & Innovation Commercialization (TICO)
About CU-TICO
In 2008, the leadership of Cairo University undertook a major effort toward
building a new model that efficiently translates its research into new products, new
industries, and global impact. To achieve this goal, the university created a new office of
Technology & Innovation Commercialization (TICO) to guide this charge. CU-TICO’s
main goal is to become a major driver of economic impact and breakthrough innovation
in Egypt.
The Technology & Innovation Commercialization Office (TICO) at Cairo
University is to serve our University and students, our partners in business, our
entrepreneurs and the community at large. Our goal is to add value in every transaction
and support all phases of university technology commercialization, industry relations, and
start-up development in Egypt.
Website: www.cu-tico.org
Our Objectives
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Build a culture of innovation, service, responsiveness, creativity, and
accountability
Create customized initiatives that enhance the research and innovation in the
community
Develop a robust start-up culture that drives economic development
Increase industry-sponsored research and long term partnerships
Engage students in every aspect of the commercialization process to enhance their
learning experience in support of Cairo University’s mission
Make Cairo University one of the top five research institution in
commercialization productivity
CU-TICO Team
The CU-TICO team comes from a wide range of businesses and backgrounds; what they
share is enthusiasm, expertise and a passion for our goal.
Partners
We work in partnership with a range of organizations, helping to join up the innovation
landscape, some of these are:
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Academy of scientific, research and Technology - ASRT
Technology innovation and entrepreneurship center
tain&able
Innoventures
Banque Misr Foundation for community development & welfare
Success Stories
With our help, we aim that businesses across Egypt will achieve success and create
growth through innovation. Stay tuned for true stories that will be added soon.
Inventors
In CU-TICO we believe that there is a wide range of benefits when University
technologies are successfully commercialized. The public benefits through job creation,
as well as the introduction of innovative and life-saving products and services. On the
other hand, The University, its researchers, and students benefit from commercialization
revenue that provides critical funding for further researches.
Some of the benefits of transferring your innovation to the commercial market are:
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Allows you to see your work benefit society
Leads to new products and services that improve quality of life
Creates new businesses and jobs
Attracts research sponsors
Provides recognition and financial reward for you and the University
Increases industry contact and chances for student employment
Industry
CU-TICO welcomes inquiries to get to know us more. We believe the most effective
relationships result from ongoing engagements with aligned interests.
If we know what you’re looking to accomplish, we’ll have a better chance of helping
you find a compound, tool, or process that will help get you there, hence we always enjoy
learning more about your business and technology needs.
What We Deliver
At Cairo University Technology & Innovation Commercialization Office (TICO) we
serve the university professors, researchers, graduates, and students, by turning their
inventions, ideas, technologies, and research into business opportunities and products that
make an impact in the local and global marketplace.
In order to do so, we have specialized team that provides inventors with experience and
guidance in the below areas:
o Licensing & Patents
Our team assesses, manages, and strategically places technologies into the marketplace
while protecting intellectual property through patents or other unique IP protection
methods. We rely on clear milestones, shared interest and responsibility of Inventors to
progress technologies forward.
CU-TICO actively engages with each Faculty at Cairo University, examining the
technology portfolios, leveraging resources, and monitoring follow-on investment as key
outcome drivers. Everything we do results in intellectual property we can license. In CUTICO we utilize industry standard terms.
o Start-Ups
In CU-TICO we understand the importance of start-ups to the community, so when a new
innovation is presented to us, our team provides the methodology support, answers,
connections, and resources it needs to produce a viable company.
o Ideation Support
In cooperation with our partners we help inventors to bring their ideas to life. Design and
prototyping experts help an inventor further his or her concept and determine the greatest
potential to maximize an invention’s value.
CUTT Competition
Cairo University Technology Transfer Competition (CUTT) is looking for ideas
and businesses which (a) include or incorporate some form or element of technology
innovation, whether simple or complex, and (b) which have commercial and growth
potential in terms of meeting a market need and being "scalable".
A technology idea or innovation has limited value if it is a "one horse trick" or if it cannot
be replicated or scaled up to benefit a wider market.
The competition is looking for innovations which not only fit the Innovation definition,
but which also have either demonstrated, or potential, commercial application.
This can be summed up in the word "scalability". Scalability means that the innovation,
along with the relevant product(s), process(es) or service(s) can be delivered costeffectively, repeatedly and on a larger scale over time, even if this might be a slow
process, to more and more users, customers or beneficiaries, in a commercially viable
manner, ie while generating more revenue than the cost of production and delivery.
While you may not have a detailed plan to scale up your concept for your entry, you need
to be able to at least outline in broad terms how this might happen.
Having a sound technology innovation concept, a "driver" of the business and a good
customer value proposition are the basic requirements for a scalable business. Thereafter,
it will need a business, technology and financial "trajectory" with defined milestones.