the desire to support activity that faculty colleagues may find intellectually challenging and stimulating, prestige, and the recognition that these activities benefit the community and the economy of the state.”
“They may also recognize that these activities may provide indirect or direct learning opportunities for their students and may provide jobs for these students after they graduate,” she added.
Robbins said faculty who haven’t received tenure are still discouraged from spinning their research into companies. Mangelsdorf said that’s not true across the board, but in general, “junior faculty tend to be advised against jumping into commercialization activity until after they receive tenure.”
“Because achieving tenure is paramount to a tenure-track faculty member’s appointment at the university, faculty mentors may have a tendency to advise junior faculty to pursue more traditional paths to achieving tenure, which entails evidence of teaching excellence; a record of professional creativity, such as research and other accomplishments appropriate to the discipline; and service,” Mangelsdorf said. “Starting a company is no small task, and it is probably the case that senior faculty who have started their own companies know how much work is involved, and they may caution junior faculty against doing so before achieving tenure.”
Mangelsdorf also noted that UW-Madison faculty members at all career levels are conducting patentable research—an “important component of entrepreneurship,” she said.
Adam Bock, a University of Edinburgh senior entrepreneurship lecturer who has taught at UW-Madison and co-founded local startups, has studied how different universities approach technology transfer. The ones that have successfully boosted the amount of commercialized research have done so by simplifying the spinout process, making that process transparent to faculty and students, and having campus leaders that verbally encourage university spinouts, he said.
“We’re doing some of the right things” at UW-Madison, he added.
University officials are investing in D2P and other programs mentioned during the panel discussion, Mangelsdorf said, as well as determining ways to “measure the impact of these services.”
“We are trying to minimize barriers to engage in these activities,” she said. “As we learn more about what our faculty and staff seek in the way of support and assistance, we’ll respond.”
