Koforidua. Ghana, Box 981
Research for Development
123 456 789
info@example.com
Goldsmith Hall
New York, NY 90210
07:30 - 19:00
Monday to Friday
INTRODUCTION
Innovation occurs when ideas are put to use in a manner that improves practice, whether in a professional community or the society at large. Innovation, Technology Transfer & Research Centre Development (ITTRCD) is a new department set up by Koforidua Technical University (KTU). We work to support the transition of the fruits of KTU research into practice by the most effective means. Paths for innovation include open publication, enabling others to make direct use of our results, collaboration with user communities in industry and elsewhere, and cultivation of paths to commercialization.
OBJECTIVES
The establishment of the department by KTU will facilitate reorientation of public research sectors toward the needs of the private sector, and support a framework for increasing the efficiency of future investments in research and innovation.
The main objective of ITTRCD is to stimulate collaboration between public research and development (R&D) sector and the private sector in order to commercialize R&D and promote technology transfer.
WHAT WE MEAN BY INNOVATION
Innovation to KTU is a service and orientation that provides a connection between the institution and industry by availing the university expertise and inventions for the public good, promoting economic development and increasing research visibility. Innovation, to KTU is the entirety of newly developed ideas and inventions – both internal and external – their economic implementation and impact upon the broader society and the world at large.
KTU’s ITTRCD is a university-wide resource for innovation, connecting our research with the businesses that commercialize inventions. It is also KTU’s intellectual property and technology licensing office, preparing faculty and students to transfer research into practical applications, and helping to create business strategies that build success.
Through Intellectual Property Policy, KTU encourages open dissemination of ideas, recognizes and rewards faculty, staff and student inventors and authors. The policy confirms the University’s ownership rights under law, but also recognizes exceptions that preserve the academic tradition of faculty ownership of certain scholarly works.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
KTU’s Technology transfer focuses on the transfer of knowledge and research results from laboratories to the commercial world. KTU’s ITTRCD raises awareness of the subject, informs community members about the possibilities of commercialization, searches for and records potentially usable research and development results which it offers evaluation into their inventions, helping to find suitable commercial partners and providing intellectual property protection services.
This component of the department’s services, supports the establishment of a centralized Technology Transfer Facility (TTF) within the institution’s innovation framework, employing international and local experts to stimulate and coordinate technology transfer of both internal and external R&D activities. As such, a critical focus of the department is its support services to local Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs), research and development (R&D) and innovation support organizations in a bid to enhance their capacity and effectiveness to be innovative, productive and effective.
The office of ITTRCD assists with finding paths to widespread use of research results, especially through commercialization. ITTRCD will help to determine when protection of intellectual property is likely to enable development of results for widespread practice through commercialization, manage KTU intellectual property, and assists in finding grant support for transitioning research results into commercial use. Our Technology transfer services include:
ITTRCD in partnership with CEID provides training and support for entrepreneurship among faculty and students and works to cultivate creativity in our academic community. In addition we:
FACILITATION OF RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
The department is also mandated to facilitate the establishment of research centres that focus on unique institutional, community, national and international areas of importance. The department facilitates the establishment of four kinds of research centres:
RESEARCH DEVELOPMENT
Research undertaken at KTU is constantly generating new insights into numerous scientific fields. Through technology transfer, this knowledge is made available to the public for the benefit of society. WITH the university having a major responsibility for protecting the economic viability of new innovations, ITTRCD supports researchers with information and advice to ensure that their ideas and inventions are handled in the best possible way from the drawing board to full implementation.
ITTRCD does not just actively support researchers in their quest for new innovations, but also the private sector by finding and connecting interested companies to potential research partners. ITTRCD assesses each new research project at the university on its potential for innovation.
The procedures administered by the department requires that new ideas or inventions developed during the course of a project, by researcher(s), are disclosed to the university. The university then decides if this new invention/innovation can be classified as an “employee invention” or a “private invention”. In the case of employee inventions, the university has intellectual property claims which must be protected; the full rights to private inventions are granted to the inventor. The determination process begins with a formal enquiry by the ITTRCD, which is followed by a detailed examination. If an invention is classified as an employee invention, then the university will then officially register it as a patent or utility model.
The office of ITTRCD offers companies various ways to cooperate with the university. The goal of these efforts is to connect the right people, or research teams from the university, with their counterparts in the industry. These may consist of joint scientific research projects, the use or sale of KTU’s patents and licenses, an offer of measuring and testing equipment and laboratory capacities of the university, or establishment of joint startup companies.
ITTRCD provides researchers with valuable advice and information, as well as assisting them with all aspects of research transfer of knowledge or technology.
SERVICES FOR RESEARCHERS
We encourage researchers to contact us for advice and assistance pertaining to research transfer and innovation management, enterprise collaborations, research center establishments, new business startups, incubation projects (a company established by students and researchers at the university that utilizes the tangible and intangible assets of the University to start the business), etc. The ITTRCD together with the university is usually a partner in such a company and helps to:
CONCLUSION
The ITTRCD Office is dedicated to protecting and commercializing intellectual property, in a manner beneficial to the researcher, the university and society; supporting the technology transfer process in KTU and the nation as a whole. We expect the various research centers to have their own models for managing and creating the innovations that will make them more versatile, evaluating technical and commercial possibilities for new processes and services.