Abstract
Universities are expected to play an important role as drivers of innovation and economic growth. Despite efforts to match these expectations, the commercialisation of scientific research remains poor. Issues in the commercialisation of research that have been identified in previous literature include scientists’ lack of business skills, poor understanding of industry needs and lack of funding for development. However, there is a lack of studies proposing practical tools to bridge the gap between research and the market. Studies analysing the activities of certain technology companies propose using workshops to assist technology innovation. However, the method for using these workshops in universities remains unexplored. This paper aims to explain why the workshops should include designers assisting scientists if used in the academic context. It takes recommendations from literature and uses interviews with multiple scientists developing technologies to inform the design of the multidisciplinary workshop structure.
Keywords
Multidisciplinary collaborations, Design and Science, Technology Development, Research Commercialisation
DOI
https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.182
Citation
Mesa, D., Thong, C., Ranscombe, C., and Kuys, B. (2020) Design and Science: A workshop-based approach for identifying commercial opportunities in universities, in Boess, S., Cheung, M. and Cain, R. (eds.), Synergy - DRS International Conference 2020, 11-14 August, Held online. https://doi.org/10.21606/drs.2020.182
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Design and Science: A workshop-based approach for identifying commercial opportunities in universities
Universities are expected to play an important role as drivers of innovation and economic growth. Despite efforts to match these expectations, the commercialisation of scientific research remains poor. Issues in the commercialisation of research that have been identified in previous literature include scientists’ lack of business skills, poor understanding of industry needs and lack of funding for development. However, there is a lack of studies proposing practical tools to bridge the gap between research and the market. Studies analysing the activities of certain technology companies propose using workshops to assist technology innovation. However, the method for using these workshops in universities remains unexplored. This paper aims to explain why the workshops should include designers assisting scientists if used in the academic context. It takes recommendations from literature and uses interviews with multiple scientists developing technologies to inform the design of the multidisciplinary workshop structure.