Technology Transfer in Hawaii with Steve Auerbach

Today, Lisa's guest is Steve Auerbach, the interim Director of the Office of Innovation and Commercialization (OIC), the Office of Tech Transfer, the Office of Indigenous Innovation (OII), and UH Ventures in the University of Hawaii System. Steve joined the OIC in October 2019 and was tasked with managing the research and innovation developed across all ten campuses within the University of Hawaii System, protecting the University of Hawaii's intellectual property and technology assets and sharing those assets with a broader community to address the challenges and opportunities faced by Hawaii and the world. 

Steve shares his journey to Tech Transfer and explains the ten campuses that make up the OIC. He also discusses the programs like the Hacking for Recovery program his office has for faculty, staff, students, and alumni. Instead of incubators or accelerators, the OIC uses the three-year run, which takes ideas and gets them STTR ready more quickly.

Steve speaks about how his office is structured, their scorecard, and what they have seen in the last three years with disclosures, patents issued, active licenses, and royalty revenue. Steve believes it is important to create a culture where faculty and PI's lean in and understand the value of entrepreneurship.

Relationships, deep tech, and high growth are some of the most important things when managing innovations to have the greatest opportunity for success. Steve speaks about the role corporate partners, and the DoD have at the OIC, and he shares a little about the Tech Bridge 808 project they have with the DoD.

Listen, as Steve shares his office's biggest successes, the value that organizations like AUTM bring, and the two wishes he has for the OIC, which are having a vibrant and growing innovation ecosystem and working more with foundations, corporate and private philanthropic organizations.

In This Episode:

• [02:22] Welcome to the show, Steve!
• [02:47] Steve shares his journey to Tech Transfer and the OIC.
• [05:06] Steve speaks about a product they developed in his lab.
• [07:05] Listen, as Steve discusses the ten campuses of the OIC.
• [09:36] Steve shares his office's programs for faculty, staff, students, and alumni.
• [12:04] Steve talks about the X-Force program on the DoD side.
• [14:03] Instead of using an incubator or accelerator, they are trying to move to a three-year journey to get from idea to STTR ready.
• [15:37] How is your office structured?
• [17:30] Steve speaks about their scorecard around disclosures, patents issued, active licenses, and royalty revenue of the last several years.
• [18:54] Steve shares their three-year run rate.
• [21:14] Steve believes it's important to create a culture where faculty and PI's lean in and understand the value of entrepreneurship.
• [22:31] Steve says that relationships are most important in managing innovations to have the greatest opportunity for success.
• [25:02] Deep tech and high growth strategy is another very important thing in managing innovations.
• [25:53] Can you talk about the role of corporate partners and the DoD at the OIC?
• [28:16] Steve discusses a DoD project called Tech Bridge 808.
• [29:22] Steve believes they are not doing enough with philanthropic organizations.
• [30:17] Reflecting on past license transactions, what might you have done differently if you knew then what you know now?
• [32:00] Steve shares some of his office's biggest successes.
• [34:42] Steve says they need to do more across the different schools.
• [35:53] Steve talks about needing to do more with assisting women inventors and entrepreneurs.
• [38:02] Steve discusses being engaged with AUTM and the value he believes they bring.
• [38:52] Steve shares the two wishes he has for the OIC.
• [40:26] Thank you so much for being on the show!

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