A new report on opportunities and challenges for the adoption of open hardware by technology transfer offices (TTOs) was co-authored by Open Bioeconomy Lab member Dr Jenny Molloy in collaboration with the Gathering for Open Science Hardware (GOSH).
Dr Molloy organized an online workshop with GOSH members in April 2021 to explore how TTOs and Open Science Hardware practitioners can collaborate. Gathering 15 participants from both backgrounds, the discussion aimed to identify the critical challenges and opportunities of this process. You can read a report from the workshop here.
The resulting policy brief highlighted the following key messages:
1. Open hardware provides an opportunity for Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) at universities to exploit the potential of existing academic outputs that do not fit in the current patent-and-licence technology transfer paradigm.
2. It is possible for TTOs to adopt open hardware as part of their technology transfer toolbox today.
3. As seen with the response to the COVID-19 crisis, open hardware accelerates innovation, opening up the possibility of new multi-scale partnerships with stakeholders in industry, civil society and government.
4. The open hardware community can work with TTOs on strategies to facilitate this transition, including the development of dedicated training materials and activities, fostering connections between TTOs, and identifying community champions at universities that can serve as focal points.
The entire brief is available as a PDF and plain text via the GOSH website.