A New Mindset Could Overcome ‘Bogus Academic Person Business Model’
Summary
A New Mindset Could Overcome ‘Bogus Academic Person Business Model’ Xconomy Texas — San Antonio — Academic research centers are perennially seeking new ways to get more work commercialized, from offices that are tasked with spotting marketable science to workshops meant to help scientists learn to think like entrepreneurs.When Travis Block was working on his biomedical engineering degree at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, he and his mentors were most excited by discoveries that were unique or weird—regardless of their market potential.In his first industry job after defending his dissertation, the measure of success was different: the most reliable results received the greatest praise, Block says.“If academia doesn’t get excited about that, doing research the same way industry does, it’s going to be struggling soon to keep getting funded.” Block spoke during a panel at the Emerging Medical Technology Symposium, which was held in San Antonio earlier this month, with other scientists and entrepreneurs about how to turn more academic science into business partnerships.Most, if not all, research institutes make efforts to help their best and brightest commercialize the work they do, from technology transfer offices to incubators to business mentorship programs.