Question

The Transfer of Technology from Research to Development is a study conducted by IBM’s Research Division, discusses factors to be considered to successfully transfer technology from a research department to a development department, as well as recommendations for successful transfer. Factors include technical understanding of the research and product application relationship, feasibility of the research and product application, growth potential, and timeliness. Recommendations for successful transfer include a dedicated advanced technology group for technology transfer and joint participation by research and development while the project is still in research. R-III-5 also presents 18 studies that were transferred successfully, not transferred, or not transferred successfully.

Questions

Why is it important to have joint participation by research and development while the project is still in research?

Why does transfer occur when outsiders recognize the value of the technology?

How are feasibility and timeliness related?

What tactics can an advocate use to sell the results of research?

How large must a company be for internal users to be a secondary factor?

Answer 1

Why is it important to have joint participation by research and development while the project is still in research?

It is very important to have joint participation because:

• This gives proper direction to the research on terms of feasibility of implementation.
• Timeliness of the project to be launched and if the technology researched could be fruitfully developed.
• It helps identify growth potential through pilot developments and further investments in research.
• Overall it helps get better bang for the buck, ROI.

Why does transfer occur when outsiders recognize the value of the technology?

Value of technology is realized when outsiders recognize because only then the technology can be launched for the market, as the need is well understood and the product can be profitably used. Otherwise it might happen the technology is great but there are no takers as nobody has understood its utilization. Hence outsiders provide apt feedback on the importance and application of the technology as insiders might over value their own creation.

How are feasibility and timeliness related?

Feasibility is dependent on factors that make the project happen within desired

• Cost
• Time
• Scope

And till the timeliness is not addressed, that is if the market is not ready or the consumers not ripe about the product or technology, the costs are always going to be high, as the suppliers are few. The time to realize the full project will be more as expertise will be scarce and need limited and the scope will be unclear leading to wastage. But if the time is correct then al the three parameters are gradually taken care of and feasibility becomes a direct correlation of timeliness.

What tactics can an advocate use to sell the results of research?

The tactics an advocate can use to sell the results of research are the

• Showcasing the utilization of results in real world and profit from the implementation of the result.
• Have some pilots tested with partnership of few companies for free and provide discount on the full research.
• To show that provide a free trial period and have a freemium model, where the basic features are given for free, and all advanced and required features are serviced when paid.

How large must a company be for internal users to be a secondary factor?

There is no real size constrain, internal users should always be considered secondary factor as they generally have one or other bias towards the product or service.