Lisa’s guests on this episode of Tech Transfer IP are Richard Cox and Steven Asiala from the Innovation, De-Risking and Enterprise Acceleration (IDEA) Center at the University of Notre Dame. Dick is the Director of Licensing & Business Development at the IDEA Center. His primary responsibilities are marketing new technologies to potential licensees, negotiating licensing terms, and constructing workable licenses and other commercialization agreements. Steven is the Faculty Engagement Associate with the IDEA Center. In this role, Steven partners with Notre Dame faculty to identify research discoveries and innovations which serve as the basis for Invention Disclosures and commercial opportunities.
Dick and Steven discuss how the IDEA Center came about, their vision, mission, and values, and the types of activities they provide. Steven talks about the four key stakeholders they serve and what is going on at Innovation Park. They also chat about the McCloskey New Venture Competition, what it is, and how much revenue it generates.
Listen, as Steven and Dick share the three-step process their office uses when evaluating inventions and commercial opportunities, how the risk assessment scorecard informs them of the next steps for an individual technology and the enterprise acceleration step of the process.
Dick and Steve speak about some of their offices’ biggest success stories in technology and startups, what they are doing to assist women entrepreneurs, and what value they see organizations like AUTM bring to tech transfer. They finish up with their visions for the IDEA Center to become self-endowed and recognized as a world leader in entrepreneurship, education, and global impact.
In This Episode:
- [04:32] Welcome to the show, Dick and Steven!
- [04:54] Dick shares his background and his journey to Tech Transfer.
- [07:45] Dick speaks about being recruited to South Carolina and then being transferred to Hawaii, leading to Notre Dame.
- [08:47] Steven discusses his journey to his role at the IDEA Center.
- [11:08] Dick gives a quick overview of how the IDEA Center came about.
- [14:06] Dick shares how two working groups came together.
- [15:24] Steven speaks about the vision, mission, and values of the IDEA Center.
- [16:44] What types of activities does the IDEA Center provide?
- [19:44] Steven chats about the four key stakeholders that they see themselves serving.
- [20:10] Dick discusses what is going on at Innovation Park.
- [22:12] What is the McCloskey New Venture Competition, and how much money is generally generated?
- [23:35] Steven shares the three-step process the IDEA Center uses when evaluating inventions and commercial opportunities.
- [26:44] Their risk assessment scorecard informs them of the next steps for individual technology.
- [29:11] Dick explains the enterprise acceleration step of the process.
- [32:19] Steven talks about his role with the Notre Dame faculty to identify research discoveries and innovations which become invention disclosures and commercialization opportunities.
- [35:01] Steven speaks about how he has been intentional about building one-to-one relationships.
- [37:52] Steven shares how the pandemic has affected his office and one-on-one relationships.
- [39:15] How is your office structured?
- [40:28] Dick gives his opinion on what is most important when managing innovations to have the greatest opportunity for success?
- [41:33] Steven describes some university’s biggest success stories in terms of successful technologies and startups.
- [42:35] Steven shares that the IDEA Center is in the process of developing strategies to assist women and under-represented inventors and entrepreneurs.
- [44:27] What organizations like AUTM are you involved in, and what value do you believe they add?
- [47:42] Dick says that he would love for the IDEA Center to become self-endowed, recognized as a world leader in entrepreneurship education and impactful.
- [49:30] Thank you so much for being on the show!
Leave a Reply