2005 Fall Seminar Athens

[edit] OPENING & WELCOME

Jeff Skinner, President ASTP, Welcome
Dimitrios A. Kyriakidis, Director National Hellenic Research Foundation, Welcome
Alex Brabers, Executive Vice President ICT, GIMV Belgium, The role of venture capital in university spin-offs

[edit] MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
When to patent inventions and when not to – the art of triage

[edit] TECH TRANSFER - POLICY ISSUES:
Structuring inventor rewards

[edit] NEW-AGE SPIN-OUTS:
Bootstrapping new ventures

Penny Attridge, Director of Intellectual Property Development, Quester, United Kingdom
Tech Transfer managers receive far more invention disclosures than they can sensibly manage – in any case, most inventions have limited commercial potential. However, saying ‘no’ to an inventor is a difficult and often puts us in conflict with inventors. How should you decide which projects to reject, which to invest patent money in and which to invest lots of time in as well?

Raphael Jung, Head of Contract IPAL GmbH, Germany
Peter Raeymaekers, Business Program Manager, IMEC, Belgium
Inventor & department remuneration & incentives – does it really matter? Equity sharing policies, sliding scale formula, fees for TLOs, sharing of costs, how to get a policy changed, sharing with other institutions, charities…

Kees Eijkel, Commercial Director, University of Twente, the Netherlands
Daan Bijl, CEO SmartTip, the Netherlands
Is it possible to grow a business with minimal (or no) external investment? The attractions are obvious – no dilution or loss of control. All that is needed is an early source of revenue which can be reinvested in the business – which then grows in line with revenue. How realistic is this business model and under what conditions (and for what kinds of business) does it work?

[edit] MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
Managing the academic interface

[edit] TECH TRANSFER - POLICY ISSUES:
Building a reputation for innovation

[edit] NEW-AGE SPIN-OUTS:
Managing technology development funds

Laurent Miéville, Director Office of Technology Transfer Unitec, Switzerland
Anna Maria Nuutila, Corporate Controller, VTT, Finland
Faculty service is one of the main missions of a Tech Transfer Office. What are the best ways to make sure Faculty "buys in" to your activities? Some good recipes used successfully by TT offices will be presented and discussed.

Arvind Salwan, Director Strategic Projects the BIG partnership, United Kingdom
Universities love good publicity, a high profile and a reputation for innovation. We can help them - our technologies can be an excellent source of stories and news. How should we work with the media and PR agencies to generate publicity and maximum exposure – and thus a reputation for innovation.

Ágúst Ingthórsson, Director Industry Liaison Officer, University of Iceland
Adrian Ibrahim, Senior Business Manager Cancer Research Technology Ltd, United Kingdom
Many universities now have access to development, pre-seed or Proof-of-concept funds that can be used to add value to technologies that are ‘too early’ for licensing. Used wisely, these funds can be extremely valuable, but they are easily squandered. In this session we learn from the experience of two such funds.

[edit] MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
The importance of due dilligence

[edit] UNDERSTANDING KEY INDUSTRIES:
Food and Medical Devices

[edit] NEW-AGE SPIN-OUTS:
Business Angels

Mark Anderson, Anderson and Company, United Kingdom
Academics receive funding from multiple sources, enter into all sorts of collaborations (both formal and informal) and work with many other researchers (and students) in the course of their research. Given this complexity, how can you be sure that IP is yours to license? In this session we learn at how to carry out IP due diligence and find out what happens if you ignore this vital step.

Andrew Morgan, Vice President Danisco, United Kingdom
Terry Fetterhoff, Director Technology Management, Chief Technology Office, Roche Diagnostics Corporation, USA
It is important to understand an industry before you can sell into it. In this session we hear from two very different industries – food and defence – and learn how they innovate and where the opportunities are for universities to collaborate and license their technologies.

Tim Cook, Managing Director Isis Innovation Ltd, United Kingdom
George Krikelas, Managing Director Mentoring SA, Greece
Business Angels are often held out to be the ideal early-stage investor – they can fill the funding cap and management gap simultaneously. But how do you find them and what sort of businesses opportunities do they like? Are there any dangers that you need to be aware of and how do you structure deals with them? In this session we hear from an experienced business angel and a university TT manager who has worked with many angel investors

[edit] OPENING SESSION

John Bates, Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at London Business School, United Kingdom,Sniff-Testing a Venture.

[edit] MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
What are we doing here ?

[edit] EXCHANGING EXPERIENCES:
License deals you shouldn’t do

[edit] NEW-AGE SPIN-OUTS:
Corporate venture funds

Koenraad Debackere, General Manager KU Leuven and Managing Director R&D, KU Leuven, Belgium
What do our universities want from us and how do they measure our success? Most universities are unsure and fail to give clear direction – often leaving it to the Director of the Tech Transfer Office to judge. In this session, two experienced Directors describe the expectations for their tech transfer operations and say how this translates into the priorities they set internally.

Jeff Skinner, Commercial Director UCL Business, United Kingdom
Mark Anderson, Anderson and Company, United Kingdom
Not every deal is a good deal. They may generate a warm glow at the time, but if you promise too much and the deal will unravel and return to haunt you. Often we think we’re doing a good deal but end up getting attacked from all sides (academic, licensee, vice chancellor) when we find we’ve promised the impossible.

Paul Morris, Director Venture Capital, Dow Europe GmbH, Switzerland
Anders Brännström, President and CEO of Volvo Technology Transfer AB, Sweden
Many major companies now run their own venture funds as a way of investing in novel technologies without bringing them in-house. Could we tap into the funds for our own spin-outs – forming joint ventures with the corporates? In this session we hear from two such funds – understanding where they invest and whether they are a viable alternative to venture capital.

[edit] MANAGING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY:
Problem Cases

[edit] EXCHANGING EXPERIENCES:
Licensing Case Study

In this final session we discuss your problem cases. We ask participants to write a one page brief on the case before the conference – then discuss it in groups over lunch. During this session we will discuss each case suggesting strategies for solving the problem and move forward – there always is a solution. The session is facilitated by a number of experienced technology transfer managers – with input from the entire group.

Randolph Noelle, Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, USA
We would all like to believe that once a license deal is signed than there is nothing more we need do except wait for the royalty cheques to arrive. This case – which was featured in the Financial Times earlier this year - illustrates how much can go wrong on the way to market.

FINAL SESSION : This house believes that Technology Transfer should be driven entirely by profit

Tim Cook, Managing Director Isis Innovation Ltd, United Kingdom
Koenraad Debackere, General Manager KU Leuven and Managing Director R&D, KU Leuven, Belgium
In this final session we debate whether university technology transfer offices should be run primarily for profit – or whether to impose so single-minded an objective seriously distorts our mission. We approach this important topic in a light-hearted way - hearing passionate arguments for and against the motion, opening the debate to the house, and then, after concluding comments, putting the motion to a vote.