Tech-transfer model needs to change, says former TSB man

Science and innovation are different activities and need to be treated as such, rather than as different parts of a single process, according to David Bott, the former director of innovation programmes at the Technology Strategy Board.

Bott told the PraxisUnico annual conference in Dublin on 11 June that innovation was not just a continuation of science, and treating it as such doesn’t work. Rather, it is a separate activity that requires different people with different skills, he said.

But as separate activities, the two need to be bridged, and better ways of organising the interactions between science and innovation than exist now are needed.