The goals of research commercialization

The increasing focus from policymakers on commercialization of academic research is supported by the vitality of its contribution to economic development and social advance of nation states. It is argued that increasing academic involvement in commercialization processes at universities would benefit society through providing knowledge based products/services and jobs, and also benefit the university itself, as these activities are supposed to provide additional source of income. However, the real picture up to now has revealed that economic benefit for the universities has been a seldom case taking into consideration the costs of running supportive institutions. Thus, the main outcome of commercialization activities remains the academic contribution to social and economic development. The respondents‟ experiences and attitudes towards the goal formulation are pretty much consistent with this assumption.

For professor d, to create meaningful workplaces of tomorrow is the main goal of commercial activities. Income comes on the second place. He claims that they have not earned substantial amounts of money though they have gained some. Professor d believes that it is just a matter of time:

We have worked with commercial projects now for 4-5 years and it’s too early to speak about large amounts of money yet. There is a potential for us in 5 to 10 years.

Professor b also believes that commercialization process is a long way to success. According to him, it is unrealistic to expect that Birkeland Innovation would earn something on

commercial activities during first 10-15 years just because it takes that long to develop projects. Rather, it would more probably cost money which will be the first step; another step would be to get enough revenues to become a self-sufficient institution and not cost anything the government and the university. In professor‟s opinion, big hits are not that usual and one should not expect that it would happen. And it is not the most important thing. Here is what professor b believes is more realistic to expect:

If the TTO covers its costs of patenting and operating and does not cost a university a thing, then the overall benefit is very positive. Because then the TTO can help the university to make its research relevant to society, generate spin-out companies which provide jobs for people, other people invest in projects and benefit from it economically, developing companies can pick up things from university research which helps them to develop their industrial activity. If that happens, I think the TTO has done its mission for the whole society.

Professor a also mentions that she has not earned anything from patenting activities.

Nevertheless, she is sure that it is worth to commercialize simply for the reason that work that you do will amount to something and will mean something to people.

No success stories in his commercial practice have been the case yet for professor c either.

However, he tells us for sure that he and his research group have been able to get money to cover their patent expenses, and earn a little bit extra. As to the main goal of

commercialization, he talks on two aspects: the first thing is to bring new techniques to market to help people; and, second, to be visible by making the research known. The latter seems an important motivation for the professor.

6.2 Summary

The aim of the interview analysis was to explore the commercialization environment at UO through researchers‟ commercialization experiences. The focus of the exploration was government policy shifts and its consequences for commercialization activities at the university. The analysis was unfolded around the following topics: government policies, commercialization infrastructure, academic motivation, challenges to commercialize, and main goals of commercialization activities. In terms of government policies, three of the respondents are positive. They maintain that university support in commercialization

activities, which was a direct result of new government regulations, is considerable and hope that it could possibly increase over the time. On the other hand, one informant seems to keep quite neutral position with respect to the impacts of government policy shift. When it comes to commercialization infrastructure, the informants‟ experiences are somewhat different.

Two of them are optimistic. Although they are aware of the fact that it takes time to build sufficient commercialization infrastructure, they argue that Birkeland Innovation has done a good job. They also acknowledge the fact that the TTO has yet much to learn through the development process. One of the informants thinks that Birkeland Innovation should change its strategy and become more aggressive when it comes to establishment of spin-offs. In terms of academic motivation to commercialize, the informants‟ views are pretty much the same. They agree that there is an increasing interest in commercialization processes among younger generation, whilst it seems difficult to motivate older generation not familiar with commercialization processes. As the main challenges the respondents mention a lack of time to commercialize research, a lack of people involved in these activities and not least, a lack of money to cover the expenses. Combining academic and entrepreneurial careers does not seem to be an option for informants. Rather, it is perceived as natural. This tendency is not surprising taking into consideration the fields informants belong to. However, they all emphasize that combining the two spheres is time-consuming. In terms of the main goals of commercialization, respondents agree that it is, first of all, contribution to social advance by providing new products and services; and second, generating additional revenues. One respondent also emphasizes the ambition of an academic to make his/her research known internationally.