Module 2 - Research - From idea to impact

IP management is not an abstract and complex activity that only concerns lawyers and other specialists. IP management comes down to practical decisions and actions that you make all the way from when you first have an idea of something that you want to investigate to when you have produced your research results and want to spread those results into the world outside of your research group.

It’s about figuring out what you want and, maybe even more importantly, what you do not want should happen with the results of your research. IP management is something you do all the time, regardless if you think about it or not or if you are actively doing things or not.   

 

1. The typical steps of a research project

To clarify the discussion on IP management in research we can make a simplified representation of what happens in a research project. This framework to describe the research process from idea to impact makes the discussions around IP management much easier to structure.

Here's a video with Gustav Notander, business development coach at KTH Innovation, that walks you through the steps in this description of the research process.

 

 

2. The Impact creation phase - How to create impact

Impact has become a common term in the research world, in particular in funding programs, research assessments, and external communication.

But what is impact?

There are many different definitions, but the way the term is commonly used in a university setting is that impact relates to the positive impact that the university has on society in general, through the knowledge, research results, etc. that is created at the university.  

Why should you care about impact? Here are a few reasons (there are surely more):

  • To increase the chances that the results of your work make a positive difference in the world outside of your immediate research environment
  • There’s an increasing public and political interest (and pressure) in seeing proof that the money and resources invested in research and education leads to positive economic and societal development
  • Increasing demand from funding agencies, in research performance assessments, for career development, etc to show that your research creates impact

 

You can create impact in many different areas, for example: 

Types of impact

Economic growth in companies, organisations, and society: increased revenues, profit, business value, cost savings, new jobs, more tax revenue, etc.

Health: cure/management of diseases, better health outcomes, decreased mortality, etc.

Societal and political improvements: higher standard of living, better political systems, more equality, better education, new/better laws and policies, standards, etc.

Environment: Positive changes in environment parameters, more environmentally friendly energy systems, etc.

These are some of the most common examples, you could probably come up with other areas as well.

 

2.1 How is IP management related to creating impact?

Creating impact from your research is important, and being able to create impact from your research results is greatly facilitated by good IP management. Your knowledge and IP is what eventually will create the impact, but it usually takes investment in time, resources (including money), energy, and social capital (reputation) to get there, both from you and other stakeholders. If it is unclear who owns what and who has the right to do what with the IP, or if some relevant protection of the IP is not in place, then the risk is significantly higher that some stakeholder(s) will choose not to make that investment, and vice versa...   

 

3. The four main ways to create impact from research

IP management and Impact are closely connected and when we are discussing IP management it helps to do it in the context of the different ways that you can create impact. This will give us a useful framework for the coming discussion about specific IP management related questions.

As you've seen above, you can create impact in many different areas. Now we will look at how you can go about to create that impact in practice.

The different ways to create impact can be divided into four broad strategies*:

1. Sharing knowledge and spreading information to the public domain

  • Scientific publications (articles, books, reports, conferences, etc.)
  • Contributions in academic education (educational materials, text books, courses, etc.)
  • Popular science publications (non-academic publications, mainstream media, podcasts, social media, etc.)  

2. Collaborating with specific partners

  • Research collaborations and contract research with specific partners
  • Educational programs/activities for specific partners
  • Consultancy assignments, advisory roles, etc. by individual researchers

3. Taking your results and know-how to the market - commercialization

  • Knowledge transfer projects
  • Licensing/selling IP to another (existing) party that takes it to the market
  • Starting up a new company to take a product/service to the market

4. Open source and similar approaches - “Structured openness”

  • Commons, open source, etc.
  • Industrial/research networks (standards, ”knowledge platforms”, etc.)

*(From Ulf Petrusson's book ”Forskning och nytta”, names of the "strategies" slightly modified/simplified)

 

Let's expand briefly on these different impact creation strategies...

Here's a link to a document Download link to a document with a summary of the different impact strategies

 

Remember, there are different ways to create impact but regardless of which way you choose, creating impact from your research results requires active efforts.

 

In the coming modules we dive deeper into the most important considerations from an IP management perspective in the different impact creation strategies.

But first, let's pause for a moment and look at your own research and answer the question: How can you create impact?