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.
The software course has provided invaluable information as our TTO expands to take on software cases.
Tom Withnell
University of Vienna, Austria
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
This course gives an in-depth understanding on managing contract portfolio, including research contracts, license agreements, and other collaboration agreements.
Ram Siddappa
Erasmus MC, Netherlands
This course offers an opportunity to meet likeminded people, share tips and tricks, and dive into different approaches to help you set up and improve KTO processes.
Brechtje Vreenegoor
Radboud University, Netherlands
Excellent organisation, multifarious activities, great atmosphere… I can't say enough about how well it is tailored to the needs of technology transfer professions.
Tamara Čolić Milosavljević
Centre of Technology Transfer - University of Belgrade, Serbia
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