Crisis? Which Crisis?
June 2020
In 1975 British rock band Supertramp (Breakfast in America, Dreamer … anyone?) launched an album with the title “Crisis? What Crisis?”. In 1979 the same phrase was attached to the thinking of the struggling Labour government and their attitude to the economic malaise of the day; their defeat led to the election of Margaret Thatcher as Conservative Prime Minster for the next 11 years.
Today the question is different – we know there is a crisis, in fact we know there is more than one. The first one that comes to mind is the current COVID-19 pandemic, millions of cases, hundreds of thousands of deaths.
This article rehearses the response of university technology transfer offices (TTOs) to the COVID-19 crisis and then also discusses links between technology transfer and two other crises: climate change and racial inequality.
COVID-19
Universities are at the forefront of developing vaccines, therapies and equipment to tackle the pandemic.
University TTOs have been quick to offer any COVID-19 related technologies that they have as quickly as possible, as easily as possible and as free as possible. TTOs and TTO associations are offering standard non-exclusive royalty free agreements (NERFs) to companies that can use university research outputs to tackle the pandemic. See an earlier article for further details.
Climate Change
“Climate change is the defining crisis of our time” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in September 2019. The climate change crisis, the climate change emergency, are phrases we hear all the time. Obviously slightly overshadowed by coronavirus at the moment, but it hasn’t gone away.
Universities are at the forefront of generating data, providing independent evidence, researching and developing policy initiatives and technological solutions to the climate change crisis. There are calls from all sides to ensure that post-pandemic recovery plans are focussed on addressing the climate change crisis.
University TTOs have not yet responded to the climate change crisis by offering climate change technologies that they have as quickly as possible, as easily as possible and as free as possible. TTOs and TTO associations are not yet offering standard non-exclusive royalty free agreements (NERFs) to companies that can use university research outputs to tackle the climate change crisis. This is an opportunity to show some leadership.
University TTOs do a great job at transferring healthcare technologies and climate change related technologies to market through commercial licensing, spin-out company formation and supporting student entrepreneurship programmes. Deciding which of these are worthy of crisis treatment will become a challenge.
The response of TTOs to offer COVID-19 technologies on NERF terms will have long-term consequences for university technology transfer: if for that, why not for this? It will question the rationale for the commercialisation of university research outputs. There is a very clear response to this questioning (incentivisation, regulation, attracting capital, routes to market, reinvestment into research and teaching) and university TTOs should make sure they have a well thought through, clear response.
Race
What has technology transfer got to do with race and racism? That is the point really; no one thinks, no one asks. Last time I looked there was one person of colour on the boards of the TTOs of the UK’s leading universities. When I finished working full-time in a TTO a few years ago there was only a handful of people of colour out of close to a hundred staff. Only a couple of the founders from the dozens of spin-out companies created when I was there people of colour.
Top UK universities are notoriously poor at attracting and admitting non-white students, and the number of non-white teaching and research staff is staggeringly low. British Member of Parliament David Lammy has written much on these two points for those who want to see the numbers.
With such low representation in the student and staff populations, TTOs have a reasonable explanation for why so few of their projects involve people of colour. And what with being so busy and all that, it is very easy to avoid noticing let alone doing anything about it. And that is my point: notice, and do something. I don’t know what right now because I don’t know enough about the subject and I haven’t got together with a group of people to talk it through. That is my challenge: notice, learn and do something.
TTOs have not yet been called upon to respond to racial inequality; until now.
[TTI is against racism, and thinks the global 'black lives matter' movement is an amazingly powerful and important movement. We can all learn more about what is going on and why.]
Today the question is different – we know there is a crisis, in fact we know there is more than one. The first one that comes to mind is the current COVID-19 pandemic, millions of cases, hundreds of thousands of deaths.
This article rehearses the response of university technology transfer offices (TTOs) to the COVID-19 crisis and then also discusses links between technology transfer and two other crises: climate change and racial inequality.
COVID-19
Universities are at the forefront of developing vaccines, therapies and equipment to tackle the pandemic.
University TTOs have been quick to offer any COVID-19 related technologies that they have as quickly as possible, as easily as possible and as free as possible. TTOs and TTO associations are offering standard non-exclusive royalty free agreements (NERFs) to companies that can use university research outputs to tackle the pandemic. See an earlier article for further details.
Climate Change
“Climate change is the defining crisis of our time” said UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in September 2019. The climate change crisis, the climate change emergency, are phrases we hear all the time. Obviously slightly overshadowed by coronavirus at the moment, but it hasn’t gone away.
Universities are at the forefront of generating data, providing independent evidence, researching and developing policy initiatives and technological solutions to the climate change crisis. There are calls from all sides to ensure that post-pandemic recovery plans are focussed on addressing the climate change crisis.
University TTOs have not yet responded to the climate change crisis by offering climate change technologies that they have as quickly as possible, as easily as possible and as free as possible. TTOs and TTO associations are not yet offering standard non-exclusive royalty free agreements (NERFs) to companies that can use university research outputs to tackle the climate change crisis. This is an opportunity to show some leadership.
University TTOs do a great job at transferring healthcare technologies and climate change related technologies to market through commercial licensing, spin-out company formation and supporting student entrepreneurship programmes. Deciding which of these are worthy of crisis treatment will become a challenge.
The response of TTOs to offer COVID-19 technologies on NERF terms will have long-term consequences for university technology transfer: if for that, why not for this? It will question the rationale for the commercialisation of university research outputs. There is a very clear response to this questioning (incentivisation, regulation, attracting capital, routes to market, reinvestment into research and teaching) and university TTOs should make sure they have a well thought through, clear response.
Race
What has technology transfer got to do with race and racism? That is the point really; no one thinks, no one asks. Last time I looked there was one person of colour on the boards of the TTOs of the UK’s leading universities. When I finished working full-time in a TTO a few years ago there was only a handful of people of colour out of close to a hundred staff. Only a couple of the founders from the dozens of spin-out companies created when I was there people of colour.
Top UK universities are notoriously poor at attracting and admitting non-white students, and the number of non-white teaching and research staff is staggeringly low. British Member of Parliament David Lammy has written much on these two points for those who want to see the numbers.
With such low representation in the student and staff populations, TTOs have a reasonable explanation for why so few of their projects involve people of colour. And what with being so busy and all that, it is very easy to avoid noticing let alone doing anything about it. And that is my point: notice, and do something. I don’t know what right now because I don’t know enough about the subject and I haven’t got together with a group of people to talk it through. That is my challenge: notice, learn and do something.
TTOs have not yet been called upon to respond to racial inequality; until now.
[TTI is against racism, and thinks the global 'black lives matter' movement is an amazingly powerful and important movement. We can all learn more about what is going on and why.]