Technology Transfer and Entrepreneurship (Discontinued) - Volume 2, Issue 1, 2015

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program was created to stimulate technological innovation and business development at early stage companies in the United States. In its 21-year history, the program has channeled over $35 billion of public funds to private businesses in the form of approximately 137,000 grants. However, the question of whether SBIR funding effectively spurs new innovation and promotes commercialization remains controversial. Here, we review efforts to answer this question and perform an independent analysis to evaluate the success of the SBIR program in a representative high technology industry. To do this, we systematically analyzed publicly available data for biotechnology companies based in Pennsylvania that received SBIR funding through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) between 1983 and 2014. Our analysis did not find any clear relationships between the amount of SBIR funding received and acquisition of private funding or intellectual property. However, higher SBIR funding rates were associated with current operating status and number of publications, indicating that these additional grants do support commercial operations and the advancement of scientific knowledge. Taken together, our study provides a comprehensive overview of the SBIR program for Pennsylvania biotechnology companies and reveals myriad uses for federal funding to support company development and foster innovation for the public good. These findings underscore the complexity of evaluating the SBIR program and the need for increased standardization and centralization of outcomes data for this large and growing federal program.

Major changes in U.S. patent law are having an impact on the value of patents. The Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA) introduced numerous changes to U.S. patent law including the switch to a first to file patent system from a first to invent patent system. New proceedings at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to challenge the grant of issued patents have produced quick results and emerging trends. Recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions have changed the threshold determination of patentability under 35 U.S.C. § 101, altering the patentability standards for biotech/pharma inventions, as well as computer/business method inventions. In Europe, the framework for an emerging unitary patent system, expected to be implemented by mid-2016, will add complexity to strategic patent planning for that region. This article will review these changes, discuss trends and provide strategies to build a patent portfolio with valid and enforceable patent claims as a foundation to withstand patentability and validity challenges.

The Biotechnology and Life Sciences Advising (BALSA) Group is a graduate studentand post-doctoral fellow-led strategic consulting firm dedicated to supporting economic growth and development in St. Louis, Missouri. BALSA has been recognized by St. Louis civic leaders as a valuable player in the St. Louis entrepreneurial community and has demonstrated that graduate students and post-doctoral fellows – without formal training – can provide professional business strategy support to start-ups, growing companies, and large corporations. The BALSA Group has inspired the establishment of similar groups around the United States, including Fourth River Solutions (4RS) at the University of Pittsburgh, in forming sustainable organizations that support their local entrepreneurial communities. Key to the success of new organizations are university Technology Transfer Offices, which can become recurring clients and serve as training grounds to build the core competencies of student-run consulting groups. This article highlights the success of The BALSA Group and 4RS in developing a novel addition to the Ph.D./post-doctoral fellow training paradigm, focusing on collaborations with Technology Transfer Offices, and describes a model for creating similar ventures at other universities.

Universities and state governments are increasingly looking towards their technology transfer offices to aid in the incubation of new innovations to create new ventures and promote economic development. For a new start-up company to succeed, a strong technology founder and partners with business experience are crucial. Many universities are utilizing entrepreneur-inresidence (EIR) programs to attract professionals with extensive industry or entrepreneurial expertise to act as mentors for university researchers interested in forming a company. In this review, we have surveyed 38 universities to determine common and best practices for active EIR programs, and we review those results in terms of the different decisions a TTO needs to make when designing their program. We dive deeper into specific details of some of the programs for several top performing offices in the United States, including Columbia University, the University of Washington, Boston University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of Michigan. We also describe in detail the newly formed EIR program of a smaller research university at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) which contrasts with the common status quo of the more established programs. We illustrate how the UWM EIR program may be another useful model for new technology transfer offices that are looking to stimulate the entrepreneurial ecosystem at the university in a bottom up fashion.

The flaws in the training of PhDs in life science disciplines are impacting the state of academic biomedical science in the United States (U.S.) as well as the fate of PhD students and postdoctoral fellows. In the absence of sweeping changes to the U.S. graduate training model, these circumstances will degrade the pipeline of highly educated scientific innovators and entrepreneurs. To counter this, a wide range of unique programs are emerging with the objective of providing opportunities for PhDs to more easily transition into the job market, where they will be able to sustain and build innovation within the marketplace. In this article, we describe the current challenges faced by emerging PhDs in the life sciences, address the negative implications of the existing training paradigm, and introduce some of the unique programs that will help PhD trainees be better prepared for the non-academic career paths that they are likely to follow. PhDs from all disciplines are key contributors to the innovations that drive technology transfer and entrepreneurship. As such, graduate programs should serve as the common training grounds for these individuals to gain the subject matter expertise, research experience, and vision needed to develop scientific advancements for the benefit of society.

This paper examines some of the hindrances in moving the small and medium size manufacturing firms, with revenues ranging from U.S 1 to 50 million dollars, towards sustainability conscious and environmentally responsible corporate culture. Economic cost and benefits of transition to greener enterprise with greater energy efficiency and waste management in operations are estimated. Case studies of five manufacturing firms in the state of Missouri in US are conducted. Short and long term approaches to achieve the goals of energy conservation and waste/pollution reduction are determined in consultation with the company’s senior management; these are based on the evolutionary changes/innovations and economic sustainability. The companies are revisited after one year and two years to assess the implementation and its outcome. The successes and failures are noted and are used to generate new ideas and approaches. Some of the lessons learned can be used to improve the entrepreneurial approaches as the manufacturing firm transitions towards environmentally responsible economically sustainable enterprise.