 an initiative supported by Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, with the aim of promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. Its Office of Technology Transfer was established under the National Biopharma Mission to help the research community from Academia Connect with startups and the industry. Through strategic evaluation protection and commercialization of innovations, the Office of Technology Transfer attempts to complement excellent science with entrepreneurship and enterprise. So, to know more about it, we have with us Mr. Shivkumar R, who is the Head of Office of Tech Transfer at CCAM. Let's listen in. When we talk about innovations and then thereafter starting a startup, one very important part of, you know, the process is technology transfer. So, we need to have a very thorough understanding of technology transfers when it comes to, you know, having a successful run at any business. So, to make us understand more about that, we have with us Mr. Shivkumar from CCAM to, you know, tell us more about it. So, welcome, sir. And thanks for spending time for us. To begin with, we'd like to understand what this technology transfer is all about and what does it entail? Yeah. So, thank you, Vikas. First of all, you know, thanks to you and the opportunity. Thanks to the Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell. So, now coming to the point that you made, you know, for any innovation or invention, technology transfer for innovation to get translated to a stage of commercialization, technology transfer becomes very essential. So, as the name suggests, it is a transfer of technology or a know-how relating to a product or process and to a stage of commercialization. So, in simple terms, if I have to put it, technology transfer is a process wherein you take the technology from lab to market. So, this can happen between any entities, between two individuals, between an individual and a company, between a startup company and to another startup company or a, you know, a large-sized company, between an institute and the company, between an institute and institute. So, yeah. The work that Ccamp is doing in that regard. So, please explain what Ccamp does in this regard. See, we operate under national biopharma mission funded by Bayrak. So, we started off in 2020 as one of the recognized Office of Technology Transfer across the country. So, there are total of seven OTTs across the country and we are one of the recognized TTOs. We call it as Office of Technology Transfer, but Bayrak calls it as Technology Transfer Office. So, OTT and TTO means one and the same here. So, what we do in the processes, the whole mission is to ensure that the, that we catalyze the transition of the laboratory science to the market through cutting-edge scientific technologies, through expertise and network. Apart from that, we're also mandated to reach out to the institutes in jurisdictions allotted to us and these jurisdictions are Karnataka, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh and Chennai Metro, where we have to, you know, reach out to institutes or universities. It could be private institute, it could be a government institute and, you know, help them in IPN technology transfer. That is one part. The other mandate is to reach out to the individuals or startups across the country and help them, support them in IPN technology transfer. So, how successful has been the Office of Technology Transfer at Ccamp in bringing out new technologies in the market? We have, like I said, we were established in 2020 and since then we have received a lot of inquiries in terms of technology transfer and we do get involved in technology transfer on a regular basis. You know, some of the recent examples that I would, I can say is that, you know, a technology related to a novel germicidal coated fabric. This is from Instem and the technology relates to a germicidal compound and coating onto the germicidal compound onto a fabric so that they neutralize the enveloped viruses and the fabric can be washed up to, you know, 45 washes and this is particularly helpful for hospitals which is looking for, you know, fabrics which have, which are recycled. So, that way, you know, this technology is very prominent in the sense that we were involved in technology transfer of this particular technology and the licensing in this case is Aditya Vella. So, that is one example. The other example that I can give is a very recent example where we got a technology license to a company called SurviveX for therapeutic molecules for combating sepsis. Like this, there are several technologies that we are looking at on a regular basis and we are transferring, we are ensuring that the technology meet its end in terms of, you know, transfer and commercialization. So, what are the processes involved in to achieve a successful technology transfer? In the earlier stages, we were following a conventional approach where you receive any inquiry, then you assess the technology and see if it has potential for technology transfer, then, you know, then you negotiate scout for industrial partners. But now I think the approach is a bit changed. We believe in traveling with the inventors right from stage one, I would say stage zero. So, when you travel with the inventors or faculties or with the, you know, researchers, it kind of gives you a holistic feeling that, you know, that everything is going well. Right from stage zero, you are guiding the inventors as to what is right, what is wrong, what needs to be protected, what need not be, you know, looked at it, what need not be looked into from the IP perspective. What are the aspects that one can look into from IP perspective when they are venturing into someone else's space. So, all these factors plays a very critical role in the early stages of discussion, particularly when it comes to startup companies. Because startup companies, they have a lot of things to do and IP and, you know, technology transfer is something which is very critical and essential. So, we believe in traveling with the inventors right from stage zero. That is, you have a research in R&D done and you have a product or process out of R&D, then what happens is you evaluate the product or process from the point of IP, protect it, then market the technology, license the technology, after licensing ensure that the license technology is commercialized. So, this is a, this is an entire cycle. So, how do you measure the success of technology transfer? There is no one stop solution to this question. It depends on the technology. There could be certain technologies which could, you know, get licensed without efforts that has put into in terms of generating more data. In certain cases, for example, when it comes to therapeutic molecules or drugs, particularly in the field of life science, when you have a technology, the technology should be assessed at several levels, whether the technology is at TRL 1 to 10 and the more, you know, the numbers are increased in terms of TRL value, then the technology holds a strong value. That is one. Second is, when it comes to therapeutic molecules and drugs, you need to have some data in terms of clinical trials for it to be, you know, really successful in terms of commercialization. While you may be able to transfer the technology in the beginning stage, there is a whole lot of thing that you need to do for such molecules to come out to the market. Ultimately, it will be tested on individuals. It means to say it has to work safe, it has to be non-toxic, it has to be efficacious. So, particularly those kind of technologies will take a lot more time. So, you can measure the success of any particular technology, whether it has reached a stage of commercialization, it all depends on the kind of technology that you have in hand. What strategies do you employ to effectively market and promote technology transfer initiatives? First strategy is to travel. Whenever there is any inquiry, travel with the inventors or researchers right from stage zero and occasionally have periodic discussions with them on several aspects in terms of IP protection, technology transfer and scouting for industry partners. How can they market their technology? That is the first, you know, measure that you should have. Second is you need to have right expertise within the team and within the network. Here in OTT at CCAM, we have expertise from different backgrounds. Like, you know, like we have IP specialists who can take care of IP drafting, protection, prosecution of patent applications till its grant. We have licensing specialists who, you know, actually assess the technology from licensing point of view, evaluate the technology as to how much value it holds, scout for industry partners, negotiate with industry partners and then ensure that the technology is licensed. And we have a third category of professionals who are totally into agreements. Yeah, agreements more of a legal person who would help us in everything. There are inquiries or there could be a stage in different phases, you would need some advice on legal aspects on NDA, on MTA, on spin-offs from the Institute, on agreements, license agreements, on term sheets before licensing agreement. So you should have right kind of expertise within your team so that, you know, that kind of builds confidence with people who are, you know, coming to us in terms of inquiring about IP and technology transfer. Third is you need to have robust tools in terms of databases for one for searches, for IP protection or it could be for, you know, conducting freedom to operate, conducting invalidation and so on. Tools for assessing the technology and evaluating the technology. So you mentioned IP here, so how do you manage the intellectual property issues while the technology transfer is on? While the technology transfer is initiated, it is critical for one to assess the technology in hand. What is the TRL level of the technology? What is the value that the technology holds? And these are done by using tools where we can, you know, take some precedence, evaluate the technology. While we do this, it is also important for someone to keep in mind particularly an IP or transfer professional to keep in mind that there is a freedom to operate. Of course, this is all dependent on whether the industry partner with whom we are negotiating in terms of licensing, whether, you know, the freedom to operate will be conducted by them or should it be done by us on behalf of the inventors? So there are a lot of confidentiality issues or confidential information related to any startup or, you know, any of the business venture. So how do you take care of those confidentiality issues while the transfer is being conducted? Yeah, so I think first and foremost, the moment we receive any inquiry and we are going to negotiate with any party involved, we execute NDA, confidentiality agreement with them. We also execute, you know, MOU with the parties so that, you know, we have the agreements in place in terms of confidentiality, in terms of the understanding and the responsibilities of the parties involved. So that kind of takes care of the confidentiality issues. So does it even any time, you know, go down to mediation or something happens which goes out of control and the mediation is required? So do you deal with that part also? We don't cater to mediation or, you know, arbitration because we are restricted in terms of expertise only in IP and technology transfer. Yeah, I mean, we have not seen any case where we have gone to stage of mediation or arbitration. But yeah, in future, if it happens, so we may have to reach out to arbitrators who can perform this activity. Do you also monitor the performance of our technology after the transfer has been done, performance of, you know, on various parameters, how the startup is doing after the technology transfer? Yeah. And if you do, then how do you, I mean, what techniques do you imply to monitor that? After the technology is transferred, that is, once the term sheet is decided, license agreement is executed, we kind of, you know, we keep a note of who are the parties involved. We have specific databases where we input all the information about any technology that is transferred. And then we have periodic reports from them, from all the parties involved, from the licensee, from the licensor to understand where the technology has reached in terms of commercialization. It could be the efforts made by the licensee to take the technology to two different phases of commercialization. It could be a case where, you know, it has reached a stage of commercialization and the products or processes or the products out of processes are sold. And then we would get periodic reports of how much it is sold. And then, you know, we keep track of all these things and then reach out to licensee, licensor, and ensure that the obligations that they have under the license agreement are fulfilled. So, here's something very, very vital and important is protecting the interest of both the parties, the investor, the inventor, as well as the licensee. So, it could be very tricky at times. So, how do you manage that part? Yeah, very interesting and a tricky question, like you said. So, when we receive enquiries and there are two parties involved, licensee and licensor, you weigh the interest of both the parties. Pros and cons as to what happens when they enter into a license agreement and what are the benefits that the parties are going to get out of the license agreement. And accordingly, ensure that, you know, that you have a win-win for both the inventors as well as to the licensee. So, that is where, you know, it all depends on considering all these factors, how you negotiate on the table with both the parties, see to that that the parties, both of them are comfortable with the kind of clauses and with the kind of negotiation that is going on and have a win-win situation for both of them. Still trying to achieve that balance, but yeah, each case is different. And so, it keeps challenging here. Yeah, it is very challenging. Each case is very challenging and at the same time is intriguing, very interesting to know different situations. So, but as long as you're able to handle it, I think you should be happy. Yeah, yeah, but yeah, each case is unique, like you said. You are at a vantage position from where you can view the, you know, growth of technology as well as startup culture in the country. So, what change have you come across from the past few years? I mean, we are better off or we are like way better off or we are at the same level. What kind of a change have you witnessed when it comes to the technology development and of course transfers? The number of technology transfer also gives you an idea about the growth. So, in holistic view from you, I mean, what kind of a growth have you seen from there? So, growth has been very tremendous in my opinion. Earlier, you know, before 15 years when I started off my career in IP, people were not aware of the fact that there is something called as IP. You know, the moment I used to talk about intellectual property rights, people would ask me, oh, are you a real estate agent? Because there is property, the term property associated with it. So, from there, if I think from there and frame from where we have reached today, there is a lot of awareness about IP, a lot of awareness about technology transfer. So, that way and there are a lot of examples that we can quote in terms of successful transfer of technology. We have seen a tremendous growth and it is not only a point where we as technology transfer professionals, our job is to ensure that there is a technology and we have to license it out. You also have to see how it could impact the society. That way, if you see there are a lot of technologies that are transferred last few years and that have had a significant impact on society and also economic development of the country. So, great Sivakumar, it was wonderful talking to you and the insight that we got from you about the technology transfer are really precious and I hope everyone watching this would be able to benefit from all this. Thank you so much for sparing time. Thank you Vikas and thanks to Ministry of Education's Innovation Cell for taking this initiative and inviting me for the session. Thank you so much. This was Mr. Sivakumar R, head of OTT at Ccamp. In the coming editions, we will meet some more personalities from well-known institutions who are working hard to make a difference. Till then, goodbye.