Unitec wants to encourage innovation and it believes that at the heart of the matter is trust. As a consequence, we have recently implemented a new IP Policy that cedes the ownership of IP to the originator.
This innovative approach is intended to promote trust in you, our staff and students, to have confidence in the organisation because Unitec no longer makes any claims on intellectual property. From that position of security, knowing that you are in control, the idea is that you are more likely to want to do business with Unitec.
Lodging a patent, proving a concept, identifying the novelty of an idea, these are all things that take considerable resources to do. This new policy has guidelines and templates that enable you to partner with Unitec, if you wish. Or not, that is up to you.
This policy has been developed as a pathway toward another framework that is intended to encourage and support innovation; Whaingia te Toi Huarewa, the High Technology Transdisciplinary Network (HTTRN).
The High Technology Transdisciplinary Network has recently evolved into an incubator for transdisciplinary projects, where our researchers work on solving problems of companies and society. When you are awarded a project in the HTTRN incubator, you get to work on your project idea with the goal of developing a project proposal for submission to a funding agency, or to establish a collaboration with a company.
The incubator started 1 July 2018 with three projects and we will soon release a call for project proposals with an expected start in January 2019. Projects in the incubator could, for example, be part of the joint commercialisation of IP by you and Unitec, or they could lead to novel IP.
In order to launch this policy and to provide more details, Professor Christian Probst, Director of the HTTRN and Associate Professor Marcus Williams, Dean of Research and Enterprise will be undertaking a roadshow in the last quarter of 2018, visiting each pathway.
The current timetable for the roadshow is outlined below – please make sure you come along and hear more.