About the project: 

Title: Develop a Training Programme and a Reference Handbook for the Technology Transfer Offices in India to enhance commercialization of innovation and increase academia-industry collaboration on research, development, and deployment

Context: The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) promotes inclusive and sustainable industrial development (ISID) to assist industries of developing countries and economies in transition. In India, UNIDO has extensively cooperated with different government agencies to develop policies and institutional frameworks to support entrepreneurship development and has strong partnerships with various industrial and enterprise associations. Since 2011, UNIDO with the support of the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) has been successfully implementing cleantech innovation projects in many partner countries, including India.

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), under the Ministry of Power, drives policy development and implements strategies and programmes to achieve efficient end-use of energy across the sectors of India’s economy. The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) created under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 has the primary responsibility of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy. The BEE estimates untapped potential exists in the industrial, commercial, and agricultural sectors.

The Facility for Low Carbon Technology Deployment (FLCTD) (www.low-carbon-innovation.org) is a project that aims to identify innovative energy efficiency and low carbon technology solutions that address the existing technology gaps in Indian industrial and commercial sectors. Towards achieving this objective, the project has two main components:

1. Development of an awards methodology to identify and select competitive technology innovations: The project has developed and evolved a mechanism to identify early-stage innovations that address technology gaps, and have potential for energy savings as well as replication. The project provides financial assistance of up to US$50,000 to the winners to validate their innovation and demonstrate its efficacy (performance) in actual field conditions – a necessary step before commercialization.

2. Technical assistance for Technology Transfer: The FLCTD Project aims to establish a deployment support ecosystem for clean, low carbon and energy efficient technologies. Under this activity, FLCTD endeavours to enhance the functioning of Technology Transfer offices (TTOs) and centres through a two-step process: 

1. Identification of key areas that can be targeted through a capacity-building program via a consultative study to identify and address the factors that inhibit technology transfer from laboratories and higher education institutes to industries. 
2. Capacity-building program on Technology transfer offices and practitioners by developing a high-quality foundational program by engaging national and international experts.

Based on the recommendations of the above-mentioned consultative study, UNIDO and BEE formulated a project to achieve objective 2b mentioned above and called for execution partners via a global tender titled “Develop Training Programme and a Reference Handbook for the Technology Transfer Offices in India to enhance commercialization of innovation and increase academia-industry collaboration on research, development, and deployment” (Request for Proposal no. 7000007054 of UNIDO).   Venture Center was awarded the contract in Sep 2024 to develop the capacity building program contents and reference handbook for technology transfer professionals in India. 

Approach and Methodology

Technology transfer is a field that is characterized by the following peculiarities:

• It requires technology transfer professionals to understand science/ engineering/ technology, an understanding of management concepts such as marketing/ sales/ portfolio management/ deal structuring/ valuations and an understanding of law especially contract law and intellectual property law. This kind of multidisciplinary training is uncommon. 
• Every technology transfer case is unique and so a formulaic approach is often not very helpful. Experiential learning and good judgment are very important.
• A very important aspect of the technology transfer profession is to network extensively, build trusted and respected relationships with industry so as to identify and forge partnerships with greater ease.
• Most academic and R&D organizations often find the technology transfer office difficult to “position” in their conventional organizational structures since it is neither a scientific department nor an administrative department but actually a strategic function important for the leadership to demonstrate impact of the R&D being carried out in their organizations.

In India, the technology transfer activities further suffer from the following:

• Shortage of suitably trained professionals. Most people operating technology transfer offices come from either one of the following educational/work backgrounds – a) research, b) industrial management, c) intellectual property practice and d) grant/project management. They often need training in the multidimensional facets of technology transfer.
• The policies and guidance governing technology transfer processes are nascent.
• Deal flow experience is limited. Experiences of various deal structures practiced in academic tech transfer settings are limited.
• Most people staffing tech transfer offices have never previously received shadowing opportunities in an experienced tech transfer office.
• Senior mentors to guide young professionals are often not available or accessible.
• Most Indian institutions have severe resource constraints limiting the resources available to tech transfer offices.

Thus, the key deliverables planned are:

1. The TTO Handbook
2. Training program content
3. Online foundational course
4. In-person certificate course
5. Online community of TTO professionals participating in the courses