Tag: technology transfer

Have you ever wondered how technologies that are developed on university campuses make it out of research labs and into the real world? For the majority of researchers—and particularly for student researchers— the commercialization process can appear to be a slightly daunting task at best and a giant black hole at worst. To help students and faculty utilize their research for commercial purposes, many universities employ a “technology transfer office” (TTO) which acts as a liaison between an academic institution and industry. TTOs are generally experts on patents, research collaborations, licences, and other relevant legal and financial matters. TTO’s and Israel: Together from the start You may have assumed—understandably so—that TTOs only started to spring up in Israel over the last decade, as excitement surrounding the country’s startup scene has skyrocketed. You’d then be surprised to learn that the first Israeli TTO, Yeda, was established at the Weizmann Institute in 1959, just 11 years after the country’s founding. During this period, revolutionary agricultural engineering research that was being conducted at Israeli academic institutions was transferred to kibbutzim and private...