Category: From the Director

Todd Sherer, PhD is the Associate VP for Research and Executive Director of the Emory University Office of Technology Transfer. In this article, Todd reflects on the Bayh-Dole Act and provides a lesson on march-in authority as outlined in the law. Before the bipartisan Bayh-Dole Act was passed in 1980, no federally funded drugs, vaccines, or products were commercialized and brought to market. This was because the government, not the inventing organizations, took ownership of the patent. At a time when American industrialism was threatened, the Bayh-Dole Act strengthened U.S. competitiveness. In the past, activists have tried to challenge Bayh-Dole Read More …

Todd Sherer, PhD is the Associate VP for Research and Executive Director of the Emory Office of Technology Transfer. In this article, Todd Sherer discusses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the technology transfer industry and on the Emory Office of Technology Transfer specifically. Humankind has longed for better ways of doing things for centuries.  More recently, this phenomenon to make products that solve problems, as well as to create jobs and wealth, has been termed the “innovation economy”.  The demand for technology innovation is global, and there is always the desire to make people healthier and happier. However, Read More …

What priorities is OTT focused on for 2020? These two are at the top of the list a) program review and b) process improvement. Our top priority in 2020 is to systematically review our overall program that is focused on IP, licensing, marketing, startups, and industry partnerships. The timing is right for us to conduct a review to assure that we continue to implement best practices in a rapidly changing world. Over the past 5 years there has been many changes to the Emory innovation ecosystem, the larger ecosystem around us, and growth in the research enterprise. We want to Read More …

This is a guest post from Todd Sherer, the former Executive Director of Technology Transfer and current Interim Vice President for Research Administration. Technology Transfer offices are often asked to provide projections of revenue to senior administration. There are a number of reasons administration may be looking for these numbers, it could be due to declining sponsored research funding or a desire to diversify the revenue streams to the institution. As one could imagine such forecasting is challenging. Below are some of the pros and cons on such activities. What are the key pros and cons of revenue forecasting? Academia Read More …