Page 77 - Technology and Innovation Journal - 19-1

Technology and Innovation, Vol. 19, pp. 415-423, 2017 ISSN 1949-8241 • E-ISSN 1949-825X
Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.21300/19.1.2017.415
Copyright © 2017 National Academy of Inventors. www.technologyandinnovation.org

MAXIMIZE COLLISIONS, MINIMIZE FRICTION :
SM
APPLYING PLATFORM STRATEGIES TO ACCELERATE
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH COMMERCIALIZATION

Vinit Nijhawan

Strategy & Innovation Department, Questrom School of Business, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
Massachusetts Association of Technology Transfer Offices, The Massachusetts Technology Transfer Center, Boston, MA,
USA
National Academy of Inventors, Tampa, Florida, USA

The Bayh-Dole Act of 1980 unleashed universities to own and commercialize inventions arising
from federally funded research. By self-reported measures, the results have been dramatic: 100%
growth of licensing revenue from 2003 to 2013. However, much of the license royalty revenue
growth is the result of a handful of blockbuster inventions originating from a handful of serial
academic inventors working in a handful of research universities. The majority of research
universities generate less license royalty income than the cost of their technology transfer units.
The power of the platform, a new business model that uses technology to connect people, orga-
nizations, and resources in an interactive ecosystem to create value, has led to companies such
as Airbnb, Uber, and Alibaba (1) . We applied platform strategies to accelerate the two-sided
market of faculty inventors (supply of innovative research and intellectual property (IP)) and
industry (demand for innovation) at Boston University from 2010 to present, resulting in sig-
nificantly accelerated research and IP commercialization. This paper describes how we arrived
at the platform strategy, the activities we undertook, and the outcome of this new strategy.

Key words: Technology transfer; Patent; University invention; Platform

INTRODUCTION as the Defense Research Board (established in 1947),
The American private research university model National Science Foundation (NSF) (established
began with the founding of Johns Hopkins University in 1950), and National Institutes of Health (NIH)
in 1876. The model was a hybrid of German and Brit- (established in 1949) were founded to conduct basic
ish higher education institutions with an American research in federal institutions and in research uni-
twist (2). They combined undergraduate and graduate versities. Federal funding for basic research increased
education with basic research. In parallel, the Morrill annually to $33 billion, or 24% of the overall $138
Act of 1862 provided funding to land-grant colleges billion research and development (R&D) budget, by
that led to the formation of state public research uni- FY 2016. $30 billion of R&D funding, or 22%, went
versities. The model was given a substantial boost to academic institutions (3).
from enlightened science public policy captured in Additional sources of research funding for univer-
Vannevar Bush’s policy report Science, the Endless sities and academic centers include industry, which
Frontier in 1945. Federal research institutions such increased modestly over the past decade to $4.6
_____________________
Accepted April 15, 2017.
Address correspondence to Vinit Nijhawan, 595 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA. Tel: (978) 590-0400; E-mail: vinit@nijhawan.com

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