Wellspring Helps Guilford College Maximize IP Impact

As a small liberal arts college, they did not have internal technology transfer expertise, so they were looking for a consultancy to complete an inventory of on-campus assets as well as a gap analysis of the support needed to deliver wider external impact from their teaching and research. They wanted to understand the breadth of intellectual assets they had, and if creating an Office of Technology Transfer would benefit the college and the surrounding community.

Interviews
Wellspring consultants conducted extensive interviews and engaged with many on the Guilford staff to determine a list of over 50 potential IP opportunities. This list included everything from books, training courses, and interactive experiences, to building on the local history of the Underground Railway, and more.

Asset inventory and Recommendations
The Wellspring team took all the knowledge gained in the interviews to  provide a comprehensive asset inventory. Wellspring created a bespoke categorization system to identify trends in asset generation across the College and an asset evaluation system to group and prioritize opportunities based on commercial readiness and resource needs. Wellspring made high-level recommendations on the potential for commercialization from these assets for the benefit of students, faculty, the College and the wider community and on the infrastructure and resources required.

Best practices
Finally, the Wellspring team shared best practices for successful Tech Transfer that are relevant for an organization like Guilford. This drew on Wellspring’s global experience of successful ways to achieve lasting external impacts from liberal arts subjects.