KT Managers (you) occupy a strange position in their universities. You can often be very close - almost colleagues - to the academics who you serve and who provide your ‘dealflow’ (in the form of useful technologies to take to market).
Yet you act ultimately on behalf of the universities that employ you who will often sign off on potentially large deals based on your advice and ‘due diligence’.
Moreover, you are also on the front line with third parties (businesses and venture investors) who invest in technologies (ones that you have nurtured) with the ultimate aim of making a commercial return on that investment.
95%+ of the time interests are fully aligned (post deal anyway) and there are no issues. However, very occasionally, the KT manager (you!) becomes aware of information that could conceivably result in loss of reputation or litigation. Often this happens after a deal has been signed and in ways not anticipated by the contract.
You will need to decide whether to intervene and how!
Almost always you will be tempted to do nothing on the basis that either:
In this Masterclass, Jeff Skinner describes some of the bigger ‘moral dilemmas’ that he’s encountered or observed in his 40 years in Knowledge Transfer. He puts you in his position and asks what you would do or the advice you would give to his younger self at the time.
Of course, the easiest answer in almost every case is to ‘escalate’ to a higher authority or roll in the lawyers. We will avoid such easy answers by delving more deeply into the consequences of doing nothing.
It was great to experience the uncomplicated and fruitful exchange with colleagues from all over Europe, as well as the positive professional spirit of this conference.
Franck Döbrich
Universitat des Saarlandes WuT GmbH, Germany
Was great to meet counterparts in my profession who may share my experiences, but who may also have other ideas and approaches.
Tim Moser
Netherlands Cancer Institute, Netherlands
The course Software Specific Challenges is a must for every TTO/KTO professional, especially for those working with Social Sciences and Humanities!
Brechtje Vreenegoor
Radboud University, Netherlands
I strongly recommend the course, even if you are not going to set-up an office but you are part of the team that wants to change or improve how technology transfer is done at your institution.
Ricardo Castro
Centre for research in agricultural Genomics, Spain
The software course has provided invaluable information as our TTO expands to take on software cases.
Tom Withnell
University of Vienna, Austria
Join our newsletter and get the latest news