Primary goal: Understand how and when research findings and technological breakthroughs can be transformed into new business.

Secondary goals: [1] Understand how technology can be transferred from research labs to start-ups and established companies. [2] Understand the role of academic and other not-for-profit research in creating business opportunities. [3] Appreciate the characteristics of the prevalent modes of science and technology commercialisation: licensing, spinning out or new business development

Commercialising Science & Technology helps you to understand and master the process of turning science into products and products into businesses. University labs and corporate R&D department increasingly rely on professionals that help bridging science production (conference presentations, scientific publications, and patents) to value creation (revenues, funding for scientific and applied research). Topics to be discussed include legal, fiscal and governance issues.

For many years, scholars have sought to understand (end improve) technology transfer. Recent developments push publicly financed research institutes and research universities to exploit the economic value of their research. As a result, companies and entrepreneurs will find that academics have become more willing to share and collaborate. Yet they expect to gain from such knowledge and technology transfer. For example, they may want to increase research budgets and/or seek to find better employment opportunities for their students. Also companies have several incentives to seek closer collaborative ties with researchers outside their own organisations. They are increasingly willing to partner with (and even invest in) ventures that were started to commercialise university know-how.

In this course you start building an understanding for the bridging of science to business. It provides insight in technology transfer and licensing as well as an understanding of the dynamics of science production and deployment.

- Shane, S. 2004. Academic Entrepreneurship: University Spinoffs and Wealth Creation. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.
- e-Reader with papers.
- Set of teaching cases (sold by MC4E for approx. € 30)

The courses of the Entrepreneurship minor (see also http://maastrichtentrepreneurship.nl/minor.html) draw on the scholarly entrepreneurship literature. They do NOT expect that you have already developed an understanding of the functional domains of business administration or small business management (e.g. strategy, marketing, accounting, HRM, finance, operations). We encourage you to take the two introductory courses of the minor (Birthing new ventures and Mobilising resources [EBC2145; EBC2146]) BEFORE taking the other courses of the Minor. As this minor is delivered in English, your command of the English language in speech and writing should be good enough to actively prepare for, participate in, and contribute to the classes.