At Glasgow University, patent bids soared after one woman began to handle both the commercial liaison and publicity. Olga Wojtas reports
University managers see technology transfer as increasingly important to raise funds and to help the economy. But there is a perennial problem of how to chivvy researchers into telling industrial liaison officers about their work and to explain it to them in lay terms. Some institutions have set up two-person commercialisation teams, one qualified in science and one in marketing, to bridge the divide.
But Glasgow University's Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences is underwriting just one salary. Cheryl Teague is a scientist who is also a marketing expert. A genetics graduate, she first worked in sales and marketing for the pharmaceuticals industry, then as sales, promotion and public relations manager for the Royal Society of Chemistry before joining IBLS as commercial liaison and publicity manager.
"I used a lot of my biological sciences background as the basis for what I went on to learn in the pharmaceuticals industry,'' she says. "I had to become a government-accredited representative because when you promote pharmaceutical drugs to GPs, you're giving information about dosage and usage, and if it's wrong, patients could be killed."
Ms Teague's role is unusual because she works within a single institute, each day walking round the labs and talking to staff. The IBLS has about 500 researchers in six cross-fertilising divisions with pooled resources. Its main interests are virology, parasitology, molecular pharmacology, protein crystallography, molecular genetics, infection and immunity and cardiovascular science.
"Most universities wait for academics to come to a central industrial liaison office. Quite often they don't come, and quite often it's too late," Ms Teague says.
"Because I meet them every day, I can persuade them to go down the commercial route rather than publishing without thinking. If you ask any leading scientist what their priorities are, they would say excellent science and excellent teaching. We're trying to introduce commercialisation as the third strand of their academic career and integrate it so they're not disadvantaged."
Published findings can no longer be patented, and given the importance of publishing in academic life, Ms Teague's first task has been to convince researchers that patent applications will be processed as quickly as possible. She encourages the scientists to warn her of interesting developments early and then promotes non-confidential disclosures to industry to find potential licensing partners.
"We put them under confidential agreement and get them into meetings with the scientist so that when the ink dries on the patent, there's a partner to pay for the licensing agreement who will permit publication within a very reasonable period of time, often as little as 90 days.''
Ms Teague's scientific background has helped her win the trust of researchers and enabled her to assess the commercial possibilities of their work. "I've maintained a scientific connection, which allows me sufficient background knowledge to understand the science when it's explained to me, and I also understand markets and industry so I can see if there should be pre-commercial collaboration, licensing or spinning out,'' she says.
The institute has set up several biotechnology spin-off companies, and has seen a 12-fold increase in patent applications since Ms Teague arrived three years ago. Industrial funding has almost doubled: IBLS raised Pounds 1.5 million in industrial contracts last year, a sum matched in the first quarter of this year.
"We're not interested in low-grade contract work, but very high-grade research that is collaborative with industry,'' Ms Teague says.
Ms Teague is keen to see collaboration extend beyond Glasgow: interest from a major drugs firm has led to the creation of a school of respiratory science involving researchers from Glasgow and Strathclyde University. "It's a virtual school, a club that any scientist can join so that there's a chance of joint grant applications and making new contacts with more chance of responding to major industrial opportunities that require interdisciplinarity.''