Knowledge transfer for technology transfer

It isn't that long ago that the public bar of a small country pub would hold all of the people working in technology transfer in British universities. Indeed, at times it probably did. But there are now something like 1200 "technology-transfer professionals in the United Kingdom working in academia, with many others working in industry or consultancies".

 

The source of this information, the careers site of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, goes on to say that "The figure is rising at an estimated 20% per year."

 

This detail comes from "UK Technology Transfer Training", an article by Robert Phillips, an Enterprise Fellow at Manchester Science Enterprise Centre. The article lists some of the course that people can take to get up to speed on the the transfer business.

 

Phillips makes the point that "since postdoctoral positions in the United Kingdom have been deemed 'training' positions by law, universities and research institutes are now required to provide training for postdocs, as for other fixed-term contract staff. Consequently, there has been an increase in the availability of technology-transfer courses within universities, as there has been with other science-related training."

 

Won't be long before they have to book the Albert Hall for their knees up.