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Most of the ideas submitted to TfI are from university researchers. We offer researchers and universities a way of easily and quickly commercialising their ideas, whether these are patented or unpatented. To make technology ‘investment ready’ requires a proof of concept project to be undertaken by a commercially focused, multidisciplinary team that addresses the key concerns of prospective customers. Engaging specialists to conduct this work is becoming increasingly common and has many attractions for universities.

Our process is completely transparent to our university partners and we have a standard agreement in place that facilitates our interaction and pre-agrees our obligations. These agreements are managed on behalf of the university by Technology Transfer Offices (TTOs) with whom we work very closely. Our aim is to foster long term relationships and therefore we support many education and training initiatives with our partners.

Once ideas are shared with TfI we evaluate and develop the concepts which are then sold to industry customers for subsequent product development. TfI is open to working with our university partners in various ways although we typically bear the total cost of the evaluation and development in return for an agreed share of the profits from sales.

For more information on our philosophy and approach to Proof of Concept, see this book extract written by the founders of Technology from Ideas and see our information sheet.