In an effort to become an entrepreneurial university, Universitas Indonesia (UI) continues to take various strategic steps in order to have the capacity to innovate, which is needed by the global community. The innovations produced by UI academics are expected to have a broad impact and be able to respond to global challenges. Therefore, efforts are needed to increase the impact of research, including efforts to commercialize research.
In a webinar titled “From Campus to Market: Unlocking the Power of University Commercialization”, UI and the National University of Singapore (NUS) discussed the process and significance of technology, innovation, and research commercialization. The webinar which was held on Tuesday (22/8) presented three speakers from NUS, including the Director of Technology Transfer and Innovation, Dr. Koh Shuwen; Technology Commercialization Lead Technology Transfer and Innovation, Ms. Yong Yoke Ping; and Venture Architect Graduate, Research Innovation Program (GRIP), Mr. Debashish Pal.
In this discussion, it was discussed what factors influence the commercialization of research, steps and challenges that may be faced in moving towards an entrepreneurial university. According to Mr. Debashish Pal, there are four factors that influence the commercialization of research: the transformation of research results into useful applications, creating economic growth, supporting sustainable innovation, and contributing to society.
He said, “These four factors are the reason for the need for commercialization of research. As UI continues to be committed to contributing and innovating in creating superior human resources, it can then realize UI’s aspiration to become an entrepreneurial university.”
In the process of research commercialization, there are challenges that may be faced, one of which is the emergence of a discrepancy between academic goals and market needs. UI, as an educational institution that continues to achieve its academic goals, will certainly face challenges if the research it does is not in line with market needs. In fact, if the university creates quality research that is developed in the market industry, the benefits generated will surely be even wider.
In addition, limitations in business expertise can also be a challenge in commercializing research. It cannot be denied that universities are institutions that house academics who do not necessarily understand business knowledge. Therefore, apart from synergizing with industrial partners, academics are also expected to expand their expertise in the business sector so that apart from being experts in creating innovations, academics are also able to market them. In this case, funding and intellectual property are one of the big challenges in the research commercialization process.
Before carrying out the research commercialization process, universities need to pay attention to certain steps. Ms. Yong Yoke Ping said that universities must conduct research in advance regarding the target market of the invention or research that will be done; and what makes the discovery or research patentable in industry.
The process of commercializing research conducted by universities is a long journey. This process must be pursued in order to develop the potentials resulting from the research conducted. Therefore, UI continues to show its commitment and efforts to become an entrepreneurial university for the birth of excellent human resources who are able to innovate on a local, national, and even international scale.
Head of UI’s Transformation, Risk Management and Evaluation Monitoring Bureau, Vishnu Juwono, S.E., M.I.A., Ph.D., said that discussions regarding research commercialization need to be carried out considering that UI has the same focus as NUS in terms of entrepreneurial universities. “We really want to learn what the National University of Singapore has achieved, especially in the field of commercialization, where cooperation between universities and industry is very related. Therefore, hopefully this discussion can broaden the insight of the UI academic community, especially in efforts to expand the impact of research to the wider community,” said Vishnu Juwono.
