“Research transforms money into knowledge … Innovation transforms knowledge into money.”

Geoffrey Nicholson, father of the Post-It

Great citation, but the game is not that easy. New technologies, to reach the market, need to overcome several barriers.

By nature, new technologies present high levels of ***information asymmetries*** thus considerable uncertainty in the outcome.

Why uncertainty and not risk?

These barriers can be categorized into three typologies of uncertainties:

The chances to commercialize something successfully, therefore, lie at the intersection of these different categories of uncertainties.

Source: IDEO

Source: IDEO

Each of these uncertainties

  1. can be further decomposed into several sub-categories

  2. has an impact on the overall probability of your technology getting commercialized

Uncertainties and Venture success

The effect of these uncertainties impacts directly the willingness of private actors to invest in commercializing new technologies. The more uncertainties, the lower the propensity of the private sector to invest.

These facts, unfortunately, imply that high-quality research results are not enough for successful technology transfer.

It is estimated that ≥ 70% of technologies developed in research institutions never reach the market.

Why so many technologies are not able to reach the market?

The good news is that some of these uncertainties can be lowered through the complex processes of technology transfer, part of the vast discipline of Innovation management***.***

Following EU commission definition, Technology Transfer (or Tech Transfer) refers to

“the process of conveying results stemming from scientific and technological research to the marketplace and to wider society, along with associated skills and procedures.”

This process involves many disciplines and actors and comprehends all the useful activities that are capable to create favorable conditions for new technologies to emerge.

These actions include also the management of non-scientific and non-technological factors (such as people relationships and incentives!), as also a broad network of stakeholders.