In today’s fast-paced, technology-driven world, effective knowledge transfer (KT; also, referred to as technology transfer, TT) has become increasingly vital. The KT profession is a truly interdisciplinary one operating at the intersection of innovation, legal and corporate sectors with the ambition to transform ground breaking scientific discoveries into tangible solutions that benefit society. The fast-paced development of COVID-19 vaccines that helped us as a society to manage a devastating pandemic is one incredible recent example of KT in action.
We turned to eight KT professionals, all of whom are former LifeArc and LifeArc Knowledge Transfer Innovation (formerly known as LifeArc-AUTM) fellows to offer a glimpse into this multifaceted role. The LifeArc fellowship is hands-on, offering a one-year rotation of practical experience through internships in four reputable technology transfer offices (TTOs: LifeArc, University College London, Imperial College, and Queen Mary University) in the UK. The LifeArc fellowship, is a one-year programme open to European-based applicants, where selected fellows have access to training materials, events, and mentors, whilst maintaining their full-time research or other professional positions. We hope that the personal insights from Thomas Marek Wallach (Technology Manager, Charité BIH Innovation, Berlin, Germany), Pedro Pedrosa (Head of Innovation, ITQB – NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal), Laura Stennett (Senior Business Manager, LifeArc, UK), Philippe Potey (Technology Transfer Executive, Edinburgh Innovations, UK), Eleftheria Ledaki (Associate Director of Business Alliances, BioNTech, UK), Filipa Tomé (Country Manager Portugal and Senior Innovation Consultant at PNO Innovation, Portugal), Isabel Ramos (Open Innovation Consultant, Novo Nordisk, UK), and Anand Patel (Associate Business Manager, UCLB, UK) will shed light on the evolving nature of KT and the essential role KT professionals play in driving innovation forward. They each bring their own unique viewpoint on KT that reflects the diverse challenges and rewards inherent to the profession. They candidly shared their experiences with us highlighting the complexities of working in KT, thus offering valuable insights for anyone involved in or interested in this dynamic field.
Entering the KT field is often by chance rather than a lifelong aspiration. While pursuing a medical or a nursing career is typically fuelled by passion and a clear, deliberate choice, becoming a KT professional is rarely a planned career move, but rather an unexpected opportunity. Its beginnings are often rooted in pursuing advanced degrees and research specialisations within the sciences, and facing a career fork where one begins to question whether science at the bench aligns with one’s long-term goals. At this stage, a moment of inspiration - often a compelling talk on how a basic science discovery was translated to achieve real world impact, not only brings the potential of KT into light, but also provides a new perspective on how to leverage one's expertise outside traditional academic settings.
“I started with a very traditional academic background (…) which gave me a great perspective on science, but after my post-doc I realised that I did not want to continue with academic life. I felt that the translation of what we were doing in the lab to society and people’s lives was not as immediate as I would like. Even though we were doing very interesting and useful research, I was looking for something with a more immediate impact and effect. Now I am working directly with scientists, universities, and companies, supporting them in developing their innovation strategies and in getting funding to make those amazing innovations a reality. ”
Filipa Tomé
This often-serendipitous discovery of the KT profession prompted us to consider whether numerous innovative research ideas might be slipping under the radar in various research and development institutions simply because researchers are unaware of what KT has to offer. The underpinning of academic institutions is knowledge dissemination with research culture often being a publish or perish one. The process of commercialising an innovative idea to bring a product to meet an unmet need, often involves protecting the intellectual property (IP) prior to public disclosure. This commercialisation route might seem at odds with the academic ethos. However, protecting the IP as well as dissemination of knowledge can be done in parallel if awareness of KT and how to navigate it is introduced early, and is ingrained in the institution’s culture. For instance, introducing the field of KT with examples of its real-world benefits as part of undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum, when passion for discovery science is at its strongest. Additionally, universities could establish KT mentorship programmes where experienced KT professionals guide students and researchers, helping them to recognise and seize opportunities to commercialise their innovations.
“As part of my PhD, we had an Integrated Masters in Healthcare Innovation where they told us that it's not only what's happening in the lab (…) we need to think about a lot of other things (…) about being able to patent what you're doing (…) about clinical trials (….) about market opportunity, (…) what problem does it solve? What are the existing problems? Or the existing ways to deal with this problem and how yours is better? Is it too expensive? Is it not? These questions were really interesting for me and I'm like: WOW!!!! it's almost like science is a small part of all of this”
Philippe Potey
It can be argued that the significance of an academic background, particularly in Life and Physical Sciences, for excelling as a KT professional cannot be underestimated. The core of KT lies in the ability to understand and communicate complex concepts to varied stakeholders, spanning academic, corporate, legal, regulatory and marketing fields; to effectively build bridges between these stakeholders; to devise a strategy where everyone wins leading to a societal impact. An academic background challenges one to grasp concepts quickly, to continuously evolve, to realise the big picture, and to be strategic and flexible in achieving it. Such a mindset can be leveraged further in succeeding in KT.
“The mindset that we develop as technology transfer professionals can take us to different roles that are within the TT space and there shouldn't be any fear on what our exact fit is within the TT space. The mindset is evolving in so many areas that you may decide that after five years of doing out/in-licensing, you want to become a patent attorney, work in research grants, the communications team or managing partnering events. All of these activities support the KT space, and they have the same principles of building and bringing the community together to create or inform of a new patient treatment or diagnosis... The evolution that I have seen is that we can navigate and go to whichever profession we like, as we like it, depending on how we want to develop our skills and where we see ourselves in terms of our personal skillset and profession.”
Eleftheria Ledaki
In fact, the excitement behind KT lies in its non-traditional, varied career paths. Unlike more conventional career trajectories, KT offers a spectrum of roles and specialisations across academia, industry, philanthropic, governmental, and private organisations. The professional titles may vary widely, but at the essence of it is KT in its varied forms, so paying attention to the job description is more insightful than the title to understand what fits you. It is also important to realise that the drivers for innovation also vary depending on the setting. After his LifeArc fellowship, Philippe deliberately chose to seek a position at the National Institute of Health and Care Research that is funded by the UK’s Department of Health to ensure that innovative research funded by the UK government is commercialised in a manner that benefits its taxpayer, i.e., the UK public. For Philippe, understanding the motivations behind governmental decisions will be invaluable in managing his portfolio of projects in his current role at a university TTO, where most innovation journeys begin. Eleftheria started her journey at Brunel University’s TTO, transitioned to a Commercialisation Manager at Queen Mary’s Innovation, leveraged her university KT experience to support and then lead business development in early-stage UK Biotech companies, then to her current role as Associate Director of Business Alliances at BioNTech. Similarly, Isabel transitioned from an academic research role to an IP Associate at Imperial Enterprise, before transitioning to Business Manager at The Francis Crick Institute; she then leveraged her KT experience in university settings to move to industry with Siemens Healthineers and now with Novo Nordisk. Pedro at heart is a social entrepreneur, who started his journey in KT as a CEO of an NGO during his PhD, went onto a startup before undertaking a KT professional role at ITQ – NOVA. When the opportunity arose to become the head of KT managing innovation portfolios of two Lisbon academic institutions, there was no hesitation in Pedro to rise to the challenge with the LifeArc-KTI fellowship and the network he built through it under his belt. Thomas Marek, in addition to his work at Charité BIH Innovation, manages IP-requests arising from a transregional research consortium. These examples of alumni fellows’ career trajectories illustrate not only their successes post fellowship, but also, importantly, the fluidity within the KT field and ability to chart one’s own course.
During our conversations with alumni fellows, certain character traits started to emerge that resonated with all of us newbies to KT too. From the onset of their careers and through various stages, KT professionals share an inherent curiosity and openness, love of continuous learning, a genuine passion for innovation, and an entrepreneurial spirit. Their collaborative spirit, creative problem-solving skills, and adaptability are pivotal in bringing together differing perspectives from various stakeholders to foster innovation. A common set of skills and competencies: the ability to manage often a large portfolio of projects, to navigate diverse domains within KT, to pivot as needed, to move seamlessly between different roles and sectors, underscores the dynamic and rewarding nature of KT career path. Possessing adaptability and a love of continuous learning enables KT professionals to anticipate change, be unafraid to seize new opportunities, and professionally develop.
“There are things that were unexpected to me and maybe I mentioned that one thing is how complex and diverse the processes within tech transfer are and how specific the different tasks can be (…) it's sometimes very challenging, but I'm happy to do the job to bring really the basic and clinical research to the patients. What I also see now is it's always about learning and also questioning how I can improve. (…) I now see how long processes are taking, not only in terms of IP related timelines, but also how long and complex, for example negotiations can be and this is something that you cannot standardise, you always have to try to adapt to the situation to get the best possible outcome in order to find the best possible solution.”
Thomas Marek Wallach
While the multifaceted nature of KT role is exciting, there are challenges to thriving in one. Often, there is misalignment between the salary compensation and skills and responsibilities required to work in KT. A systematic review of salary to reflect the multifaceted role of a KT professional would help to attract and retain the best individuals. The inherent interdisciplinary nature of KT also expects KT professionals to ‘wear many hats’. They need to navigate the often-conflicting interests of researchers, industry partners, funding agencies, and investors. Managing these relationships requires not only technical acumen, but also a deep understanding of the different priorities, goals and drivers of each party. Here, building and nurturing strong relationships with both internal and external stakeholders can facilitate smoother negotiations, better alignment of goals, and more successful outcomes. Staying informed about industry trends, emerging technologies, and what are the current needs that are unmet also allows KT professionals to successfully evaluate new opportunities and stay competitive.
"There are a lot of people that can get you to a better deal or a better position (...) you never know, so learn how to communicate properly, (...) if you don’t know a person go research that person and their interests so that when you meet the person (...) try to understand how this person thinks (...) you do not know how much you can learn from this person (...) go with a bit of naivety and be curious about other people as you have a lot to learn from them"
Isabel Ramos
Our alumni fellows also highlighted how varied the working dynamics are based on your KT setting, for example, smaller versus larger TTOs offer distinct advantages as well as drawbacks. Smaller offices offer intensive hands-on experience, and challenge you to take on more responsibility earlier; larger offices provide broad exposure to varied projects and a milieu to develop best practices guided by seasoned experience, but may limit the depth of involvement one can have in any single project or limit to a single area in the commercialisation life cycle.
“There are various ways of working within best practice and every TTO has their own preferred approach which I found really interesting, and helped me to develop my own style and approach to KT. I feel I got a lot out of working in the slightly smaller offices where I was able to take on more responsibility, which alongside the breath of science and commercialisation activity I engaged with at the larger TTOs, provided an eye-opening insight into the KT profession”
Laura Stennett
In this context, fellowship programmes such as the LifeArc and LifeArc-KTI provide an invaluable transformative experience through its strong commitment to enable new entrants to develop the necessary skills in KT. Both programmes emphasise not only gaining competencies as a KT professional, but more importantly, offer fellows a platform to build connections, broaden their professional networks, and open doors to various career paths. This significantly contributes to the fellows' successes and the advancements within KT as communication and networking are cornerstones of successfully facilitating KT. Our former fellows all felt the impact the fellowship had on enabling their career trajectory in KT, whether it is to learn hard skills of due diligence, marketing or negotiations; to give a confidence boost, to being challenged to open yourself up at a global forum, and/or to build a network where you can learn from each other to develop best practices.
“The Fellowship offers more than just networking. It’s about learning how to engage with new and diverse people and building new connections. It’s crucial to create a wide-reaching network that you can tap into and utilise for your work. This role is all about making connections and facilitating communication, so the broader and stronger your network, the more successful you’ll be at bringing people together. If there’s one skill I would recommend improving, it would be socialising and networking-the rest will follow naturally. Learning to be humble, communicate with different types of people, and extract the most from each interaction is key”
Pedro Pedrosa
Our musings on how diverse the way in which KT is carried out in everyday practise, only highlighted to us how important it is to foster a collaborative and innovative culture within the organisation to drive KT successfully. There is potential to foster collaborative networks between large established and small TTOs to facilitate knowledge sharing, finding creative solutions and arriving at better outcomes, thereby building an ecosystem where everyone benefits. This vision reflects a broader aspiration within the KT community to bridge gaps and create synergies across the field in which KT thrives, and innovation excels. This creates a virtuous cycle where revenue generated feeds back into the organisations for future generations to prosper at innovation.
Many innovative projects, especially in life sciences and deep tech, require substantial long-term investments to succeed; today’s economic climate brings its own challenges in an investment landscape that is already competitive. Having open discussions between different stakeholders within KT is an important step that is currently being undertaken by initiatives such as US-BOLT and TenU; these bring KT professionals, entrepreneurs, and investors together to find common ground in speeding up the process of commercialisation of IP so that the innovation has a greater chance of benefiting society rather than ‘entering the innovation valley of death’.
The future of KT is both exciting and challenging. The future challenges we face as a society are even more challenging: protecting our planet through investing in sustainable energy, creating jobs in an economic downturn, a significant health burden to name a few. Promoting innovative thinking through KT gives us hope to address many of these societal challenges. Bringing new technologies to market is fraught with inherent uncertainty, and risks. Many promising innovations face significant hurdles during the commercialisation process, including technical challenges, regulatory hurdles, and market competition (and enter the so-called innovation valley of death) or simply because it is offering a solution without identifying a true need. The KT field needs to and can rise to these challenges. As the landscape of science and technology continues to evolve, so will the field of KT. With the rapid pace of technological advancements, KT professionals must stay ahead of the curve, continuously updating their knowledge and skills. The ability to leverage data for decision-making, predict market trends, and optimise commercialisation strategies will become increasingly critical; particularly, in data processing, data analytics (most relevant in pre-clinical and clinical settings), and the role artificial intelligence (AI) will play and how it will be managed will become increasingly crucial.
“Technology transfer is a dynamic ecosystem where the commercial landscape is changing all the time. For example, changes in the regulatory landscape in AI and the search for a new economic model on commercialising gene therapies for ultra-rare diseases. In this regard, liaising with your trusted patent attorneys and your legal team is crucial for navigating these ever-changing landscapes. With AI especially, since there's an emphasis on companies accessing data or synthetic data to train an AI model, it is essential to check GDPR is abided by and that the necessary consents have been provided by the patients before any licensing agreement is put in place. However, in many cases, it was not conceived for the data to be used in the original study. Consequently, we would have to get re-consent from the patients for their data to be used commercially. This is quite a big challenge, especially if the data was collected many decades ago…”.
Anand (Arnie) Patel
The growing appreciation of the KT field in truly driving societal change is echoed by the increasing recognition of the importance of KT in universities, search for adequate funding to support KT activities at governmental levels, and a surge in job opportunities within the KT sector. As the field continues to grow, the diversity of career paths within KT expands, offering opportunities in various sectors such as universities, research institutions, startups, biotechs, investment funds, and large corporations. This diversity not only enriches the profession, but also ensures that a wide range of expertise and perspectives are brought into the process of translating knowledge into impact. We should strive to strategically improve and broaden these opportunities to engage a wider audience. Embracing this dynamic and collaborative spirit will be essential as we move forward, ensuring that the power of innovation is fully harnessed to address the complex challenges of our time and drive meaningful societal progress.
The future of KT lies in our ability as both early career and established KT professionals to adapt, innovate, and foster a culture of continuous learning and collaboration, ultimately transforming groundbreaking research into real-world impact. We have a duty to drive this dynamic field forward, unlocking new frontiers of innovation and creating transformative solutions that propel society into a promising and impactful future. We can start small: ensuring that valuable research does not go unnoticed by bringing awareness to KT within our own organisations, thereby giving the best chance for innovative research to reach its full potential and make a societal impact.
Sara Baptista, Innovation Manager, ITQB – NOVA University of Lisbon, Oeiras, Portugal.
Lasani Wijetunge, Assistant Licensing and Ventures Manager, Oxford University Innovation, Oxford, UK.
Charlotte Severn, Research Commercialisation Manager, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK.
Nadine Conchinha, Technology Transfer Officer, Instituto de Medicino Molecular, Lisbon, Portugal.
Inês Sobral Escoval, PhD student at Faculty of Economics of the University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.