Spin-Ins: Another Way to Boost Revenues and Support Local Economic Development (Feb 8, 2012)
Technology Transfer Tactics
Vol. 6, No. 2 February 2012
Spinning technology into a university commercialization operation -- as opposed to the more traditional spin-out model -- is proving to be a great way for some tech transfer offices to help create more companies and boost economic development without using the resources typically invested in organic start-ups. Spin-ins work best, say the schools that embrace them, when they're viewed from an economic development perspective rather than as major revenue opportunities.
"It all gets sort of woven into the economic development argument," notes Charlie Lewis, vice president at AzTE, the technology transfer office at Arizona State University, Tempe. "Through the public- private partnerships we create, we help advance the research cause of the university and we integrate the university into the local economic scene." Not that all spin-ins have to be local, of course; ASU works with several international companies. "But all of the commercialization activity is consistent with the public-private partnership objective we have here at ASU," he says. "It's all in support of the university not being a silo, but a partner and a key player in regional economic development." Continue Reading...
