A new international alliance for technology transfer professionals called ATTP launched on May 27, 2010, at the 10th annual conference of the Association of European Science & Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP) in Paris, France.
The goal of ATTP is to support the development of the technology transfer profession and its practitioners. “Transferring innovations and knowledge resulting from public research is now more important than ever”, says PraxisUnico Chairman Professor David Secher. “Companies investing in the development of innovations strengthen their competitiveness in a globalised world and can react to change more easily. Therefore, research commercialisation and the transfer of scientific results to industry, is vital to the development of products and processes, and ultimately, to economic growth.” Dr Kevin Cullen, Director of Research & Enterprise, University of Glasgow - and a PraxisUnico committee member - who has been instrumental in the development of ATTP, emphasizes, “by promoting, through registration, recognition, progress and knowledge sharing among the global technology transfer community, ATTP will help to further professionalize and promote technology and knowledge transfer between science and industry on a global basis.”
The transfer of new discoveries and new knowledge from research laboratories into commercial products in the marketplace is recognized globally as being of paramount importance to our world economy. The professionals who work to facilitate this transfer are as diverse as the cultures they represent. They must, however, have a core skill set common to all in order to be effective. For this reason a group of leading technology transfer organisations have come together to form the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals (ATTP).
ATTP is established to recognise and promote individuals with these core competencies and to provide professional training for individuals, wishing to acquire these skills and become a Registered Technology Transfer Professional (RTTP). Rather than each association having its own accreditation criteria, they now have come together to establish internationally recognised standards. At launch ATTP connects more than 5000 technology transfer professionals in 67 countries.
Additionalinformation
1. ATTP participating organizations include the Association of European Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP), the Association of Technology Managers in Taiwan (ATMT), the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM, located in the US), Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia (KCA), and PraxisUnico (United Kingdom)
2. Press contacts at Paris: Kevin Cullen (director of research & enterprise at theUniversity of Glasgow, a board member of ASTP, a PraxisUnico committee member and a past board member of AUTM) and Jane Muir (associate director, office of technology licensing, University of Florida and a past board member of AUTM)
3. Information on ATTP in general http://attp.info/
4. For press attendance to the event and information on the ASTP conference: ancilla.kluin@astp.net
5. Professor David Secher is PraxisUnico Chairman (the UK research commercialisation association) and an independent consultant in the area of research commercialisation – in the UK and internationally.
6. ATTP is a not-for-profit company, registered in the UK.
About PraxisUnico
PraxisUnico is a not-for-profit educational organisation set up to support innovation and commercialisation of public sector and charity research for social and economic impact. PraxisUnico encourages innovation and acts as a voice for the research commercialisation profession, facilitating the interaction between the public sector research base, business and government. PraxisUnico provides a forum for best practice exchange, underpinned by first-class training and development programmes.