National Survey of Research Commercialisation - Australian ...

and Innovation Council (PMSEIC) in 2001 (Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and
Innovation Council, 2001).
CONCLUSIONS
The survey results suggest that inventor involvement is an important element in the
strategies employed by research organisations to manage their commercial licensing activities.
In 73% of cases, inventors were either highly or very involved in licensing activities.
The survey results also indicate a positive relationship between the length of an
institution’s experience in managing commercial licensing activities and the level of that
institution’s income from licences. Four of the five licensing programs of institutions
that yielded income of more than $3 million in Year 2000 had been in operation for 10
or more years while, conversely, of the licensing programs of institutions that yielded
income of less than $1 million in Year 2000, 68% had been in operation for less than
10 years.
There are lessons in the data, not only at the national level but also for the institutional
management of research commercialisation. For example, the management of invention
disclosures does not appear to occur according to uniform and high standards of
practice in Australia’s research organisations. In both the USA and Canada, there are
policies which require universities to disclose inventions to federal governments within a
reasonable time period.
The Year 2000 National Survey of Research Commercialisation has demonstrated,
for the first time, that there is a substantial contribution to the commercialisation of
research in Australia being made by universities, medical research institutes and CSIRO,
relative to the resources at their disposal. Within the university sector, a small number
of institutions appears to account for a relatively large proportion of commercialisation
activity, although the institutions are not the same in each specific area of activity. In
addition, the overall contribution of the university sector to research commercialisation
does rely on activity occurring in a wide range of institutions, including not only the
long-established universities in our major capital cities, but also younger and smaller
universities in regional Australia.
Future surveys will establish the direction of trends in the level of commercialisation of
research in Australia. Comparison of the data from those surveys with data from other
countries will inform us about the degree to which our international competitiveness in
this area is being maintained, improving or declining.
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