UTEN conducts week of in-situation training at FCT/UNL

15 Jun 2010

Cliff Zintgraff led a training week in late May 2010. He and Dina Chaves helped the FCT/UNL TT office's web site go live with its initial public portfolio offering.

Cliff Zintgraff, UTEN Austin program manager, visited FCT/UNL for in-situation training from May 17 to 21, 2010. Dina Chaves, TT coordinator for the FCT/UNL Office for Entrepreneurship Promotion and Technology Transfer hosted Cliff. The purpose of UTEN in-situation training is to transfer lessons learned in the UTEN program into operational practices in Portuguese technology-transfer offices. This is accomplished by assessing the needs of each office, reviewing the UTEN training received by TT office staff, and developing a customized plan within the overall framework of the training.

A UTEN Austin staff member leads the training. Additional subject matter experts and technology-transfer practitioners provide support either on-site or remotely. The goal of in-situation training is to benefit offices long-term by improving business practices and procedures. During in-situation training at FCT/UNL, Cliff and Dina developed a specification for the FCT/UNL TTO web site. It helped cast a vision for how the office interfaces with its main customers: industry, researchers, students, and entrepreneurs. They developed an overall procedural flowchart. It focused on disclosure-to-patent decisions and defined how UTEN assessment tools would incorporate with the process. It described the functions UTEN assessment tools would serve. They also developed a disclosure form appropriate for FCT/UNL. It struck a balance between information disclosure and simplicity-of-use for inventors. During the week, Dina and Cliff advanced U.S. connections for select FCT/UNL technologies. Cliff and Dina were key to the FCT/UNL Office for Entrepreneurship Promotion and Technology Transfer web site going live with its initial public portfolio offering.

L-R: Dina Chaves, TT coordinator for the FCT/UNL Office for Entrepreneurship Promotion
and Technology Transfer, Susana Barreiros, professor and subdirector, FCT/UNL,
and Cliff Zintgraff, UTEN Austin program manager.

“Cliff provided the expertise needed to develop TTO’s procedures in order to optimize technology commercialization in collaboration with OTC (Office of Technology Commercialization) at UT Austin,” Dina Chaves said. "The outcome of UTEN support allows the development of best practices in technology scanning and screening activities, improving the effective interaction between the TTO and the stakeholders. Cliff and UTEN Austin’s collaboration is crucial to achieve the mission of the FCT/UNL TTO: Turning ideas into assets through the commercialization of technologies."

According to Susana Barreiros, professor and subdirector, FCT/UNL, “The partnership with UT Austin provides many opportunities to improve the knowledge-transfer process at FCT/UNL. One recent example is the design of the FCT/UNL TTO web site, which will help clarify IP policy and procedures and will undoubtedly foster a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship among the FCT/UNL community.” UTEN will publish a case study of the effort, including a procedural flowchart and a disclosure form. Find this and other case studies at www.utenportugal.org/case-studies.