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University spin-offs: Opportunity or challenge?

Nature Materials volume 5, pages 923–925 (2006)Cite this article

With industrial research increasingly under pressure to produce rapid profits, and universities rightly concerned with primary research, can university spin-off companies fill the gap between invention and commercialization?

A major aspiration of science is to advance the living standards of human beings and, if at all possible, secure a bright future for generations to come — an aim that is likely to require development and commercialization of scientific discoveries in rational ways. Industrial research and development (R&D) laboratories, such as the renowned AT&T Bell Labs, have traditionally played the bridging role between fundamental research carried out in universities and industrial development in private companies. Unfortunately, the tough competition in today's industry has dramatically affected many industrial R&D labs, necessarily making quarterly profitability the primary consideration of many1. Worse still, industrial scientists have seen a great deal of downsizing of their facilities and research teams. These changes in industrial R&D leave a gap between university research and industrial commercialization, which may be filled by spin-off companies with their roots in universities.

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  1. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Arkansas, 348 Arkansas Avenue, Fayetteville, 72701, Arkansas, USA

    Xiaogang Peng

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  1. Xiaogang Peng
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Peng, X. University spin-offs: Opportunity or challenge?. Nature Mater 5, 923–925 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1790

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