Commercialisation

Mahi arumoni

Our mission is to grow New Zealand’s high-tech economy via the physical sciences and engineering. As a SfTI researcher, you play a pivotal role in ensuring we achieve this mission by bringing your research closer to commercialisation.

What is commercialisation?

Commercialisation is the process of introducing new products or services to the market for the public to access. This process is employed by for-profit and social enterprises as well as many not-for-profits. This entails production, distribution, marketing, sales, customer support, and other key functions critical to achieving the commercial success of the new product or service.

Wherever you are in your research, we encourage you to consider and plan how your research will benefit the NZ economy, or how through its implementation, it will create significant positive social and/or environmental impact, this can be done by:

• having a line of sight to commercialisation
• planning for project intellectual property (IP) and;
• developing a research and publication strategy.

Guide for commercialisation development of early-stage technology

SfTI has developed this guide to help you, and your team to engage with people and organisations that are available to support you and provide commercialisation expertise.

Meet Deborah 

Deborah Crowe is our Commercialisation Manager. Deborah is embedded within our partner, KiwiNet's Team. 

Find out more about her role and hear Deborah explain the four pillars that every researcher needs to establish to commercialise. 

Or get in touch with Deborah to find out more.  

What is a commercialisation development strategy?

A commercialisation development strategy is an overall action plan outlining how your research answers a market need (or a social/environmental problem for NZ), and what financing options are available to move your technology concept to the marketplace. It provides a framework to guide decision making on which commercialisation pathway is best to follow.

Tips to get you started

1. Establish industry relationships: Contact the business development/industry engagement personnel within your institution/organisation. They can support you to establish industry relationships.
2. Build your network: Connect with experts who can help you understand how technology is commercialised, such as businesses involved in your research and your institution’s Tech Transfer Office (TTO).
3. Identify a need: Carefully consider the potential need for your research. Will it help NZ answer an existing or future problem for people and/or businesses? What assumptions have you made and how valid are they?

If you have questions, or need support to develop a commercialisation development strategy, contact your TTO office.

Why is IP important and when should I consider it?

Our goal is to maximise economic benefits for NZ, this includes creating and commercialising research project IP. IP is a business tool used to provide competitive advantage in the marketplace, and to create value. For this reason, we expect our researchers to do their best to identify potentially valuable project IP and consider options to protect it.

Tips to get you started

1. Build your network: Connect with experts who can help you understand how IP protection works, and how it is used to create value. Also, check if your institution provides access to an IP attorney.
2. The earlier the better: Consulting with commercialisation experts early-on will help manage the tension between the commercial requirement of IP protection, and the academic requirements of open publications. Have you approached your TTO, Kiwinet or Return on Science yet?

Intellectual Property Policies and Principles

The SfTI Policies and Principles document sets out what each research collaborator agrees to comply with in their participation in the SfTI National Science Challenge. The more specific provisions around ownership and management of Intellectual Property (IP) are set out in the IP Management Plan.

Intellectual Property Management Plan

Our IP Management Plan sets out expectations of the Parties around ownership, management and commercialisation of Project IP, Mātauranga Māori, Taonga Species and the licensing of Background IP.

Why have a research and publication strategy?

The purpose of a research and publication strategy is to maximise the impact of your research outputs, through managing complementary and competing interest. It will form the basis of your agreement between collaborators and keep everyone focussed on delivering outcomes whilst remaining accountable to stakeholders.

The best time to develop a strategy would be as soon as you think about publishing – it’s the first step in the publishing process and forms the basis of your research.

Things to consider

• The objective of your research – what do you want to achieve, and who is your audience?
• Communication – Consider how to balance between your requirements to publish and your requirements to hold commercially valuable information confidential.

Top image credit: Matt Crawford, NZ Story