The need for technology transfer offices in academia

Erin Tillery, who is studying at North Carolina State University’s Wilson College of Textiles, presented “Moving Innovations to the Masses,” focusing on the flaws typical of technology transfer (TT) in the U.S. textiles industry. Her research has shown that, unfortunately, many institutions don’t have the resources to provide connections with patent offices or Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), or to establish a TTO on their own campus.

She identified three main reasons why this is so. First, although universities have unique positioning and perspective, textile literature doesn’t talk about technology transfer. Furthermore, technology transfer literature doesn’t talk about textiles. “Textiles now are not the same as textiles then,” she says, so traditionally, textiles have been seen as a “low R&D intensive” field and have simply been left out of the research. 

Tillery sought to understand the textile innovation environment from the perspective of all actors, which includes academia, where much of the R&D begins; industry, which licenses or buys an invention; government, which provides funding for specific projects; the public—usually the ones using the product; and non-profit organizations that are rarely included in the literature, she says, but many collaborate with academia. Non-profits also develop safety standards and regulations for the textiles industry. 

Comments regarding barriers to textile innovation, gathered from interviews, were revealing. Because innovations must be novel and not disclosed to the public in order to get a patent, a former student said, “As a Ph.D. student, the primary goal was publishing. … We never got a patent on it, because we wanted to publish the work.” 

“I don’t really have a good understanding [of it],” said another. In fact, graduate students generally haven’t been included in the literature regarding technology transfer, Tillery says, but they’re the ones who do much of the work.

A faculty member shared that “They (non-profits) want it (patented technology) given away at no charge, because that’s part of their mission. [If you’re a TTO] that’s just $10,000 to $12,000  you’re never going to get back.”