I am in the midst of a deep dive into technology transfer on campus and came across Technology Transfer 2.0 (from Triple Helix Innovation). Here is Melba Kurman‘s list of top 5 events from 2011 that will shape university technology transfer:
But my sense was that this year’s big events will make their true impact felt over the longer term.
With no further ado, here’s the short list.
American Invents Act
Stanford vs. Roche
Drug companies begin to invest in Chinese R&D labs
More proof that entrepreneurship is not a level playing field
Who took New York? Cornell vs. Stanford
Later, she goes into detail on each of the top five. From the Who Took New York:
Not everyone bought it, though. Some cynics wondered whether Mayor Bloomberg, a top-notch politician, was pulling a Tom Sawyer, tricking others into paying him for the opportunity to do his job of painting the fence (or in this case, cleaning up waste on Roosevelt Island and building a new campus). According to this perspective, Bloomberg brilliantly played the egos of two the big universities against one another. Their prize? The privilege of spending billions of dollars to clean up and develop a piece of his city. But thankfully for the tech campus, nobody listened to the cynics.
In October, final proposals for the tech campus competition were submitted. And the intrigue intensified. Stanford abruptly dropped out of the race. Some claimed that Stanford got scared at Cornell’s enthusiasm and “quit before it could lose.” A more diplomatic proffered reason was that Stanford was not used to the east coast style of negotiating deals.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, apparently Stanford walked away from final negotiations because of two major terms it disagreed with. First, the city demanded that Stanford accept full liability for any problems from whatever toxic waste may lurk on the campus building site. And second, the city also demanded that Stanford stay with the project, even if the city failed to provide its originally promised $100-million contribution.
In contrast, in its proposal, Cornell enthusiastically agreed to do whatever it took. Luckily, a Cornell alum donated $350 million to the project (wasn’t me) only hours after Stanford’s withdrawal since somebody’s gotta pay for all the building and faculty salaries and site cleanup and stuff.
Looking forward to reading the Tech Transfer 2.0 blog into the new year.
via Top five events of 2011 that will shape university technology transfer « Triple Helix Innovation.
Campus Entrepreneurship 