HSRC - Integrated Annual Report 2016/2017

HSRC Annual Report 2016/17

Intellectual Property (IP) and Technology Transfer Survey

In 2016/17, CeSTII worked toward the completion of a research partnership project involving the DST, the National

Intellectual Property Management Office, and the Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association.

The South African National Survey of Intellectual Property andTechnology Transfer in Publicly Funded Research Institutions:

Inaugural Baseline Study (2008–2014) Report was completed in the year under review. In the report, Minister Pandor

described the survey as “…an important addition to a portfolio of instruments that are used in assessing the performance

of the South African National System of Innovation (NSI) … [which] helps to define, in practical terms, specific indicators

that government and its stakeholders, including the broader community of technology transfer practitioners, can use

to measure the capacity, outputs and targeted outcomes and ultimately impacts of publicly funded R&D.”

Headline results from the IP and

Technology Transfer Survey

In total,

start-up

companies were formed over the

period to commercialise the institutions’ technology,

73%

of which were based on

publicly funded IP

Full report available at

Management of

technologies

patent families

trade mark

families

registered design families

and new

patent

applications

filed increased more rapidly than the increase in

research expenditure, which indicates acceleration of these activities

relative to research expenditure. On average,

100

new technologies

were added to the portfolio managed by respondent institutions

annually between 2011 and 2014.

There has been a quadrupling in the actual number of licences executed

per year in the period. Of significance is that more than

88%

of this

revenue accrued consistently each year to the same four institutions that

have well-established technology transfer functions. The majority of IP

transactions yielded less than

R100 000

per year.