Aldo Geuna Talks About University Patenting
Fast Moving Front Commentary, March 2011
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Article: University patenting and its effects on academic research: The emerging European evidence
Authors: Geuna, A;Nesta, LJ |
Aldo Geuna talks with ScienceWatch.com and answers a few questions about this month's Fast Moving Fronts paper in the field of Economics & Business.
Why do you think your paper is highly
cited?
The paper (co-authored with Lionel Nesta) provides the first assessment of European academic patenting and develops an analytical framework to evaluate its impact on academic research.
Does it describe a new discovery, methodology, or
synthesis of knowledge?
"Policy makers at the regional, national, and EU level have become much more aware of the intrinsic limitation of academic patenting..."
It is a synthesis and elaboration of scattered information available from more countries. It provides a context and a framework to analyze a new phenomenon.
Would you summarize the significance of your paper
in layman's terms?
Governmental policies in support of academic patenting were based on a major mismeasurement of patenting activities of university researchers as they did not take into account all the patents that were invented by academic researchers but owned by other organizations (about 80% of the total sample in Europe).
How did you become involved in this research, and
how would you describe the particular challenges, setbacks, and
successes that you've encountered along the way?
The specific research on academic patenting started in 2003 with a contract for the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), while being linked to a broader research effort on the economics of university research and knowledge transfer from academia. This is a new area of research in economics for which analytical models and data sources are still very weak.
Where do you see your research leading in the
future?
I am currently working on two major projects:
1. The analysis of mobility of researchers and their productivity
2. The study of company inventors interactions with universities in education and research
Do you foresee any social or political
implications for your research?
After the publication of the paper there has been an important policy
debate on the reassessment of institutional academic patenting as the
preferred channel for knowledge transfer. Policy makers at the regional,
national, and EU level have become much more aware of the intrinsic
limitation of academic patenting (most universities lose money; only very
few make a profit) and of the potential negative impacts on academic
research.
Aldo Geuna
Professor of Economics
Department of Economics S. Cognetti de Martiis
Faculty of Political Sciences
University of Torino
Torino, Italy
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KEYWORDS: UNIVERSITY PATENTING, UNIVERSITY-INDUSTRY RELATIONSHIPS, TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER, EUROPEAN UNIVERSITIES, BAYH-DOLE ACT, PHARMACEUTICAL INDUCTRY, RESEARCH PERFORMANCE, UNITED STATES, LIFE SCIENCE, FACULTY, BIOTECHNOLOGY, SCIENTISTS, INNOVATION, GROWTH.