Program agenda:
- Background of each TTO’s mission, budget, staff levels, etc. and how they have been affected by COVID-19
- Dealing with the fallout of massive revenue shortfalls
- Advice specifically for small offices who already operate with lean resources
- What factors are being considered in their FY21 budgets
- Budget analysis line-by-line:
- Staffing levels
- Patent services
- Operational costs
- Evaluating CRM, database subscriptions and the like
- Technology and security considerations for remote workers
- Keeping the innovation pipeline flowing with attention to:
- Disclosure triage
- Evaluating the use of outside counsel vs in-house patent staff
- Making the most of your databases and marketing functions
- Alternative staffing strategies
At universities across the globe, the purse strings are tighter than ever – and tech transfer offices are feeling it.
The pandemic and its economic fallout has left no university unaffected — from world-renowned research institutions and large academic medical centers to smaller schools whose TTO budgets were already thin.
Many TTOs report being busier than ever as technologies related to COVID-19 pour in, but staff and budget dollars are likely to decline, while expectations from administration are not likely to see a similar reduction.
Tech transfer professionals are a determined and innovative bunch, and they’ll need every bit of that ingenuity to keep up with disclosures, tech assessments, patents, licensing negotiations, start-up support, marketing and outreach, and the myriad tasks that make up a busy TTO’s days.
It will take some creative “hacks” to boost productivity and squeeze every drop out of your budget. To help guide you, we’ve teamed up with TTO directors from two distinctly different offices to share their plans and strategies for getting the job done – and done well – with fewer resources. Please join Andrew R.O. Watson, PhD, CLP, Senior Director of OHSU Technology Transfer, and H. Victoria Bryant, Director of the Wyoming Technology Transfer and Research Products Center (WTT-RPC) at the University of Wyoming, for this strategy-filled program.
Dr. Watson leads a department of 20+ staff members across multiple teams, while Ms. Bryant heads up a two-person team that is already lean on resources. Each has a unique set of challenges, and they are ready to reveal their best “hacks” to create a budget, staffing plan, and meet productivity expectations in light of unplanned resource constraints brought on by the pandemic.
