A university’s startup activity benefits the university in many ways. Some of these benefits include:

1. Increased public benefit
2. Creation of economic opportunity
3. Recruitment and maintenance of faculty
4. Professional & financial gains for TTO & faculty
5. Creation of new partnership & funding opportunities

Today we want to dive a little deeper into how faculty and their research drive awareness of a university’s innovation ecosystem and ultimately attract industry partners.

Joy Goswami from the University of Delaware recently spoke to us about how his office is helping educate faculty on the importance of translational research. He emphasized the importance of communicating the benefits of translational research for the researcher and their university.

How translational research benefits the researcher and their university

For most scientists, validation is a part of everyday life. So when spin-off activity is successful, that validation brings two main benefits to the researcher.

First, the satisfaction of engaging in challenging work.

Second, the attention that the research draws has the potential to help secure additional funding and resources. This can help the researcher continue his or her work or begin other innovative projects.

For the university and the TTO – the benefit is the same. The more the university can prove the efficacy of its programs, the more funding they are likely to receive from both public and private sources.

From the university’s perspective, this type of success is also a way to spark conversations with partners to generate other types of research activity.

Getting industry to bite

Traditionally, ‘big’ business will shy away from what they consider a risky investment, like very early-stage research. However, when success stories from spin-off activity reach prospective industry partners, they no longer see the investment as risky. Instead, they see that the university and its researchers as capable of commercial activity. As a result, the industry player becomes more likely to engage in a partnership with the university. Partnerships can include sponsored research, collaborations, funding, or licensing deals.

New partnerships bring financial and material resources to the university, which can help your university’s innovation ecosystem gain recognition. In turn, the increased recognition can help attract even more industry partnerships. This cycle of mutually beneficial outcomes for both the university and industry is commonly referred to as a virtuous cycle.

Are you a university researcher interested in partnering with industry? SeedSprint can help your university get that virtuous cycle in motion! Sign up for a free account here!