Universities across the world have been areas where research that changes lives is done especially with regard to new technologies and solutions for the needs of the world. Today, a number of ideas that originate from universities have gone on to become commercial solutions for faster and newer ways to communicate, better health care and transportation, development of sustainable solutions to preserve the planet, among others. Israel’s Hebrew University is one of the academic institutions where research has yielded great results, not only in terms of coming up with technological solutions to address global challenges, but also making money out of such innovations so that there are always resources to invest in research. The university has many exciting innovations in various fields including solar energy, agriculture, nutrition, environment conservation and waste management among others. In 2020 alone, ideas born at the university resulted in an astounding 17 new startups, as well as a remarkable number of new commercial agreements and sponsored collaborations. With such success, there is always a lesson to learn. Rwandan academic institutions can pick a leaf from what the University has done for many years: having a good understanding of the commercial element of research, and putting in place the right mechanisms to make the most of innovations. In 1964, the Hebrew University established “Yissum,” a fully-profit technology transfer company that works to convert their technologies and innovations into commercial solutions that address global challenges. From this, Yissum makes money and invests it back into the university to facilitate more research, create ideas that can be commercialised, and so on. Yissum is not the entire reason for Hebrew University’s success in research and innovation, but it is something key for them. Yet, such mechanisms are lacking in our local universities. In an interview with Doing Business, Molly Livingstone, the Director of Creative and Communications at Yissum explained how important a technology transfer company can be for an academic institution. According to her, researchers always need business-development people to assist them in things related to understanding the market, where their innovations can be applied. “Some researchers with great ideas do not understand what the market needs, some might not understand a contract, some might not understand milestones that a venture capitalist or an investor wants to see. But a business person at Yissum knows the market, knows the industry, knows what has to be in a contract, and so that is where you benefit from having a tech transfer company as a part of the university,” she says. “So, it is not just about ideas, the ideas are not enough. Everyone has good ideas, but you need a tech transfer,” she adds. She notes, for instance, that one of the most important things in the work of a tech transfer is the patents. Here, it is very crucial to know which technology has potential and get patents for it, as well as knowing when to let go of the patent. In the same interview, Anna Pellivert the Business Development Person for Computer and Social Sciences at Yissum said they always discuss the best ways to take an innovation to the next level, and here, some strategies are used. These include, giving licenses of particular innovations to commercial companies, allowing them to make use of the innovation and break new products and services based on it. Another strategy is establishing new startup companies based on particular innovation.
