Gaps, actors and the process of commercialising applied research from Irish universities

Abstract

The recent global economic crisis has increased the levels and frequency of calls by national and region governments for universities to contribute to economic growth (Etzkowitz and Chunyan, 2008). These calls emerge from reports such as The Lisbon Strategy (European Commission, 2000) which set out to 'make Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-base economy ... by 2010.' In tandem with this call, the commercialisation of research offers universities a potential income source in the light of reduced state funding. However, many universities do not see the commercialisation of research as part of their mission (Benner and Sandstrom, 2000 and Etzkowitz, Webster et al., 2000), and those that do often lack the structures and policies necessary to commercialise their research (Siegel, Waldman et al., 2003a and EUA, 2005).