Cross-institutional collaboration is the way ahead for research commercialisation, according to Australia’s Chief Scientist Dr Robin Batterham.
Dr Batterham was addressing a forum entitled “Funding for Research and Commercialisation of Intellectual Property (IP) in Universities” at The University of Queensland on Tuesday, April 27.
The forum concluded the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of prestigious international higher education consortium, Universitas 21 (U21). U21 is a network of leading, research-intensive universities. Established in 1997, its member universities enrol about 500,000 students, employ around 40,000 academics and researchers and have more than two million alumni.
Thirty-five delegates representing 17 universities from nine countries gathered at The University of Queensland for the AGM from April 26–27. The host of the AGM was UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor John Hay, AC, also the chair of U21.
Professor Hay said the meeting had brought together university leaders from around the world who shared a commitment to international collaboration in teaching, research and commercialisation.
“The AGM and forum were opportunities for the U21 leadership to advance the organisation’s goal of developing collaboration and co-operation between member universities, and to create global entrepreneurial opportunities,” Professor Hay said.
Dr Batterham said cross-institutional research and commercialisation collaborations had to be far more meaningful than just sharing the same pool of funds.
Cotutelle, or double-badged, PhDs were a good starting-point, he said. Students spent time at both institutions to gain their doctorates and from such collaborations, greater research advances could flow,
“We need far more leading researchers visiting our institutions for conferences and lectures. This is a very important and widely accepted indicator of excellence,” he said.
However, highlights of the Australian university research sector included a recent doubling of funding from both the Australian Research Council (ARC) and National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC); the creation of Major, National Research Facilities; and close engagement with the Cooperative Research Centres (CRCs).
Dr Batterham said the old three-step view of research commercialisation was outdated “This involves doing some R & D, taking out some IP usually in the form of a low-cost provisional patent then finding someone to take the research over and give you some money to do more R & D,” he said.
Such a simple model had not kept pace with the dramatic changes in the nature of university research from curiosity-driven, block-funded work with one partner or sponsor to a user-driven situation with multiple partners and investors and a focus on generating income.
“In my view, a healthy model of collaboration is where research laboratories are jointly funded and staffed by an outside company or companies,” he said.
Dr Batterham said another key factor was “getting the right people at the right stage of the research commercialisation process because the same people can’t be star performers at every step.”
He said while a linear debate about research commercialisation based on cost and output was important, a more critical driver of innovation was the level of knowledge diffusion in to society.
U21 members include The University of British Columbia; The University of Edinburgh; The University of Virginia; The National University of Singapore; and from Australia, the universities of Queensland, Melbourne and New South Wales.
Media: For more information, contact UQ Communications staff Shirley Glaister (telephone 07 3365 3374 or email: s.glaister@uq.edu.au .
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