TEchNOLOGy TRaNSFER MODEL - Javna agencija

KNOWLEDGE FOR BUSINESS IN BORDER REGIONS
1.6 Roles and challenges of Technology Transfer Facilitators
Knowledge and technology transfer activities with the industry are becoming an increasingly important task on the part of academic
and non-academic research institutions. In order to support these transfer activities, different types of intermediaries emerged
in the past decades. Their main intention is to interconnect scientists and companies and to assist them in transfer processes.
As there exist various definitions and classifications of intermediaries and technology transfer facilitators in theory and practice,
there is a need for clear definition within this module in order to understand what exactly intermediaries and TTFs are and what their
activities typically comprise.
1.6.1 Intermediaries: Definition and field of activity
Since the social networks of SMEs, large companies and research institutions often do not overlap; various sorts of intermediaries
affect the transfer of knowledge and technologies and bridge the gap between science and industry in practice. Such intermediaries
typically play the role of boundary-spanners, which take knowledge and technologies from one domain and apply it in another. They
convey influence between different constituent groups and present the perceptions, expectations and ideas of each to the other. In
addition, effective transfer of knowledge and technologies may require intermediaries which help to establish relationships among
potential transfer partners. The distance between these groups in terms of language, physical distance and culture increases both
the importance of such boundary-spanning organizations and the complexity of the boundary-spanning itself. Please note that in the
context of research institutions, boundary-spanning between science departments and industry may be more challenging than across
other groups as the language and cultural distance is likely to be greater.
As mentioned previously, there exist different types of intermediaries that may be deployed to facilitate transfer activities between
science and industry. These intermediaries can consist of a range of actors, which includes TTOs, specialist fellows, incubators and
science parks, surrogate entrepreneurs, venture capital firms, development agencies, etc. Moreover, intermediaries can be directly
connected to both research institutions and industry, but can also act independently of both those groups.
The following figure aims at illustrating the position of intermediaries within the (slightly modified) technology transfer model in
order to gain a better understanding of their specific role and fields of activity in transfer processes.
Figure 10: Position of intermediaries within the technology transfer model (According to: Reinhard/Schmalholz, 1996)
Within direct transfer activities, intermediaries typically offer support in the form of consulting and information services as well as
direct transfer services, but also strive to improve preconditions for a successful transfer on the part of both science institutions and
companies. Within an indirect transfer, however, intermediaries usually mediate between supply and demand of knowledge and
technologies through commercial exploitation of R&D results, supply of information (e.g. database) or investigation of novel patents
and technologies.
In practice, direct transfer of knowledge and technologies is always impeded through different macroeconomic factors (see fig.
11). Hence, it is an essential task of intermediaries to face these challenges and to act upon them in order to achieve the objective of
improving and intensifying transfer activities between science and industry. The following figure provides some proposals for action
to overcome these macroeconomic challenges and also gives an understanding of the intermediaries’ broad field of activity.
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