The following is a list of the articles that appear in the November 2007 issue of Technology Transfer Tactics monthly newsletter.

Subscribe now and get access to this issue as well as access to our online archive of back issues, industry research reports, sample MTAs, legal opinions, sample forms and contracts, government documents and more!

Technology Transfer Tactics,
Vol. 1, No. 7 (pp 97-112) November 2007

• Use process mapping to improve your TTO’s performance. Decide what you want your technology transfer office to accomplish, and then redesign processes to get you there. That sounds simple, but it’s a task that inertia often renders almost impossible. Process mapping, a performance improvement technique borrowed from the Japanese system of kaizen, can help you gain a detailed understanding of what’s actually going on in your office so you can act with surgical precision to solve its operational problems ………. p. 97

• ‘Supercluster’ approach may speed time to market. Colorado State University (CSU), Fort Collins, CO, is seeking to meld its desire to streamline the commercialization process with its philosophic commitment to discoveries of global reach with the creation of a new structure it calls the ‘supercluster’ ………. p. 97

• Convene your own investor conference to match innovations with funding sources. One increasingly popular strategy for getting the word out about your university’s available technologies is to hold your own investor conference. And though it takes a lot of time and a fair amount of cash, if you target your message to the right people and then make sure there’s ample time at the meeting for wheeling and dealing, a conference can accomplish exactly what it’s designed for: connecting innovators and funders ………. p. 98

• Protect your assets with researcher entrance, exit interview system. Researchers and faculty may come and go from your institution without acrimony, but if you don’t have a system in place for entrance and exit interviews, you may be losing track of valuable assets on arrival and on departure ………. p. 100

• University of Toronto devises innovative hybrid TTO staffing model. Nearly every TTO uses one of two basic staffing schemes: the “cradle-to-grave model” or the “specialist model.” But a hybrid staffing model now being used by the University of Toronto is another option with some distinct advantages ………. p. 106

• Tip of the Month: Key sentences for first-time inventor meetings ………. p. 108

• Workbook for inventors helps standardize tech transfer decision-making. Could a standardized workbook for inventors help you get your faculty innovators to sharpen and organize their thinking about their newest discovery before they sit down for formal talks in the TTO? ………. p. 108

• University launches fundraising effort to help finance research commercialization. TTOs scrounging for early-stage dollars to move innovations along may want to consider an often-overlooked funding source: donations from philanthropists and alumni ………. p. 110

• Book Review: Intellectual Property Management in Health and Agricultural Innovation: A Handbook of Best Practices ………. p. 111