Science and Development Network
News, views and information about science, technology and the developing world
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Definitions
List of terms for Technology Transfer.
F
Framework conditions
National institutional and structural factors (e.g. legal, economic, financial, and educational) that set the rules and range of opportunities for innovation (OM).
Frascati Manual
The Frascati Manual is a publication of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) which provides the international standard practice for compiling and analysing research and development statistics (see also Oslo Manual).
G
Governance of innovation
Issues that define the role of stakeholders — scientists, industry, consumers and public authorities — in the process of innovation policy design, implementation and evaluation (ECC).
H
Horizontal technology transfer
The movement of an established technology from one operational environment to another, for instance, from a company to another (see also vertical technology transfer).
I
Indicators
Quantifiable factors that serve as indirect measures of underlying behaviour of interest to policy makers or others; the number of a country’s patent applications per million population, for example, is one indicator of its innovative capacity (ECC).
Industrial liaison office (ILO)
A unit within a university or large public research institution that interacts with industrial users of the institution's research results and intellectual property, for example by negotiating licensing agreements on patented inventions. ILOs are well placed to support spin-off companies, since they have close links with both the research and business communities (ECC).
Innovation
The conversion of new knowledge into products and processes that result in economic and social benefits. Innovation is now acknowledged to result from complex long-term interactions between many players in an innovation system (ECC).
Innovation system
The network of organisations within an given economic system that are directly involved in the creation, diffusion and application of scientific and technological knowledge, as well as the organisations responsible for the coordination and support of these processes.
Intangible assets
That part of a company’s value that is made up of its staff and their skills, knowledge and creativity, the fundamental sources of wealth and value in a knowledge-based economy (see also tacit knowledge) (ECC).
Intellectual property (IP)
Original inventions and proprietary knowledge belonging to a company or an individual (see also intellectual property rights) (ECC).
Intellectual property rights (IPR)
Rights to the exclusive use of intellectual property that have been granted by a national or supra-national authority. The most common forms of intellectual property are patents, trademarks and industrial designs (ECC).
International technology transfer
The processes through which technological knowledge is moved between organisations in different countries (see also technology transfer, vertical technology transfer and horizontal technology transfer).
K
Knowledge base
The body of knowledge on which a particular industrial sector relies for its advancement. The knowledge base can include not only codified knowledge but also tacit knowledge and knowledge embedded in plant and equipment (ECC).
L
Learning
The process of accumulating the capability to innovate (see also technological learning, technological capabilities and innovation).
Licensing
Granting a firm or other organisation, usually involving payment, the use of a patent or trademark.
Linear models of innovation
Over-simplified views of innovation as involving merely the transfers of specific technologies from the research base to industry, or as a process driven by demands from society. Now superseded by the 'systemic model' of innovation (ECC).
N
Networks
Set of interactions including small firms, relationships between users and suppliers, relationships between firms which are competitors, policy and regulatory agencies and research institutions which produce information flows conducive to innovation or lead firms to be more receptive to it.
Non-R&D innovation activities
Activities that are not classified as research and development, but still play a major role in corporate innovation and performance. Examples include the construction of pilot plants and full-scale production facilities, the purchase of technical information through licenses and various types of engineering and design consultancy (see also innovation) (FM).
O
Official development assistance (ODA)
Flows of aid to developing countries and multilateral organisations provided by developed countries' development agencies whose main objective is the economic and social development of developing countries.
Oslo Manual
The Oslo Manual of the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) is part of the Frascati family of manuals which provide guidelines for the measurement and interpretation of data on innovation activities in industry (see also Frascati Manual).
R
Research and development (R&D)
Systematic investigatory work carried out to increase the stock of knowledge, and the use of such knowledge to devise new products and processes. Research and development includes basic research, applied research, and experimental development (FM).
Research base
The universities and large public research institutions that provide the academic science and technology resources of a country from which its industry can obtain new knowledge (ECC).
Reverse engineering
The process of learning how to design a product by taking an existing product apart and analysing its parts.
S
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
An independent company with fewer than 250 employees (ECC).
Spin-off/spin-out
A company established to commercialise the knowledge and skills of a university or corporate research team (ECC).
Start-up
A newly formed company usually based around a novel product or process (ECC).
Systemic model of innovation
A model of innovation process based on an awareness that successful innovation depends on interactions between many individuals, organisations and environmental factors. Within this model, research and development is no longer viewed as the 'source' of innovation but as one of a number of essential elements (ECC).
T
Tacit knowledge
Knowledge that has not been codified, but remains held in the heads and embodied in skills of researchers, and in the owner/managers and key employees of companies (see also intangible assets and codified knowledge) (ECC).
Technological capability
The ability to make use of knowledge to acquire, assimilate, adapt, and change existing technologies and develop new products and processes (see also technological learning).
Technological learning
The process of accumulating the capability to innovate (see also technological capabilities and innovation).
Technology transfer
The broad set of processes covering the exchange of knowledge, money and goods amongst different stakeholders that leads to the spreading of technology for adapting to or mitigating climate change.
Turn-key project
Industrial projects in which a contracted company is responsible for the overall development and management of the investment project and the client only for the operation.
U
University-industry links
Open and continuous interaction between industry and higher education institutions, which is now acknowledged to be a critical element of a successful innovation system. Universities are now adding the diffusion of knowledge to their traditional missions of education and research (see also industrial liaison office) (ECC).
V
Venture capital
Investment in companies whose success is uncertain, but also offer the possibility of a high rate of return. Venture capital is an essential means of financing the rapid growth of new technology-based firms (ECC).
Vertical technology transfer
The transmission of new technologies from the generation phase during R&D activities to operational application, for instance, from science and technology organisations such as universities and research centres to their application in industry (see also horizontal technology transfer).
