The next evolution of technology transfer - opinion

By protecting intellectual property, licensing innovations, and supporting the creation of start-ups, they have helped bring countless breakthroughs from the laboratory to society.

That mission has never been more important.

But the innovation landscape has changed.

Today’s scientific breakthroughs rarely emerge in isolation. They are increasingly shaped by collaboration across disciplines, institutions, and sectors.

Researchers, entrepreneurs, industry leaders, investors, clinicians, and policymakers all contribute to the journey from discovery to impact.

As a result, commercialization often begins long before an invention disclosure is filed or a patent application is submitted.

For a country whose economy depends on translating scientific excellence into global innovation, this shift matters far beyond universities.

It also raises an important question: If commercialization now begins much earlier, should technology transfer organizations rethink where their role begins?

We believe they should.

This does not mean moving away from the core mission of technology transfer. Intellectual property management, licensing, and start-up creation remain its foundation and always will.

The challenge is recognizing that these outcomes are often the product of relationships, conversations, and collaborations that begin months – or even years – before a technology is ready for commercialization.

Over the past year, we have begun exploring three complementary approaches: encouraging earlier dialogue between researchers and industry, strengthening collaboration between academic institutions, and bringing together the broader innovation community.

These initiatives are still in their early stages, and it is too soon to measure their long-term impact. Even so, initial results have reinforced our belief that commercialization is strengthened when the innovation ecosystem itself is strengthened.

The first lesson was that the best collaborations often begin before anyone is thinking about licensing.

The conversations were not about technologies ready for market. They focused on emerging scientific challenges, industry needs, and future opportunities.

While it is too early to know where these connections will lead, they have already demonstrated the value of creating opportunities for researchers and industry to engage before specific commercialization opportunities arise.

A second lesson came from collaboration between institutions. Jerusalem already possesses world-class universities, hospitals, entrepreneurs, investors, and public-sector partners. What it has sometimes lacked are structured mechanisms that bring these strengths together.

The launch of Fourward, the joint academic body within the Jerusalem Innovation District, reflects our belief that innovation ecosystems do not emerge simply because outstanding institutions share a city.

We hope it will become a platform that encourages collaboration across organizational boundaries and creates new opportunities over time.

The third lesson concerned the community itself. At SharedImpact, Yissum’s inaugural innovation conference, many of the most valuable outcomes happened away from the stage.

Researchers met entrepreneurs, investors met scientists, and conversations began that we hope will develop into future collaborations. The event underscored the importance of creating spaces where those conversations can begin.

Taken together, these early experiences reinforced our conviction that patents, licenses, and start-up companies remain the defining measures of technology transfer success.

Yet they often emerge from less visible foundations: trust, networks, shared understanding, and long-term relationships. Those foundations deserve far greater attention than they typically receive.

This is particularly relevant for Israel.

Israel's innovation ecosystem has long been one of its greatest strategic assets. Today, however, universities and technology companies operate in an increasingly complex international environment, facing growing competition for talent, investment, and research partnerships.

Technology transfer organizations occupy a unique position at the intersection of academia, industry, entrepreneurship, and government. Few organizations have visibility across all of these communities.

That places them in a unique position not only to commercialize innovation but also to connect the people and institutions from which future innovation emerges.

Technology transfer organizations do not need a new mission. They need a broader view of how that mission succeeds.

Helping researchers engage industry earlier, creating stronger partnerships between institutions, convening entrepreneurs, investors, and scientists, and building communities that continue beyond individual projects do not replace patents, licensing, or start-up creation. They make them more likely to succeed.

Our experience represents only one perspective, and we certainly do not claim to have all the answers. Building successful innovation ecosystems requires universities, researchers, entrepreneurs, companies, investors, and governments working together toward shared goals. No single organization can accomplish that alone.

But we do believe our profession is entering a new phase.

The future of technology transfer will still be measured in patents, licenses, and start-up companies. Yet the organizations that create the greatest long-term impact may be those that also invest in something less tangible: the ecosystems that enable greater commercialization.

For Israel, whose greatest natural resource has always been its people and their ideas, investing in those ecosystems may prove to be one of the country’s most important competitive advantages in the decades ahead.