Invention 101
10 things researchers should do to get research to the market
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
Durham, N.C. -- Technology transfer experts urged Duke students and faculty
members to speed their research to its potential applications by
thinking more like entrepreneurs at a panel discussion on Feb. 17.
Commercialization benefits society by making novel discoveries and
technologies available to the public, the group said.
The panel featured venture capital investor Brook Byers of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). KPCB partners have supported entrepreneurs in building hundreds of companies, including Google, Amazon.com and Genentech. Byers works closely with university researchers in commercializing cutting edge technology in the life sciences. Also on the panel was Rob Valli, director of The Kauffman Foundation, an organization dedicated to enhancing university entrepreneurship, and Donna Cookmeyer, associate director of Duke’s Office of Licensing & Ventures.
The following represents the panel’s top 10 recommendations for bringing research advances to market:
Byers also pointed audience members to The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas Friedman, a book about globalization that he considers required reading.
The event was co-sponsored by the Pratt School of Engineering Master of Engineering Management Program, the Fuqua School of Business Health Sector Management Program and the Duke Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization.