I was on the seminar about technology transfer in my town and sadly I couldn’t say after it, I’m convinced in which part of the time period are we now. Are we at the zero-point, or have we made a step further?

So, we have three parts of the puzzle: University, Business Sector and Government. University is not open, doesn’t do any R&D (or maybe more polite: doesn’t do much R&D), Business Sector is having it’s own problems and if some companies are really successful – they don’t want to mess around with Faculties which cannot teach them anything new. It can be only other way around: companies can offer trainings to faculties about future trends and trendy technologies.
Government is trying, but not trying enough, but with European money some new things are now closer.

So, Technology Transfer? Yes, but with who?
First, University must offer better access to their knowledge (technology networks on their web-site could be a good start). Then, they could make a series of workshops with companies and try to make deals which make benefit for both parts. Other steps must include sharing Success Stories and strong government investment in infrastructure, such as science parks…

At the end, this must be started, now is the time for it, but again I’m not convienced (yet).