Sharing research facilities : Towards a new mode of technology transfer ?
Abstract
Academic science commercialization through University spin-offs or patents has beengrowing since the mid 90's. The first biotech firms started up within academia in order to useunique research facilities with the complementary competencies. Since the development of genomics and tools for mass gene and protein exploration, instrumentation has become moreand more resource-consuming, making sharing research facilities a growing issue. The aim of this paper is to analyse the evolution of technology transfer mechanisms and the sharing of research facilities as a means to transfer technology. It specifically focuses on the organisationof large-scale research facilities (LSRFs) as a means to facilitate and organize technologytransfer from public sector research organisations (PSROs) to industry.