Addressing the Valley of Death

Academics will never be entrepreneurial. Giving them $242.7M to commercialise research is a waste of money better invested in start ups and SMEs.

Let me explain.

The Morrison Government in Australia has announced that a pilot group of five universities will be given $242.7M "to focus on commercialising their research, industry needs and 'national priorities'" (Grattan. 2021).

The policy is clearly aimed at addressing what entrepreneurial researchers and scholars of the various technology readiness frameworks call the "Technology Valley of Death" (Barr et al.).

The valley of death refers to the gap between approximately levels 4 and 7 in development of technology on the Technology Readiness Levels framework first introduced by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The gap is linked to the lack of resources as the development focus changes from research being conducted at an academic institution to work fufilled by industry.

The Valley of Death as seen in Barr et al.

The Valley of Death as seen in Barr et al.

The critical enabler causing the gap is often the lack of a risk appetite by small businesses and start ups who wish to adopt unproven and new technology out of universities. The gap arises as Universities can only push a piece of technology so far before industry has to take it the rest of the way. Universities simply do not have the physical resources to manufacture prototypes on a large scale needed to prove technology beyond the proof of concept stage. They are not well suited to the commercial and capitalist models of making and selling products. This is why we have businesses. Its basic economics. Focus on doing one thing, and one thing well.

So how do we address the "valley of death"?

Looking at the Figure taken from Barr et al. we see that the obvious driver is to increase resources to either academic research or industry adopting the technology. This is what the government is trying to do. However, academics are just not suited to commercialisation activities. Researchers are not entrepreneurial, if they were they would not be in an academic institution. How many of the Gates, Musks etc completed their degrees?

The second idea is to then increase the resources available to commercialisation activities, which is also what the Government is doing. However, it is being done in the wrong area. Universities are being expected to innovate and commercialise the technology as a one stop shop. This will never happen.

The intervention into this system is only half right. It is fundamentally focused on the wrong part of the system. The government should take their $278M and be using it to increase funding to small businesses and start ups. We should be using this funding to encourage a community of risk takers and adopting ideas FROM academic institutions. The money should not be given to Universities. It should be given to SME's who show the fortitude to engage with academic institutions and adopt the innovative research emerging from the institutions.

That is how you will address this valley of death.

Academics with entrepreneurial skills? It is doomed to fail before it begins and will be a waste of $242.7M from the taxpayer.

Sources

Michelle Grattan. "Morrison says universities should shift focus from ‘publish or perish’ towards commercialising research". The Conversation. 2021. https://theconversation.com/morrison-says-universities-should-shift-focus-from-publish-or-perish-towards-commercialising-research-172522.

Steve H. Barr, Ted Baker, Stephen K. Markham and Angus I. Kingon. "Bridging the Valley of Death: Lessons Learned from 14 Years of Commercialization of Technology Education". Academy of Management Learning & Education. 2009. Vol 8. No 3. New Developments in Technology Management Education. pp. 370-388. Academy of Management. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27759173.