Barriers to and Measurements of the Diffusion of Technology from the University to Industry

A brief review of reasons for and against the commercialization of university research is presented. The remainder of the article assumes that this transfer is useful and presents many problems due to the differing cultures of academe and industry. The publish-or-perish ethic must be balanced against the need for secrecy in a competitive industrial framework. Royalties, time constraints, and ownership problems are combined with the high cost of patenting and development of products to raise barriers to cooperation. A summary explanation of these barriers is presented. Ten different measures currently used to rank a university's ability to commercialize technology are presented along with the top three schools chosen by each of the measures. According to these systems, different schools achieve top rankings on the different scales, stressing the need for a more universal, comprehensive index. Finally, current efforts in Texas and in other university communities to link academe and the corporate sector and to help lower some of the current barriers are reviewed.