Commercialization of research and technology

This handbook aims to help decisionmakers determine if commercialization of a particular public technology transfer organization is feasible, how to manage the commercialization scheme if it is, or how to make the institutional and economic adjustments necessary for commercialization if it is not. A premise of the handbook is that the most significant barriers to commercialization are institutional; slow changing cultures, long gestation periods in the R&D and transfer process, lack of crucial organization knowledge, insufficient enforcement of intellectual property rights, and slowly changing relationships between the public and private sectors are all impediments to quick returns from the process. Organizations that are considering commercialization will have to learn how to create value from activities that reduce informational gaps in technology transfer (several case studies show how this can be done), how to negotiate and enforce contracts and intellectual property rights, and how to develop an appropriate accounting system, which is often missing from African public research and technology transfer organizations. Includes bibliography.