Inventor Views on University Innovation: a Survey of National Academy of Inventors Fellows

Innovation in universities serves many purposes: helping society through technology transfer, building economies, supporting the aspirations of faculty and students to be entrepreneurs or make an impact, and generating revenue. Such outside-focused innovation is complemented by inside innovation, which aims to improve the practices of the university; to better serve society through education, research, and clinical care; and to remain competitive in the face of changes in technology and society. In this paper, we investigate how university innovators- represented by the Fellows of the National Academy of Inventors-are supported in outside innovation and how Fellows view university culture's support for inside innovation to improve university practices. Our survey received responses from 339 Fellows. Inventors indicated that they were helped in various ways and not just through traditional patenting and licensing. Help in creating a start-up, promotion of inventions in the media, and the consideration of inventions in promotion and appraisal contributed the most to their satisfaction, whereas royalty distributions had no significant effect on satisfaction. Overall, respondents were only mildly satisfied with institutional support for innovation as well as the pace of innovation at their institutions. While respondents generally agreed that their institutions were receptive to implementing faculty ideas, they were less likely to agree that their institutions were willing to take risks or try approaches not used by peers. Most respondents did not indicate that faculty satisfaction was a top-three institutional priority for innovation. They also were unlikely to indicate that disruption in education, research, or clinical care was a top institutional priority