Government support schemes for university technology transfer

It is a clear international trend that universities are expected to take on technology transfer and commercialization of research as a part of their mission. This development is supported by government initiatives aiming to develop a better infrastructure for technology transfer. This book looks at the development of an infrastructure for university technology transfer in Norway. The use of government policies and support schemes is presented and analyzed. Although the technology transfer initiatives need to be adapted to the national context, four lessons can be learned from looking at the Norwegian efforts. These are related to the long- term efforts required to build an infrastructure for technology transfer, the role of bottom-up involvement from universities and researchers, the establishment of relations to commercial actors, and the development of competent persons to work as boundary spanners in the intersection between academic research and industrial application. This book provides examples and discusses good practise based on the lessons learned from the Norwegian efforts to promote technology transfer from universities.