The Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer: Success Stories and Resources for R&D Practitioners

TECHNICAL BRIEF NO. 38 - 2013
A Publication of SEDL's Disability Research to Practice Program

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The Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer: Success Stories and Resources for R&D Practitioners

Jennifer L. Flagg, MBA, Center on KT4TT, University at Buffalo (SUNY)

This FOCUS Technical Brief invites you to explore the materials and insights the Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer (KT4TT) has compiled from 2008–2013. We hope they help you to avoid the most common barriers and overcome the most perilous struggles along the Research and Development (R&D) path to successfully commercialize your sponsored project outputs. To that end, we describe the outputs from our own R&D projects.

At the beginning, five years seemed ample time to explore and describe best practices in knowledge translation (KT) and technology transfer (TT). The Center on Knowledge Translation for Technology Transfer (KT4TT) was awarded to the University at Buffalo (SUNY), Center for Assistive Technology (CAT) on October 1, 2008, by the National Institute on Disability, Independent Living, and Rehabilitation Research (NIDILRR). Now in 2013, at the end of this funding cycle, we realize that much remains to be understood and explained in the realm of KT for TT. However, thanks to careful planning and budgeting of time and resources, we were able to meet and even surpass our initial goals to generate new conceptual frameworks, develop prototype inventions, and facilitate the transfer of innovative products to the marketplace.

Each project's purpose and the resulting outputs are described, along with web links where you can access more information. For a recap on our progress through the years, take a look at our previous newsletters at https://sphhp.buffalo.edu/cat/kt4tt/dissemination/publications-and-presentations/newsletters.html.

Explore the Need to Knowledge (NtK) Model to understand the key success factors involved in new product development.

This research project analyzed published findings to improve understanding of how to successfully communicate and transfer the results of R&D studies that have potential value to society. The study considered models, methods, metrics, barriers and carriers, as well as best practices from the fields of new product development and technology transfer. A thorough review of academic and industry literature, which is detailed in an Implementation Science article,^{Footnote 1} led to the creation of the Need to Knowledge Model. The NtK Model is described in FOCUS Technical Brief #28^{Footnote 2} as a new product development and technology transfer model geared towards university-based researchers who are generating technology-based devices and services intended for use in the marketplace. It offers parity to the rigor of development and production activities that are overlooked by many applied researchers, as discussed in an article in Technology and Disability.^{Footnote 3} The theoretical underpinnings of this viewpoint are explored in an article that views knowledge as residing in three distinctly different states; discovery, invention and innovation.^{Footnote 4}

The NtK Model is freely available on our website and can be viewed in two formats. First, a table version^{Footnote 5} allows users to explore the supporting evidence related to each stage and step by clicking on magnifying glass icons . Toolbox icons bring users to listings of tools for conducting technical, business or market analyses, which may be called for in specific steps of the framework. Case studies drawn from our internal team's own prior commercialization experience highlight each stage by providing an example for completing a critical activity. A second version of the model appears as a game board where users can click on a path to uncover stage and step names (see Figure 1). We plan to expand the game board's capabilities to offer “what if” scenarios as illustrations of what works, what doesn't and why.

Grantees interested in generating technological solutions to societal problems have found the NtK Model to be useful for writing grant proposals, generating technology transfer and commercialization plans, and better understanding the rigor involved with development and production activities.

Another related Implementation Science article^{Footnote 6} considers the NtK Model using a logic model framework to help users better understand and apply the model to their own work. Finally, a technology transfer planning template^{Footnote 7} is available for investigators to plan their projects using the NtK Model's stages and steps.

Assess the extent to which national organizations can help you to share R&D outputs with large communities of stakeholders.

Investigators and their sponsors are increasingly tasked with sharing their project outputs with a broader range of potential users (stakeholders) in an effort to increase the outcomes and impacts stemming from their work. One way to maximize reach beyond traditional academic audiences, while minimizing the time and effort required to do so, is to communicate a message to relevant national organizations that in turn are positioned to channel your message to their members. To better understand how organizations value, create and/or used new knowledge from R&D projects, we applied a technique called knowledge value mapping. Knowledge value mapping draws upon attitudes explored through surveys and interviews to understand the values and interests of the target organizations so that delivery mechanisms and message content can be tailored to resonate with the organizations and their members. In our example we interviewed national organizations representing six distinct stakeholder groups (consumers, brokers, policy makers, researchers, clinicians, and manufacturers) to determine their level of interest in such new knowledge. It turns out they have high interest and are willing to work closely with investigators to ensure their findings are widely shared. This cost-effective technique for enhancing targeted dissemination activities is described in another Implementation Science journal article,^{Footnote 8} as well as FOCUS Technical Brief #32.^{Footnote 9}

Use knowledge translation interventions to increase interest in your own project's findings and deliverables.

We conducted a series of three randomized controlled studies to compare the results of applying three different communication strategies for sharing new findings from R&D projects with members of five audience types (stakeholder groups). The three strategies are:

1. Knowledge Translation: creating material tailored to the values and context of the target audience (tailored contextualized knowledge packages)^{Footnote 10} and delivering the information through multiple media (hardcopy packages and access to webcasts)^{Footnote 11}
2. Traditional Dissemination: delivering hardcopies of previously published articles to participants.
3. Passive Diffusion: where we delivered nothing, but assessed the extent to which people were aware of the previously published articles both at the beginning and end of the studies.

We applied a new survey instrument to measure people's awareness of, interest in, and decision to apply the new findings. Results were mixed among the three studies, but overall showed that the extra effort required to tailor and target materials will indeed increase awareness of, and interest in findings across various audiences. However, it appears that no amount of external persuasion will make a person use knowledge. Instead, that decision rests chiefly with the individual. Descriptions of the methods and results of this project are available in a webcast^{Footnote 12} and in two conference presentations: one reporting the results of the initial study,^{Footnote 13} and another reporting on the first replication.^{Footnote 14} A companion manuscript for journal publication is in draft form. If you wish to be notified when it is released, please send an email to: vstone@buffalo.edu.

Check out five new Assistive Technology (AT) products now available in the marketplace.

We had proposed to accomplish product outcomes from R&D while demonstrating KT for TT practices to NIDILRR technology grantees so the grantees could have direct experience as ‘participant-observers' in the full range of activities and constraints involved in the conception, design and delivery of new AT products to the marketplace. As a condition of funding we were to work in only three AT areas, and we chose: Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC); Mobility; and Environmental Access. Many of the lessons learned from these five successful development projects—particularly regarding consumer involvement in new product development—were captured and reported in a recent Research Technology Management article.^{Footnote 15}

Explore a free and accessible knowledge base containing thirty years of information and resources that are helpful for planning, doing and managing your technology transfer and knowledge translation processes.

From the following page, you can explore knowledge base content: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/knowledgebase

• The NtK Model: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/knowledgebase/model.php
• The game board version of the NtK Model: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/knowledgebase/gameboard.php
• Webcasts: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/publications/Webcasts/index.php
• Journal articles: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/publications/Journals/index.php
• Conference presentations: http://kt4tt.buffalo. edu/publications/ConferencePresentations/
• FOCUS Technical Briefs: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/publications/FocusBriefs/index.php
• Resource materials: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/publications/ResourceMaterials/index.php

Tap into our publications and presentations to improve innovation policy.

While addressing the needs of practitioners in the AT field, we learned that other government agencies in the U.S. and internationally are experiencing the same problems transferring technology to the marketplace, regardless of the field of application. Governments continue to fund R&D projects at universities while expecting the results to appear in the private sector marketplace. However, there is not yet a sufficient level of direct investment in the linkages between the two. In fact, there is a clear gap between the rhetoric supporting “technological innovation” and the reality of how knowledge is transformed through the related methods of scientific research, engineering development and industrial production. As part of our overall mission we are collaborating with experts in the Science, Technology & Innovation Policy domain to engage government and associated agencies in discussions about how best to link the three methods and the sectors of economic and societal benefit they represent. The following set of Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy-Oriented publications relate to this topic, and offer a platform for anyone interested in improving the outcomes resulting from technology based innovation:

• Pushes and Pulls: Hi(S)tory of the Demand Pull Model of Innovation: http://sth.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/02/12/0162243912473163.abstract
• Methodology Trumps Mythology: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/258481936_Methodology_Trumps_Mythology
• Is America's Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy Open for Business?: http://scienceprogress.org/2012/06/is-america%E2%80%99s-science-technology-and-innovation-policy-open-for-business/
• Déjà Vu Policy: Importing U.S. Innovation Policies from Abroad: http://www.sciencepolicyjournal.org/uploads/5/4/3/4/5434385/deja_vu_policy_20120531.pdf
• A century of talks on research: what happened to development and production?: http://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=46953
• Research or Development? A Short History of Research and Development as Categories: http://kt4tt.buffalo.edu/publications/Gegenworte.doc

What's Next?

In September 2013, the University at Buffalo was awarded funding to continue the Center on KT4TT's work for another five years. The new award begins October 1, 2013, and Center staff will engage in follow-on activities that will complement and enhance the prior outputs and knowledge that were described in this technical brief. A forthcoming email newsletter will detail the new Center's mission, projects, and personnel. To add your name to our mailing list, send email to: smarnold@buffalo.edu with “Add me to your mailing list” in the subject line or body of the message. Or, stay updated on your own by checking the news page on our website at https://sphhp.buffalo.edu/cat/kt4tt/dissemination/publications-and-presentations/press-releases.html. In closing, we give warm thanks to all who worked with us to produce these outputs over the past five years, and encourage all professionals who serve the disability community to continue innovating!