172
instrument was destined for use as a tool by the researchers of the
Ophthalmology Service of the University Hospital.
Between 1988 and 1989 Texcan was built. It was a medical image- processing
tool, mainly for X-rays and echograms, for use by researchers at the University
of La Laguna.
There have also been collaborations with other departments of the
University to make significant improvements to marketable instruments and
develop new ones. It has been a source of great pride and satisfaction to us
that our collaboration with University medical researchers has been so fruitful, giving rise to patents that international companies in the exclusive field of
medical instrumentation have used in the instruments listed in their commercial catalogues.
Those Spanish research centres that have tried to transfer technology to
industry know full well how difficult it is; apart from any legal obstacles, our
mentality and habits often impede the process. At the IAC we have encountered the same problems, but we have occasionally achieved success and are
persistent. The most direct way of technology transfer is to hand over, without
any fuss, the development and prototype to a commercial company. We chose
this means in the seventies, by providing the concept and prototype for a solar
parabolic trough to Energía Solar Española S.A. I believe it is still on the market.
The simplest way to transfer technology is to build instruments jointly with
an industrial firm. Of course, there being at the time no technological infrastructure, we had to build up our own advanced workshops and laboratories.
We also offered our facilities to companies, and our laboratories for calibration and tests.
Yet another variant of technology transfer is to contract out the building of
instruments, or parts thereof, to local firms. Eventually, the time arrived when
everything that could be made outside the Institute, budget permitting, was
outsourced. Naturally, the knowhow and economic returns stay with the firm.
Notable examples of the success of this procedure are the international orders
received by Spanish firms that participated in our space projects and the
building of the Gran Telescopio Canarias.
We have always liked to interpret this as a low-key means for public administrations to stimulate and fund national industry.
We tried on a number of occasions to implement local mechanisms and
entities that would allow an increase in the effectiveness of technology transfer,
while at the same time bringing some economic return to the IAC for the scientific and technical knowledge transferred, and for our powerful international
contacts. So that the reader may gain some idea of the nature these battles, for
they have a certain element of interest, I now relate a number of examples.
F. Sánchez
instrument was destined for use as a tool by the researchers of the
Ophthalmology Service of the University Hospital.
Between 1988 and 1989 Texcan was built. It was a medical image- processing
tool, mainly for X-rays and echograms, for use by researchers at the University
of La Laguna.
There have also been collaborations with other departments of the
University to make significant improvements to marketable instruments and
develop new ones. It has been a source of great pride and satisfaction to us
that our collaboration with University medical researchers has been so fruitful, giving rise to patents that international companies in the exclusive field of
medical instrumentation have used in the instruments listed in their commercial catalogues.
Those Spanish research centres that have tried to transfer technology to
industry know full well how difficult it is; apart from any legal obstacles, our
mentality and habits often impede the process. At the IAC we have encountered the same problems, but we have occasionally achieved success and are
persistent. The most direct way of technology transfer is to hand over, without
any fuss, the development and prototype to a commercial company. We chose
this means in the seventies, by providing the concept and prototype for a solar
parabolic trough to Energía Solar Española S.A. I believe it is still on the market.
The simplest way to transfer technology is to build instruments jointly with
an industrial firm. Of course, there being at the time no technological infrastructure, we had to build up our own advanced workshops and laboratories.
We also offered our facilities to companies, and our laboratories for calibration and tests.
Yet another variant of technology transfer is to contract out the building of
instruments, or parts thereof, to local firms. Eventually, the time arrived when
everything that could be made outside the Institute, budget permitting, was
outsourced. Naturally, the knowhow and economic returns stay with the firm.
Notable examples of the success of this procedure are the international orders
received by Spanish firms that participated in our space projects and the
building of the Gran Telescopio Canarias.
We have always liked to interpret this as a low-key means for public administrations to stimulate and fund national industry.
We tried on a number of occasions to implement local mechanisms and
entities that would allow an increase in the effectiveness of technology transfer,
while at the same time bringing some economic return to the IAC for the scientific and technical knowledge transferred, and for our powerful international
contacts. So that the reader may gain some idea of the nature these battles, for
they have a certain element of interest, I now relate a number of examples.
F. Sánchez