The final session is this week.
This spring the office launched a new educational program called the “Innovator Series.” in order to help educate our faculty about how they can better position their research for commercial success. “Historically, scientists pursue knowledge for the sake of knowledge.” says Philip Semprevio, OTT licensing associate. “We are aiming to get researchers to think ahead about not just knowledge and science itself, but its relevance and commercial application.”
With focus shifting towards inventions and innovation as well as their translation into commercial products, it’s important for faculty to understand how to take advantage of the increasingly available funds for translational and applied research. “The current funding environment is tough, and if you want to commercialize technology you need to consider research topics that will be relevant to industry professionals and unmet needs in the industry” says Panya Taysavang, OTT licensing associate. “It is more than possible to conduct research that is both commercially relevant and beneficial from a basic research standpoint.”
The series consists of four sessions with three of those comprised of panel discussions over the course of three months.
-
Identify industry needs that align with your interests
-
Merrick Furst, PhD, Founder, Flashpoint @ GA Tech
-
-
Design research aims around commercially-relevant milestones
-
Martin Moore, PhD, Asst Professor, SOM: Pediatrics: Infectious Disease
-
Michael Natchus, PhD, MBA, Emory Institute for Drug Discovery
-
Brad Hubbard, DVM, T3 Labs
-
-
Position your research for translational funding
-
Lee Herron, DVM, Georgia Research Alliance
-
H. Trent Spencer, PhD, Expression Therapeutics
-
Kevin Lei, Director Faculty & Startup Services, OTT
-
-
Commercialize discoveries with the Office of Technology Transfer
-
Todd Sherer, PhD, Executive Director, OTT
-
Rachael Hagan Tanner, Sr. Program Director, Coulter Translational Research Fund
-
Randi Isaacs, JD, Patent Counsel, OTT
-
Cale Lennon, PhD, MBA, Director Licensing, OTT
-
According to Todd Sherer, Executive Director, OTT, the office hopes to see an uptick in the number of invention disclosures from faculty who have set out to explore a commercially relevant problem. Sherer explained “there is a growing population of researchers who are actively engaged in pursuing commercially relevant research and our office hopes to encourage more faculty to do so and will support their efforts.”
In-spite of being an inaugural program, the discussions proved to be quite lively. Once completed, OTT will review the series and make any necessary improvements to the program in order to continue these events in the future and deliver valuable educational material in this area.
Additional information and video of the program can be found on the OTT website here.