Technology evaluation practices in universities’ technology transfer offices

Abstract

Technology evaluation and licensing by universities has increased in recent years, stimulated by specific policies that have encouraged quantitative as well as qualitative changes in technology transfer from universities. This paper makes a review of the concepts and practices that are behind technology evaluation and licensing by universities. The literature on this subject is fragmented and dispersed, and the main objective and contribution of this paper is to provide an integrated and comprehensive overview of the concepts and practices on the subject. A conceptual order is generated, allowing the reader to identify concepts and practices, and to easily situate them in terms of their position in the chain of events that constitute the process of technology evaluation and licensing by universities.