Innovation and Technology Transfer

Development of a technology commercialisation toolbox for publicly funded food research

The transfer of research and development results from higher education institutes and public research centres to the commercial market place for public benefit – the commercialisation of research – is an increasingly important activity. While the primary outputs of research are knowledge and education, which in turn produce skilled researchers and make Ireland a more attractive place for industry, there are increasing opportunities to derive economic benefits from the enhanced commercialisation of research. However, as opportunities for commercialisation increase, targeted actions at different levels must be employed to avail of them, particularly in relation to publicly funded research.

This research project aims to develop a Technology Commercialisation Toolbox to enhance the level of commercialisation and technology transfer from publicly funded food research in Ireland through an examination of the food innovation system. The Toolbox will provide a range of techniques, approaches and management frameworks that will support researchers and research centres in their endeavours to transfer technologies developed through publicly funded research activities to industry. As a spin-off, the research will enhance in-house industry R&D by providing a greater understanding of industry absorptive capacity and the nature and mechanism of research institute/industry interaction. There is a growing interest among policymakers and academics in generating wealth from publicly-funded research. Some of the contributions that publicly funded research makes to economic growth include increasing the knowledge stock, providing skilled graduates, creating new scientific instrumentation and methodologies, forming networks and stimulating social interaction, increasing the capacity for scientific and technological problem-solving and the creation of new firms. The transfer of scientific and technological know-how into valuable economic activity has become an important priority on many policy agendas, with links between industry and science being a crucial element of this policy direction.

Initially, within this research project, the food innovation system in Ireland was documented so as to identify the key actors, agencies and interactions that contribute to food innovation in Ireland. It is envisaged that this information will be of value to policy makers and research centres involved in supporting innovation in the Irish food industry. The food innovation system is set within the context of the overall national innovation system. While the national innovation system is of relevance to the food industry, analysis at the sectoral level is important, as innovation varies considerably across sectors thus specific approaches may be required within the food sector to improve research commercialisation.

The next stage of the research will involve a series of discussion groups and interviews with key groups of stakeholders in Ireland’s food innovation system. Participants will include representatives from industry, public sector research scientists, higher education institute (HEI) scientists, funding agencies/policy makers and senior research managers in the public sector. The objective in conducting the focus groups will be to qualitatively explore the key determinants of success in the Irish food innovation system.

The results from the focus groups will guide the quantitative research tasks to be undertaken with Irish food companies and food researchers. A survey will be conducted on small, medium and large food companies in the Republic of Ireland. Issues investigated will include industry’s absorptive capacity to acquire and exploit public research, the extent and nature of interaction with higher education institutions and public research centres, the role of public research in industrial R&D labs, the role of innovation in companies, type and extent of in-house research, sources of knowledge, and channels of information flow between public research institutions and industrial R&D labs. Variables known to influence transfer of technology, e.g. firm size and type of ownership, will also be recorded. The objective here will be to quantitatively investigate, from an industry perspective, the micro-level factors influencing successful transfer of technology and the influence of public research on industrial R&D programmes.

The researcher survey will be undertaken concurrently with the industry survey to investigate, from a researcher’s perspective, the micro-level factors influencing successful transfer of technology. Measures will be gathered on researcher interaction with industry and involvement in technology transfer. Attitudes towards research commercialisation activity and perspectives on barriers, obstacles, awareness levels, incentives and motivations for research commercialisation and technology transfer will also be gathered. Furthermore, the survey will seek to identify whether there are links between researcher’s previous experience and involvement in technology transfer and industry interaction.

A series of case studies will be undertaken to obtain a holistic and greater understanding of the micro-level factors influencing successful transfer of technology, through qualitative research on a project basis. This will be followed by a review of international best practice in technology transfer for publicly funded food research

The final task of the project will involve triangulating all the findings from the research to develop the technology commercialisation toolbox and subsequently evaluating the toolbox from a potential user’s perspective. Researchers from the partner institutes will meet to discuss findings to date and develop a preliminary toolbox. This toolbox will be presented to potential users (researchers and research centre management) and other stakeholders in Ireland’s food innovation system (including industry R&D specialists and funding agencies) at regional workshops. At the workshops, the toolbox will be evaluated in terms of relevance, utility and feasibility, and feedback obtained. This feedback will be used to refine the final reports and other outputs and dissemination mechanisms such as the researcher training programmes. A key output of the programme will be a Research Commercialisation module on a Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) Postgraduate Diploma in Research Management Practice. This module may also be delivered as a short course to researchers in HEIs and public research centres.

The project is being undertaken at Ashtown Food Research Centre in collaboration with Dublin Institute of Technology. The project is funded by the Food Institutional Research Measure of the Department of Agriculture and Food under the National Development Plan 2000 – 2006.