UFU, Alm.del - 2015-16 - Endeligt svar på spørgsmål 168: Spm. om ministeren vil fremsende relevante evalueringer af Globaliseringspuljen 2007-12, til Uddannelses- og forskningsministeren

Uddannelses- og Forskningsudvalget 2015-16
UFU Alm.del
Offentligt

Evaluation of

The Inventor Advisory Service

Published by

Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation

Bredgade 40

1260 Copenhagen

Telephone: +45 3544 6200

E-mail: [email protected]

www.ufm.dk

Frontpage

picture:

Colourbox.com

This publikation kan be downloaded at ufm.dk/publikationer

and at bedreinnovation.dk/publikationer

ISBN (elektronic publication): 978-87-93151-96-3

2015

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Table of contents

1. Executive summary

1.1 This evaluation

1.2 The evaluation concludes…

1.3 Three avenues of development

1.4 The evaluation recommends…

2. Dansk sammenfatning

2.1 Evalueringen

2.2 Evalueringen konkluderer…

2.3 Tre udviklingsveje

2.4 Evalueringen anbefaler…

3. Introduction

3.1 The organisation at a glance

3.2 This evaluation

4. Means and ends

4.1 Licensing as commercialisation pathway

4.2 Counselling as a public investment

4.3 The service concept

4.4 The inventors and the businesses

4.5 Goals and their achievement

5. People and organisation

5.1 Located at DTI

5.2 The organisation

5.3 Skills and competencies

5.4 Operations and workflow

5.5 Resources and budget

6. Part of the commercialisation support chain

6.1 The commercialisation support chain

6.2 The role of the Inventor Advisory Service

6.3 Other idea maker schemes

6.4 Other idea development schemes

6.5 Other idea commercialisation schemes

6.6 Coherence and cooperation

7. Conclusions and recommendations

7.1 The evaluation concludes…

7.2 Three avenues of development

7.3 The evaluation recommends…

7.4 Revising the result contract

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8. Measuring the impact of the Inventor Advisory Service

8.1 The meaning of impact

8.2 A proposed methodology

8.3 Is the Inventor Advisory Service a good investment?

Appendix 1: Methodology

Desk research.

Interviews with inventors and businesses.

Other actors in the commercialisation support chain.

Bibliography

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1. Executive summary

1.1 This evaluation

This document reports on an evaluation of the Inventor Advisory Service. The evaluation is

commissioned by the Danish Agency for Science and Technology and Innovation (DASTI) and is

conducted by the independent consultancy DAMVAD.

This evaluation addresses three tasks in that it:

Evaluates the organisation,

including the means, ends, organisation and user impact of the

Inventor Advisory Service, and examines the goal-attainment of the organisation.

Makes recommendations

for developing the Inventor Advisory Service as a basis for the

upcoming contract negotiations between DASTI and the Inventor Advisory Service.

Develops an impact assessment model

for quantifying the economic impact of the

Inventor Advisory Service.

The evaluation is based on the following sources of information, referenced throughout the

report:

THE EMPIRICAL BASIS OF THE EVALUATION

—

All available written documents and statistics on the Inventor Advisory Service.

—

Visit to the Inventor Advisory Service and interviews with the director and key

employees.

—

Interviews with inventors counselled by the Inventor Advisory Service. These include 1)

inventors currently receiving counselling, 2) inventors who have successfully sold a

license, 3) inventors who have commercialised their idea through other means, and 4)

inventors who have abandoned their idea during the counselling process.

—

Finally, the report rests on interviews with businesses holding one or more licenses

purchased from inventors after counselling by the Inventor Advisory Service.

1.2 The evaluation concludes…

The evaluation finds that the Inventor Advisory Service is:

Well-suited to its purpose

with a good alignment of what the Inventor Advisory Service is to

achieve and what it does. As described in Chapter 4, licensing is a direct and cost-effective

commercialisation pathway for private inventors with limited business experience. This pathway

exploits existing production and marketing capacity already present in the economy, and thus

provides a good alternative to e.g. entrepreneurship. In addition, as detailed in Chapter 4, the

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Inventor Advisory Service is competent and well-suited to its task, and represents a relatively

simple and direct means to a clear end: the commercialisation of ideas of private individuals.

Achieves its formal goals,

as described in Chapter 4, the purpose of the Inventor Advisory

Service is operationalised in a number of formal milestone goals, directed at services rendered,

successful commercialisation, communication and visibility and educational services. The

Inventor Advisory Service achieves its formal goals and surpasses several of them.

Preliminarily, a sound public investment,

but this cannot be empirically shown without

an economic impact assessment. The Inventor Advisory Service investigated the value of the 16

most lucrative license agreements it counselled during the period 2000-2009.

These generated

an annual average turnover of DKK 276 million during the 10-year period investigated. Given

the size of the annual public investment in IAS, a decisive role in realising just one of these

agreements or a minor role in realising several of them is likely to have created value in excess of

the investment made in the IAS. However, as described in Chapter 8 turnover cannot, without

reservations, be considered economic impact. In addition, important cost-side considerations

must likewise be taken into account. Last, but not least, is the question of whether this value

would have been created without intervention from the Inventor Advisory Service. To address

these questions, we propose an economic impact assessment model in Chapter 8.

A small and nimble organisation,

as described in Chapter 5, the Inventor Advisory Service

is a small, nimble and flat organisation. As shown in Chapter 4, the majority of its resources are

allocated to initial counselling of inventors. The organisation is sensitive to turnover of key

personnel, which is immediately relevant in light of the imminent retirement of several of its

most experienced employees.

Part of a fragmented commercialisation support chain.

As described in Chapter 6 the

Inventor Advisory Service is one among many schemes along the commercialisation chain. The

organisation is part of an informal system of references to and from adjacent support schemes.

These are not formal or systematic, and rely on personal relations. Overall, the organisation is

not part of a “no wrong door” commercialisation chain.

1.3 Three avenues of development

The recommendations are directed at three avenues of development that the evaluator sees for

the Inventor Advisory Service, explained in the following:

More ideas into the funnel:

One simple avenue of development is to increase the volume of

ideas that reach the Inventor Advisory Service. This presupposes a non-declining marginal rate

of success of more ideas. The most experienced advisors of the Inventor Advisory Service

support this presumption. In their experience, the current success rate of ideas has remained

roughly stable throughout the 43-year history of the organisation (it is currently around 1:235).

In addition, this is supported by the literature on idea success rates.

Following this rationale,

increasing the input of ideas to the Inventor Advisory Service should in principle increase the

number of licenses (at least) proportionally. Note that using the data collected as part of the

economic impact assessment, it may be possible to empirically test this assumption.

Increasing the idea success rate:

A second avenue of development is increasing the success

rate of the ideas received by the Inventor Advisory Service. While experience and the literature

IAS (2012a)

See for example Stevens et al (1997) and Babcock (1996)

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speak for a very robust success rate of ideas (see previous), the benefits of increasing the success

rate may be substantial. In effect, there may be segments of inventors with a higher-than-

average quality of ideas. Increasing the proportion of these in the target group of the Inventor

Advisory Service may increase the success rate. Another way to influence the idea success rate is

for the Inventor Advisory Service to be more selective (demand more from inventors) before

providing initial counselling.

Maximum impact, given limited resources:

As a third avenue of development, we raise

the question of the prioritisation of limited resources between the three major functions of the

Inventor Advisory Service:

Education of potential inventors

Public service to inventors (initial counselling)

Commercialising the most promising ideas (extended counselling)

Currently, the resource allocation is approximately 12, 66, and 22 pct., respectively.

Could more

be achieved with the same budget or could an additional investment yield a disproportionate

payoff?

With this in mind, we turn to the recommendations of the evaluation.

1.4 The evaluation recommends…

The recommendations of the evaluation are developed after talking to people in and around the

Inventor Advisory Service. The recommendations are, however, fully the responsibility of the

evaluation team, and no one else.

The common theme of our recommendations for further developing the Inventor Advisory

Service is that of moving resources “downstream” in the value chain – from educating potential

inventors, towards commercialising the most promising inventions.

A more focused Education Service:

The Education Service is to promote licensing as an

alternative to entrepreneurship, as a pathway for realising ideas. Important as this may be, the

target group of the Education Service is disproportionally large. The Education Service currently

has a target group of 1.25 million students in Denmark in addition to teachers and educators at

all educational levels.

Services are provided on a “first come, first served”-basis until the DKK 1

million budget is spent. In this light, we believe that the intervention is out of proportion to its

target group. Therefore, we recommend, that one of three courses of action be considered:

—

Focus the Education Service

on the target groups where it makes the most

difference to the advisory function of the Inventor Advisory Service, e.g. engineering

students, technical students, artisan educations, industrial designers, etc. In this role,

the purpose of the Education Service will be that of prompting potential inventors to

submit their ideas into the advisory function of the Inventor Advisory Service.

—

Coordinate the Education Service

with other educational services and pool

resources to present licensing as an alternative commercialisation pathway nationwide.

Based on a total budget of DKK 8,5m, of which 1m goes to the Education Service. The Inventor Advisory Service

estimate the division of time between initial and extended counselling to be 75 and 25 pct., respectively (see

Chapter 4).

Statistics Denmark (2014)

See an example here:

http://Skoletjenestenetvaerk.dk/

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In this role, the current rationale can be sustained, more or less, as it is. However, the

current independent organisation of the service should be reconsidered.

—

Train the trainers

and focus the Education Service on teachers and, through them,

the students. This would be a way to achieve leverage with the limited resources of the

service, considering the comparatively large target group.

Update the online reception tool:

As described in Chapter 4, the initial phase of counselling

is the most resource-demanding part of the operation of the Inventor Advisory Service. Even a

small improvement here will free up significant resources for other functions. The Inventor

Advisory Service has already taken a number of initiatives to bring this share down. Among

these are:

—

Introduction of a “gatekeeper”-role, as described in Chapter 3.

—

Development of the inventor’s 10 steps online reception tool to aid first contact with

inventors (introduced in 2009).

—

Increasing demands for more preparation work from inventors before providing

counselling (introduced 2013-2014).

In light of this, we recommend an update of the online reception tool with the specific aim of

freeing up resources for use elsewhere (see next recommendation). Here, it should be considered

if the Inventor Advisory Service could share a joint portal with other actors in the

commercialisation system. One option could be sharing a portal with the Danish Patent and

Trademark Office and Young Enterprise Denmark. As described in Chapter 6, the former is

currently a close partner of the Inventor Advisory Service. See the recently developed portal here

(http://www.styrkdinide.dk/).

Prioritise the commercialisation phase:

From a socioeconomic viewpoint,

commercialisation of the most promising inventions through licensing is the key function of the

Inventor Advisory Service. The successful commercialisation of only a few extra licenses each

year would mean a large proportional increase in the value added by the Inventor Advisory

Service. Therefore, we recommend that additional resources be focused here. Several

possibilities present themselves:

—

An expanded IPR-service:

For some businesses, the IPR-question is an important

barrier to entering into a license agreement with an inventor. Currently, the Inventor

Advisory Service refers inventors to the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, whom,

for a minor fee paid by the inventor, conducts a patent search, guided by the inventor.

The result of this search is not a definitive answer to whether the invention is truly

novel or already protected. Rather, the search yields a stack of related patents, which

the inventor must then go through and assess himself. The Inventor Advisory Service

has noticed, firstly, that there is significant bias when inventors assess the novelty of

their own invention. Secondly, the business is not always inclined to accept the mere

judgment of the inventor. Here, an expanded IPR-service, yielding definitive answers,

offered to selected inventors could clear the way for a license agreement.

—

Expert assessment of technical feasibility:

When assessing technical feasibility of

complicated inventions, there is a significant information asymmetry between the

inventor and prospective license-holding businesses. For some inventions, obtaining an

independent expert assessment (in paper and signed) of technical feasibility can

significantly reduce this barrier.

Outreach to new segments:

A broad segment of inventors is already in contact with the

Inventor Advisory Service. In addition, the organisation has already prioritised significant

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resources and manpower to communication, outreach and community management as

described in chapters 4 and 5. We nonetheless recommend that the Inventor Advisory Service

considers reaching out to the most promising segments of its target group. Firstly, to increase

the number of ideas on its input side, and secondly, to increase the overall success rate of ideas.

In line with our earlier recommendation for a more focused Education Service (see above), some

possibilities are technical students, certain crafts, industrial designers, technical university

students, architects and others. Beyond the ones we can mention here, we recommend that the

Inventor Advisory Service consider this question further, using its extensive experience. Who are

the promising inventors, whom are not currently clients of the organisation?

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2. Dansk sammenfatning

2.1 Evalueringen

Dette dokument indeholder en evaluering af Opfinderrådgivningen. Evalueringen er bestilt af

Styrelsen for Forskning og Innovation og er udført af det uafhængige konsulenthus DAMVAD.

Evalueringen indfrier tre formål, idet den:

Evaluerer organisationen,

dens mål og midler, organisering, betydning for brugerne og

målopnåelse.

Udpeger anbefalinger

for at udvikle Opfinderrådgivningen som udgangspunkt for de

kommende forhandlinger om en resultatkontrakt mellem Styrelsen for Forskning og Innovation

og Opfinderrådgivningen.

Udvikler en økonomisk effektmålingsmodel,

der kan kvantificere den økonomiske

betydning af Opfinderrådgivningen for samfundet.

Evalueringen er baseret på følgende informationskilder, som refereres til gennem rapporten:

EVALUERINGENS METODISKE GRUNDLAG

—

Alle tilgængelige skriftlige afrapporteringer fra og om Opfinderrådgivningen.

—

Et fysisk besøg hos Opfinderrådgivningen og interviews med Opfinderrådgivningens

ledelse og nøglemedarbejdere.

—

Interviews med opfindere, der har modtaget rådgivning. Disse inkluderer; 1) opfindere

undervejs i et rådgivningsforløb, 2) opfindere der har solgt et licens, 3) opfindere der

har kommercialiseret deres idé på andre måder og 4) opfindere der har droppet deres

idé undervejs i rådgivningsprocessen.

—

Endelig hviler evalueringen på interviews med virksomheder, der har købt et eller flere

licenser fra opfindere efter rådgivning af Opfinderrådgivningen.

2.2 Evalueringen konkluderer…

Evalueringen konkluderer, at Opfinderrådgivningen er:

Veltilpasset til sit formål

med en god sammenhæng mellem hvad Opfinderrådgivningen skal

opnå og hvad den gør. Som beskrevet i kapitel 4 er licenser en omkostningseffektiv

kommercialiseringsmulighed for private opfindere med begrænsede forretningserfaringer.

Licensering udnytter produktions- og markedsekspertise, der allerede er til stede i økonomien

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og er dermed et godt alternativ til f.eks. virksomhedsopstart. Som beskrevet i kapitel 4 er

Opfinderrådgivningen desuden kompetent og repræsenterer et relativt simpelt og klart middel

til at opnå et mål: at kommercialisere private borgeres idéer.

Opnår sine formelle mål.

Som beskrevet i kapitel 4 er Opfinderrådgivningens formål

operationaliseret i en række formelle milepæle rettet mod serviceydelser, succesfuld

kommercialisering, kommunikation og Skoletjenesten. Evalueringen viser, at

Opfinderrådgivningen opnår eller overgår sine formelle mål.

I udgangspunktet en god offentlig investering,

men dette kan ikke konkluderes endeligt

uden en økonomisk effektundersøgelse. Opfinderrådgivningen undersøgte værdien af de 16 mest

værdifulde licensaftaler den rådgav om i perioden 2000-2009.

Disse genererede en årlig

gennemsnitlig omsætning på DKK 276 millioner over perioden. Givet størrelsen af den årlige

investering i Opfinderrådgivningen vil en afgørende rolle i realiseringen af bare ét af disse

licenser (eller en mindre rolle i flere) kunne have tjent denne investering ind. Men som

beskrevet i kapitel 8 kan omsætning ikke uden videre betragtes som økonomisk effekt.

Herudover må vigtige omkostningselementer tages med i betragtning. Sidst, men ikke mindst,

må en økonomisk effektundersøgelse desuden håndtere spørgsmålet om, hvorvidt licenserne

ville have været realiseret uden en intervention fra Opfinderrådgivningen. For at adressere disse

spørgsmål foreslår evalueringen en model for en økonomisk effektundersøgelse i kapitel 8.

En lille og fleksibel organisation.

Som beskrevet i kapitel 5 er Opfinderrådgivningen en

lille, fleksibel og flad organisation. Hovedparten af organisationens ressourcer bruges i den

indledende rådgivning af opfindere. Organisationen er følsom over for udskiftning af

nøglemedarbejdere, hvilket netop nu er aktuelt, i lyset af pensioneringen af flere af dens mest

erfarne medarbejdere.

En del af en fragmenteret kommercialiseringskæde.

Som beskrevet i kapitel 6 er

Opfinderrådgivningen én blandt mange offentlige virkemiddeloperatører langs

kommercialiseringskæden. Organisationen er en del af et uformelt system af referencer til og fra

sideliggende virkemiddeloperatører. Disse er ikke formelle eller systematiske, men hviler på

personlige relationer mellem medarbejdere. Overordnet kan organisationen ikke siges at være

en del af et ”no wrong door”-system langs kommercialiseringskæden.

2.3 Tre udviklingsveje

Evalueringens anbefalinger tager udgangspunkt i tre udviklingsveje, som evaluator ser for

Opfinderrådgivningen.

Flere idéer ind i tragten:

En simpel udviklingsvej er at øge volumen af idéer, der når frem til

Opfinderrådgivningen. Dette forudsætter, at marginalsuccesraten af idéer ikke falder, hvis

antallet af idéer øges. De mest erfarne rådgivere i Opfinderrådgivningen støtter denne antagelse.

Deres vurdering er, at den nuværende succesrate har været nogenlunde stabil over

organisationens 43-årige historie (succesraten er i øjeblikket 1:235). Antagelsen støttes desuden

af litteraturen om idésuccesrater.

Følger vi dette rationale, vil et øget antal idéer, der når frem

til Opfinderrådgivningen, i princippet øget antallet af licenser proportionelt. Bemærk at det kan

IAS (2012a)

Se f.eks. Stevens et al (1997) og Babcock (1996)

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være muligt at teste denne antagelse på baggrund af data indsamlet til den økonomiske

effektundersøgelse af Opfinderrådgivningen.

Øge idé-succesraten:

En anden udviklingsvej er at øge succesraten af de idéer, der når frem

til Opfinderrådgivningen. Selvom erfaringen og litteraturen peger på en robust idésuccesrate (se

ovenfor), ville værdien af en øget succesrate være markant. Måske findes der segmenter af

opfindere med en højere-end-gennemsnitlig idékvalitet. En anden vej til at øge idésuccesraten er

at Opfinderrådgivningen bliver mere selektiv (kræver mere forarbejde af opfindere) før der ydes

rådgivning.

Mest muligt ud af ressourcerne:

Som en tredje udviklingsvej rejser vi spørgsmålet om

prioriteringen af begrænsede ressourcer mellem de tre centrale funktioner i

Opfinderrådgivningen:

1. At uddanne potentielle opfindere

2. At yde public service til opfindere

3. At kommercialisere de mest lovende idéer

I øjeblikket er ressourcefordelingen mellem de tre ca. 12, 66 og 22 pct. henholdsvist.

2.4 Evalueringen anbefaler…

Evalueringens anbefalinger er udviklet i dialog med personer i og omkring

Opfinderrådgivningen. Anbefalingerne er ikke desto mindre alene evalueringsteamets ansvar.

Den røde tråd i evalueringens anbefalinger for at videreudvikle Opfinderrådgivningen er, at

flytte ressourcer ”nedstrøms” i værdikæden – fra at uddanne potentielle opfindere til at

kommercialisere de mest lovende opfindelser.

En mere fokuseret skoletjeneste:

Skoletjenesten skal fremme licensering som alternativ til

entreprenørskab, som en mulighed for at realisere idéer. Det er et vigtigt mål, men

Skoletjenestens målgruppe er uforholdsmæssigt stor. Skoletjenesten har i øjeblikket en

målgruppe på 1,25 millioner elever og studerende i Danmark

. Hertil kommer lærere på samtlige

uddannelsesniveauer. Skoletjenestens ydelser allokeres efter et ”først til mølle”-princip indtil

budgettet på 1 million kr. er brugt. Set i det lys vurderer vi, at Skoletjenesten er ude af

proportioner med dens målgruppe. Derfor anbefaler vi, at én af tre handlemuligheder overvejes:

—

Fokuser Skoletjenesten

på den eller de målgrupper, hvor den gør størst forskel for

rådgivningsfunktionen, f.eks. ingeniørstuderende, tekniske studerende,

håndværkstuderende, industrielle designere, el. lign. I denne rolle bliver hovedformålet

for Skoletjenesten, at få flere potentielle opfindere til at indsende deres idéer til

Opfinderrådgivningens rådgivningsfunktion.

—

Koordiner Skoletjenesten

med andre skoletjenester og saml ressourcerne om at

præsentere licensering som alternativ kommercialiseringsvej nationalt.

I denne rolle

Baseret på et samlet årligt budget på 8,5 millioner kr., hvoraf 1 million kr. går til Skoletjenesten, mens

fordelingen mellem indledende og udvidet rådgivning er 75 pct. og 25 pct., henholdsvist, se kapitel 4.

Danmarks Statistisk (2014)

Se et eksempel her:

http://Skoletjenestenetvaerk.dk/

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kan Skoletjenestens nuværende rationale fastholdes, men dens uafhængige

organisering (separat fra andre skoletjenester) bør genovervejes.

—

Træn trænerne

og fokuser Skoletjenesten på lærere – og nå herigennem ud til de

studerende. Dette kan være en måde at opnå gearing af Skoletjenestens begrænsede

ressourcer, givet den meget store målgruppe.

Opdater online-modtagerportalen:

Som beskrevet i kapitel 4 er den indledende rådgivning

den mest ressourcekrævende funktion i Opfinderrådgivningen. Selv en lille effektivisering her vil

frigøre ressourcer til andre funktioner. Opfinderrådgivningen har allerede taget flere initiativer

for at effektivisere den indledende rådgivningsfunktion, heriblandt:

—

Etablering af en ”gate keeper”-rolle, som beskrevet i kapitel 5

—

Udvikling af ”Opfinderens 10 trin”, en online modtagerportal for at faciliterere første

kontakt med opfindere (introduceret i 2009).

—

Højere krav om mere forarbejde fra opfindere før der ydes rådgivning (introduceret

2013-2014).

Med dette udgangspunkt anbefaler vi en opdatering af Opfinderrådgivningens online

modtagerportal med det specifikke formål at frigøre ressourcer til andre ting (se næste

anbefaling). Her bør det overvejes om Opfinderrådgivningen kunne dele en portal med andre

virkemiddeloperatører i kommercialiseringskæden. Én mulighed kunne være fælles udnyttelse

af den portal, der netop er udviklet af Patent- og Varemærkestyrelsen og Fonden for

Entreprenørskab. Som beskrevet i kapitel 6 er førstnævnte en tæt partner for

Opfinderrådgivningen. Se portalen her:

http://www.styrkdinide.dk/.

Prioriter kommercialiseringsfasen:

Fra et samfundsøkonomisk perspektiv er

kommercialiseringen af de mest lovende opfindelser gennem licensering kernefunktionen i

Opfinderrådgivningen. Succesfuld kommercialisering af blot få ekstra licenser hvert år vil

medføre en stor proportionel stigning i Opfinderrådgivningens værditilførsel. Derfor anbefaler

vi, at flere ressourcer fokuseres her. Her findes flere muligheder:

—

En udvidet IPR-service:

For nogle virksomheder er IPR-spørgsmålet en væsentlig

barriere for at indgå en licensaftale med en opfinder. I øjeblikket refererer

Opfinderrådgivningen til Patent- og Varemærkestyrelsen, som, for en mindre betaling

gennemfører en patentsøgning vejledt af opfinderen (en såkaldt dialogsøgning).

Resultatet af søgningen er dog ikke et definitivt svar på om opfindelsen er ny eller

allerede findes. Søgningen genererer derimod en stak patenter, som opfinderen herefter

selv må gennemgå og vurdere. Opfinderrådgivningen har bemærket, at opfindere ofte

mangler uvildighed når de skal vurdere nyhedsværdien af deres egen opfindelse.

Desuden er virksomheder ikke altid klar til at acceptere opfinderens egen vurdering af

IPR-spørgsmålet. Her vil en udvidet IPR-service rettet mod et definitivt og uvildigt svar

bane vejen for nogle opfindere.

—

Ekspertvurdering af teknisk feasibility:

Særligt for teknisk komplicerede

opfindelser er informationsassymetrien mellem opfinder og virksomhed stor. For nogle

opfindere kan det derfor være en fordel at få en uafhængig ekspertvurdering af

opfindelsens tekniske feasibility (underskrevet og på papir), for at reducere denne

barriere.

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Outreach og nye segmenter:

Et bredt segment af opfindere er allerede i kontakt med

Opfinderrådgivningen. Herudover har organisationen allerede prioriteret væsentlige ressourcer

til kommunikation, outreach og community management, som beskrevet i kapitel 4 og 5. Vi

anbefaler ikke desto mindre, at Opfinderrådgivningen overvejer at række ud til de mest lovende

opfindere i dens målgruppe. For det første for at øge antallet af idéer der når frem til

Opfinderrådgivningen og for det andet for at øge den overordnede idé-succesrate. I forlængelse

af vores tidligere anbefaling om en mere fokuseret skoletjeneste (se ovenfor), er tekniske

studenter, visse håndværk, industrielle designere, ingeniørstuderende og andre måske gode

muligheder. Ud over dem vi kan nævne her, anbefaler vi at Opfinderrådgivningen selv overvejer

dette spørgsmål, med afsæt i sin betragtelige erfaring med opfinderne. Hvem er de mest lovende

opfindere, som Opfinderrådgivningen endnu ikke hører fra?

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3. Introduction

This document reports on an evaluation of the Inventor Advisory Service.

The evaluation is commissioned by the Danish Agency for Science,

Technology and Innovation and is conducted by the independent

consultancy DAMVAD.

3.1 The organisation at a glance

The Inventor Advisory Service (IAS) is a publicly funded program that offers free counselling to

private inventors on how to commercialise their invention. From the outset, the aim of the IAS

has been to offer assistance, support and advice to Danish citizens who have ideas with a

commercial potential and to provide assistance as needed to commercialise their ideas through

licensing to existing companies.

The program was initiated in 1972 and has since then been funded by the Danish Agency for

Science, Technology and Innovation (DASTI) and administered by Centre for Ideas & Innovation

at the Danish Technological Institute (DTI). DASTI has contracted the IAS to DTI. Currently, the

IAS’s annual budget is DKK 8.5 million and the IAS currently employs eight people

The IAS is part of the Danish innovation system and targets and leverages citizens’ ideas

nationwide. Each year the IAS consults more than 5.000 prospective inventors and counsels on

the development of approximately 1.000 ideas. This leads to about 10-12 license agreements a

year as well as creating a learning experience for inventors during the advisory on their

invention.

Complementary to the IAS, the program encompasses an Education Service which is an

education and training program that each year trains about 2.000 students and teachers across

the Danish educational system. Focal for the Education Service is a practical hands-on approach

to working with idea development and idea validation through prototyping, visualisation and

user involvement.

3.2 This evaluation

This evaluation addresses three tasks in that it:

Evaluates the organisation,

including the means, ends, organisation and user impact of the

IAS and examines the goal attainment of the organisation.

Makes recommendations

for developing the IAS as a basis for the upcoming contract

negotiations between DASTI and the IAS.

More on this below.

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In addition, the IAS employs a journalist in the dedicated role of “community manager”, in

charge of outreach and presence on social media.

5.3 Skills and competencies

As shown in figure 5.1, the IAS is composed of eight people in total. The qualifications of the

employees reflect the fact, that there is no “formal” education as a counsellor of inventors.

Backgrounds include a biologist, an engineer and an industrial designer. These all have

experience from previous employments. In addition, two advisors have more than 30 years of

experience advising inventors. The overall profile of the advisors covers a broad spectrum of

competencies; however, given the limited size of the organisation, it is not realistic that there is a

1-1 match between the technical aspects of an idea and the advisor assigned to it. Therefore, the

most important competency of advisors is recognition of the potential of an idea and the ability

to support the process towards commercialisation.

BOX 9: OVERVIEW OF EMPLOYEES

—

A director, managing the daily operations of the organisation

—

A gatekeeper, an advisor, handling all initial contacts from inventors and distributes

tasks

—

One community manager, a journalist

—

Four dedicated advisors,

—

One advisor assigned to Education services

Source: DAMVAD 2015

Employee turnover:

The two advisors with the greatest experience will retire over the coming

years. The director of the IAS is currently looking for replacements and is optimistic about

finding suitable replacements in due time. The most direct consequence concerns the gatekeeper

function, which will be shared between advisors in the short term. The longer term solution will

depend on a possible update of the online reception tool, which may change the way the IAS

handles “first contact” with inventors and distributes advisory tasks subsequently.

5.4 Operations and workflow

The operation of the IAS is informal and tasks are flexibly divided between advisors based on

interest, available resources and competency, as inventors make contact.

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The typical workflow of the counselling operation is illustrated in figure 5.2 below:

Figure 5.2 The workflow of the advisory function

Inventor

Inventor makes first

contact

Counselling

Advisor (gatekeeper)

refers to online tool

Initial

Inventor describes

idea online

Inventor abandons

idea or develops it

elsewhere

Advisor (gatekeeper)

allocates advisor

Advisor provides

initial counselling

Inventor develops the

idea further

Inventor negotiates a

license with a

business

Advisor provides

extended counselling

Advisor connects the

inventor with a

business

Extended

A business enters

into a license

agreement.

Business

Source: DAMVAD 2015

As shown, a keystone function in the advisory service is the systematic reception of inventors

through the online reception tool. This initial contact with inventors and the task of referring

them to the reception tool is in the hands of a “gate keeper”.

Once the idea has been described, an advisor is assigned to provide initial counselling of the

inventor. If needed, this goes on to extended counselling, if the idea is sufficiently promising.

The shift from initial to extended counselling has become more fluid since 2013, when an

advisory board made this decision. Today, the IAS qualifes ideas for extended counselling itself.

Extended counselling is considered initiated when an idea has been described through the 10

steps and is assigned a dedicated advisor to work on commercialisation of the idea (see section

on extended counselling in Chapter 4.

5.5 Resources and budget

The IAS has an annual budget of DKK 8.5 million. Of this, DKK 1 million is dedicated to the

Education Service function, described in the previous chapter.

Nearly the entire budget is dedicated to wages and overhead. Annually, the organisation employs

slightly more than 10,500 man-hours.

Initial vs. extended counselling:

The IAS estimates the division of time between initial and

extended counselling to be 75 and 25 pct., respectively.

IAS (2012b) and IAS (2013).

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6. Part of the

commercialisation support

chain

In this chapter, we examine the role of the Inventor Advisory Service

among other service providers in the national commercialisation support

chain.

6.1 The commercialisation support chain

The commercialisation system consists of a relatively large number of scheme operators with

different and overlapping targets groups, instruments, and goals. These are operated in parallel

at national, regional and municipal administrative levels. In a nation-wide perspective, the IAS

is part of a national commercialisation support chain.

An overview of the public operators along the commercialisation chain is shown in figure 6.1

below. Operators are placed according to which parts of the commercialisation chain they

support. Here, we make the distinction between three (somewhat overlapping) parts of the

commercialisation chain:

—

Idea making:

Schemes directed at idea makers to promote the making of more ideas

—

Idea development:

Schemes directed at developing ideas, once proposed.

—

Idea commercialisation:

Schemes directed at bringing developed ideas to market,

once developed.

The later stage of market maturity lies beyond the scope of this evaluation, but is included to

illustrate operators beyond the IAS.

6.2 The role of the Inventor Advisory Service

As described in Chapter 4, and as shown above, the IAS is active across all these parts of the

commercialisation chain. The Education Service is directed at idea makers (students), while the

advisory functions are aimed at idea development and commercialisation.

By ”commercialisation chain”, we mean the process from idea making to first sale.

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As shown, the IAS is only one among many scheme operators. However, three features

distinguish the IAS, in that it focuses on:

—

Private individuals

(not e.g. businesses or research institutions)

—

Advisory services

(not e.g. funding or networking)

—

Licensing

as primary commercialisation pathway (not e.g. starting a new business).

The IAS is the only organisation in the national commercialisation support system that

specifically targets private individual inventors.

Figure 6.1 Public operators along the commercialisation chain

Danish National

Growth Fund

The Market

Development Fund

7 Science Parks

4 Innovative Incubators

Southern Technological Innovation

Venture Cup

Young Enterprise Denmark

National Science Factory

5 Regional Business

Development Centres

Danish Patent and Trademark Office

The Inventor Advisory Service

Idea makers

Idea development

Idea commercialisaton

Market maturation

Source: DAMVAD 2015

Note: Operators outlined with blue arrows have been interviewed for this evaluation. Grey arrows indicate cooperative ties.

6.3 Other idea maker schemes

At the national level, there are a large number of educational services focused on a variety of

topics and age groups. Not all of these have been included in figure 6.1. The education services

closest to the topics covered by the IAS are the Young Enterprise Denmark and Science Factory.

All three educational services are working to promote idea making among students, but from

different angles.

The Young Enterprise Denmark focuses on promoting Entrepreneurship (new businesses), while

Science Factory focuses on science skills and empirical thinking. The Education Service of the

IAS focuses on idea creation, idea validation and invention.

According to Science Factory, there is no cooperation between them and the Education Service.

However, the IAS is active as jury members and judge and is represented annually at the Young

Scientists’ Conference hosted by Science Factory.

According to Young Enterprise Denmark they collaborate with the Education Service but not

directly about educational services. Their cooperation is focused in the advisory part of the IAS.

The IAS disagrees with this assessment: The IAS hosts groups from Young Enterprise Denmark,

including prototype workshops.

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6.4 Other idea development schemes

As shown in figure 6.1 several operators of public schemes are active in the idea development

phase.

Like the IAS, Young Enterprise Denmark is actively developing ideas, especially among the older

students. Venture Cup too works to develop ideas from university students. The Danish Patent

and Trademark Office is included in this part of the commercialisation chain, but serves a very

different purpose than the other two. The Danish Patent and Trademark Office is, however an

important part of the idea development phase, especially in clarifying the originality of the idea

and protecting ideas from imitation.

In this part of the commercialisation chain, the IAS both overlaps and differs from Young

Enterprise Denmark and Venture Cup in terms of target groups. The IAS actively promotes

student inventors; however, its target group includes all individual inventors. In addition, the

service provided – advice with the aim of selling a license – is unique among the operators here.

Young Enterprise Denmark is positive about its dialogue with the IAS. The IAS is present at the

Danish Entrepreneurship Award, where they have their own ‘area’ in the ‘advice zone’. Apart

from that, the IAS provides tools and tips to coming entrepreneurs by delivering some of the

most read posts on Young Enterprise Denmark’s blog

http://youngtrepreneur.dk/

as well as

delivering relevant presentations on the main stages at the Danish Entrepreneurship Award.

According to Venture Cup there is currently no collaboration between the IAS and Venture Cup.

Venture Cup has never directed someone to the IAS or experienced it the other way around. In

the future, Venture Cup hopes there will be a stronger connection between the two

organisations. In order to make this collaboration work, Venture Cup recommends a structural

and agreed collaboration. Today, Venture Cup finds the landscape of commercialisation too

divided and sees a great potential for the inventor mind-set and the start-up mind-set to work

together.

The Danish Patent and Trademark Office expressed that it has a very well-functioning

collaboration with the IAS. By that, it means it is well aware of the schemes’ respective purposes

and competences, and uses that to help inventors etc. Specifically, The Danish Patent and

Trademark Office plays an important role in testing opportunities for legal protection of

inventors’ ideas through their patent searches.

6.5 Other idea commercialisation schemes

As shown in figure 6.1, a large number of schemes are active in this phase of the

commercialisation chain. We will not go through all of them. However, their target groups are

primarily entrepreneurs and established businesses. Consequently, the commercialisation

pathways promoted by these schemes are introducing innovations through new businesses or

through product development in existing businesses.

see:

http://www.ffe-ye.dk/

and

http://youngtrepreneur.dk/2014/10/23/gaesteblogger-kasper-birkeholm-

munk-fra-teknologisk-institut/

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The IAS focuses on licenses and exclusively supports private individuals. Among the

commercialisation schemes shown, this is a unique service, which is also highlighted among

some of the interviewed.

The Regional Business Development Centre refers to the IAS if it has customers with inventions

but otherwise it has no organised cooperation and hence expressed that there is room for more

collaborations.

Southern Technological Innovation expressed that it have a well-functioning collaboration with

the IAS. By that, it means that it each scheme is well aware of the other’s purpose and

competences and uses that to help inventors etc. Southern Technological Innovation highlights

that it benefits a lot from the short physical distance between itself and the IAS, which according

to Southern Technological Innovation makes the collaboration more flexible.

Both Southern Technological Innovation and The Danish Patent and Trademark Office

emphasise that it is in the early stages of idea development that the IAS makes the most

significant difference because their idea generation support is unique. Specifically, it provides a

sorting mechanism for citizen ideas and qualifies inventors as well as realises the best ideas.

6.6 Coherence and cooperation

In considering coherence and cooperation among schemes along the commercialisation chain,

we take departure in two premises:

—

From the viewpoint of idea makers, it is not important who provides services, as long as

the idea has the best possible chance at commercialisation.

—

From the viewpoint of society, it is not important how an idea is commercialised, as

long as the best ideas are successfully commercialised.

A coherent idea commercialisation support chain could therefore be characterised by either “no

wrong door” or “one stop shop”. In Denmark, both are made difficult by the large number of

independent schemes with partially overlapping target groups, instruments and aims.

In addition, the commercialisation chain is divided between at least two national ministries as

well as regional and municipal operators. Effectively, there is no “one stop shop”: a single

contact point from which services are provided.

The “no wrong door” approach involves every scheme being able to refer idea makers to (in

principle) every other scheme. A recent analysis by DAMVAD for DASTI showed that, while

some mutual referrals exist, the commercialisation support chain has not achieved a “no wrong

door”-function.

As we have seen, the IAS is part of a system of incoming and outgoing referrals. These are not all

systemised, but rely partly on personal relationships. Adjacent scheme providers interviewed for

this evaluation are generally aware and actively refer inventors to the IAS.

See DASTI (2014b)

DASTI (2014b)

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7. Conclusions and

recommendations

In this chapter, we draw conclusions from the previous chapters, and make

recommendations for the further development of the Inventor Advisory

Service.

7.1 The evaluation concludes…

The evaluation finds that the IAS is:

Well-suited to its purpose

with a good alignment of what the IAS is to achieve and what it

does. As described in Chapter 4, licensing is a direct and cost-effective commercialisation

pathway for private inventors with limited business experience. This pathway exploits existing

production and marketing capacity already present in the economy, and thus provides a good

alternative to e.g. entrepreneurship. In addition, as detailed in Chapter 4, the IAS is competent

and well suited to its task and represents a relatively simple and direct means to a clear end: the

commercialisation of ideas of private individuals.

Achieves its formal goals,

as described in Chapter 4 the purpose of the IAS is operationalised

in a number of formal milestone goals directed at services rendered, successful

commercialisation, communication and visibility and educational services. The IAS achieves its

formal goals and surpasses several of them.

Preliminarily, a sound public investment,

but this cannot be empirically shown without

an economic impact assessment. The IAS investigated the value of the 16 most lucrative license

agreements it counselled during the period 2000-2009.

These generated an annual average

turnover of DKK 276 million during the 10-year period investigated. Given the size of the annual

public investment in IAS, a decisive role in realising just one of these agreements or a minor role

in realising several of them is likely to have created value in excess of the investment made in the

IAS. However, as will be described in Chapter 8, turnover cannot without reservations be

considered economic impact. In addition, important cost-side considerations must likewise be

taken into account. Last but not least is the question of whether this value would have been

created without intervention from the IAS. To address these questions, we propose an economic

impact assessment model in the next chapter.

A small and nimble organisation,

as described in Chapter 5, the IAS is a small, nimble and

flat organisation. As shown in Chapter 4, the majority of its resources are allocated to initial

counselling of inventors. The organisation is sensitive to turnover of key personnel, which is

IAS (2012a)

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immediately relevant in light of the imminent retirement of two of its most experienced

employees.

Part of a fragmented commercialisation support chain.

As described in Chapter 6, the

IAS is one among many schemes along the commercialisation chain. The organisation is part of

an informal system of references to and from adjacent support schemes. These are not formal or

systematic and rely on personal relations. Overall, the organisation cannot be said to be part of a

“no wrong door” commercialisation support chain.

7.2 Three avenues of development

The recommendations are directed at three avenues of development we see for the IAS,

explained in the following:

More ideas into the funnel:

One simple avenue of development is to increase the volume of

ideas that reach the IAS. This presupposes a non-declining marginal rate of success of more

ideas. The most experienced advisors of the IAS support this presumption. In their experience,

the current success rate of ideas has remained roughly stable throughout the 43-year history of

the organisation (it is currently around 1:235). In addition, this is supported by the literature on

idea success rates.

Following this rationale, increasing the input of ideas to the IAS should in

principle increase the number of licenses (at least) proportionally. Note that using the data

collected as part of the economic impact assessment, it may be possible to empirically test this

assumption.

Increasing the idea success rate:

A second avenue of development is increasing the success

rate of the ideas received by the IAS. While experience and the literature speak for a very robust

success rate of ideas (see previous), the benefits of increasing the success rate may be

substantial.

In effect, there may be segments of inventors with a higher than average quality of

ideas. Increasing the proportion of these in the target group of the IAS may increase the success

rate. Another way to influence the idea success rate is for the IAS to be more selective (demand

more from inventors) before providing initial counselling.

Maximum impact, given limited resources:

As a third avenue of development, we raise

the question of the prioritisation of limited resources between the three major functions of the

IAS:

4. Educate potential inventors

5. Provide public service to inventors

6. Commercialise the most promising ideas

Currently, the resource allocation is approximately 12, 66, and 22 pct.

respectively. Could more

be achieved with the same budget or could an additional investment yield a disproportionate

pay-off?

See e.g. Stevens et al (1997) and Babcock (1996)

Note, that although the success-rate (initial counselling to licensing) appears larger in later years in table 4.1, the

high number of licenses is the result of ideas received in previous years.

Based on the DKK 8.5 million budget, of which 1 million is allocated to the Education Service, while the division

between initial and extended counselling is 25 pct. 75 pct., respectively. See Chapter 4.

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With this in mind, we turn to the recommendations of the evaluation.

7.3 The evaluation recommends…

The recommendations of the evaluation are developed after talking to people in and around the

IAS. The recommendations are, however, fully the responsibility of the evaluation team, and no

one else.

The common theme of our recommendations for further developing the IAS is that of moving

resources “downstream” in the value chain – from educating potential inventors, towards

commercialising the most promising inventions.

A more focused Education Service:

The Education Service is to promote licensing as an

alternative to entrepreneurship as a pathway for realising ideas. Important as this may be, the

target group of the Education Service is disproportionally large. The Education Service currently

has a target group of 1.25 million students in Denmark

in addition to teachers and educators at

all educational levels. Services are provided on a “first come, first served” basis until the DKK 1

million budget is spent. In this light, we believe that the intervention is out of proportion to its

target group. Therefore, we recommend, that one of three courses of action be considered:

—

Focus the Education Service

on the target groups where it makes the most

difference to the advisory function of the IAS, e.g. engineering students, technical

students, artisan educations, industrial designers, etc. In this role, the purpose of the

Education Service will be that of prompting potential inventors to submit their ideas

into the advisory function of the IAS.

—

Coordinate the Education service

with other educational services and pool

resources to present licensing as an alternative commercialisation pathway

nationwide.

In this role, the current rationale can be sustained, more or less as it is.

However the current independent organisation of the Education Service should be

reconsidered.

—

Train the trainers

and focus the Education Service more on teachers and, through

them, students. This would be a way to achieve leverage with the limited resources of

the service, considering the comparatively large target group.

Update the online reception tool:

As described in Chapter 4, the initial phase of

counselling is the most resource demanding part of the operation of the IAS. Even a small

improvement here will free up significant resources for other functions. The IAS has already

taken a number of initiatives to bring this share down. Among these are:

—

Introduction of a “gatekeeper”-role, as described in chapter 5

—

Development of the inventor’s 10 steps online reception tool, to aid first contact with

inventors (introduced in 2009).

—

Increasing demands for more pre-work from inventors before providing counselling

(introduced 2013-2014).

In light of this, we recommend an update of the online reception tool with the specific aim of

freeing up resources for use elsewhere (see next recommendation). Here, it should be considered

Statistics Denmark (2014)

See an example here:

http://Skoletjenestenetvaerk.dk/

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if the IAS could share a joint portal with other actors in the commercialisation system. An

example is the portal developed by the Danish Patent and Trademark Office and Youth

Enterprise Denmark. As described in Chapter 6, the former is currently a close partner of the

IAS. See the portal here (http://www.styrkdinide.dk/).

Prioritise the commercialisation phase:

From a socioeconomic viewpoint,

commercialisation of the most promising inventions through licensing is the key function of the

IAS. The successful commercialisation of only a few extra licenses each year would be a large

proportional increase in the value added by the IAS. Therefore, we recommend, that additional

resources be focused here. Several possibilities present themselves:

—

An expanded IPR-service:

For some businesses, the IPR-question is an important

barrier to entering into a license agreement with an inventor. Currently, the IAS refers

inventors to the Danish Patent and Trademark Office, which for a minor fee paid by the

inventor, conducts a patent search, guided by the inventor. The result of this search is

not a definitive answer to whether the invention is truly novel or already in existence.

Rather, the search yields a stack of related patents, which the inventor must then go

through and assess himself. The IAS has noticed, firstly, that there is significant bias

when inventors assess the novelty of their own invention. Secondly, according to IAS-

advisors the businesses are not always inclined to accept the mere judgment of the

inventor. Here, an expanded IPR-service, yielding definitive answers, offered to

selected inventors could clear the way for a license agreement.

—

Expert assessment of technical feasibility:

When assessing technical feasibility

of complicated inventions, there is a significant information asymmetry between the

inventor and prospective license-holding businesses. For some inventions, obtaining an

independent expert assessment (in paper and signed) of technical feasibility can

significantly reduce this barrier.

Outreach to new segments:

A broad segment of inventors is already in contact with the IAS.

In addition, the organisation has already prioritised significant resources and manpower to

communication, outreach and community management as described in Chapters 4 and 5.

Nevertheless, we recommend that the IAS considers reaching out to the most promising

segments of its target group. Firstly to increase the number of ideas on its input side, and

secondly to increase the overall success rate of ideas. In line with our earlier recommendation

for a more focused Education Service (see above), some possibilities are technical students,

certain crafts, industrial designers, technical university students, architects and others.

Beyond

the ones we can mention here, we recommend that the IAS considers this question further, using

its extensive experience. Who are the promising inventors, whom are not currently clients of the

organisation?

7.4 Revising the result contract

Overall, we think that the milestones are relevant to the IAS and strike a good balance between

being relevant to the overall rationale of the organisation and being realistically controllable. The

recommendations proposed here will however have consequences on the official milestones.

Idea development among this group is normally addressed by the technology transfer organisations at the

universities. But these are typically specialised in commercialising R&D. Here, the IAS could be a valuable

commercialisation pathway for ideas not suited to this model.

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Proposed revisions to milestones are included in box 10 below. Here, we will discuss possible

changes under four headings:

—

Commercialisation goals:

The recommendations we make here can probably be

implemented within the current milestone framework. However, the balance between

extended counselling (milestone 1) and initial counselling (milestone 2) will shift

considerably.

—

Communication goals:

The communication goals largely remain as they are. A

possible clarification is that we see the communication efforts of the organisation as a

means to reaching new user groups.

—

New users:

This milestone would need to be clarified in light our recommendation

that a more systematic search for new and well-suited target groups. Its current

formulation seems to signify that the organisation is to diversity from serial inventors.

—

The Education Service:

As described above, the need to revise the milestones of the

Education Service will depend largely on which of the three options outlined under

“Focus the Education service” is considered. The current milestones and possible

changes for each of the three models are shown in box 11 below.

BOX 10: POSSIBLE CHANGES TO MILESTONES FOR THE ADVISORY

FUNCTION

—

Extended counselling on 40 inventions, leading to commercialisation of 23 of

inventions, either through licensing or other means of commercialisation.

—

All requests on initial counselling (about 3.000 through the period) will be handled

professionally and

to a uniform standard, albeit

with flexibility

and

inventors are

expected to sufficiently qualify their idea and submit it through the online format.

—

Strong communication of the services offered by the Inventor Advisory Service and its

results, including visible presence on relevant social media platforms.

In particular,

outreach to new promising target groups among inventors should be prioritised.

—

Ensure that a significant proportion of inventions origin from new users.

In particular,

new promising target groups are to be included among its users.

BOX 11: POSSIBLE CHANGES TO MILESTONES FOR THE EDUCATION

SERVICE

Milestones for the current Education Service:

—

1.500 students have received a tailor made educational service

—

50 advisory services to students via email

—

100 advisory sessions with students via chat

Milestones for a focused Education Service:

—

1.000 students in fields related to product development (e.g. engineering students,

technical students, artisan educations, industrial designers, etc.) have received a tailor-

made educational service.

—

200 participating students have submitted ideas to the advisory function of the

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Inventor Advisory Service.

—

1 student has obtained a license or otherwise commercialised an idea after contact with

the advisory function.

Milestones for a coordinated Education Service:

—

1.500 students have received a tailor-made educational service directed at idea

realisation through invention and licensing

—

1.000 of these through events shared with other relevant educational services, e.g.

entrepreneurship and young researchers.

—

50 advisory services to students via email

—

100 advisory sessions with students via chat

Milestones for an Education Service teaching the teachers:

—

500 educators have received tailor-made support directed for promoting idea

realisation through invention and licensing among their students.

—

50 advisory services to students via email

—

100 advisory sessions with students via chat

The recommendations and their rationale are summarised in figure 7.1 below:

Figur 7.1 Summary of recommendations

More ideas into the

funnel

A more focussed

educational service

Update the online

reception tool

Prioritize the

commercialisation phase

Increasing idea succes

rate

Maximum impact gliven

limited resources

Outreach to new

segments

Source: DAMVAD 2015

Budget consequences:

The recommendations made here will influence the budget for the IAS

in coming years. Some recommendations can potentially save resources for other uses, e.g.

coordinating the Education Service or revising the “public service” milestone. This could make

investments into e.g. updating the online reception tool or extended commercialisation services

possible within the existing overall budget. However, maintaining the existing service level,

while implementing cost-intensive recommendations will require additional resources.

Therefore, whether the recommendations made in this evaluation can be implemented within

the existing budget or if additional funds are needed, depends on the combination chosen.

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8. Measuring the impact of

the Inventor Advisory Service

In this final chapter of the evaluation, we develop an impact measurement

model suited to the Inventor Advisory Service. In addition, the key

concepts and considerations included here have equal relevance to similar

public interventions into the commercialisation system.

8.1 The meaning of impact

From the viewpoint of socioeconomics, the IAS should generate a return in excess of its cost. The

value created by the IAS should exceed the DKK 7.5 million used for counselling. With this in

mind, we propose the following research question for an economic impact assessment of the

IAS: Does the Inventor Advisory Service create additional value to society in excess of its cost?

Therefore, we propose an impact assessment focused on efficiency, as shown below:

Figure 8.1 Three criteria for a successful investment

Source: DAMVAD 2015

Efficiency:

The impact assessment model we propose here focuses on

efficiency.

In this light, it

is not sufficient to consider whether the organisation has impact. Injecting DKK 7.5 million into

the economy anywhere is likely to fulfil that criterion. Any impact must be seen in light of what it

costs to create it. In other words, it may be possible to purchase impact too dearly, effectively

creating a larger negative impact elsewhere. For this reason, we propose a model where the

impact of the IAS is seen in light of its cost.

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Additionality:

Another important aspect of impact is the concept of

additionality.

In other

words, the impact that would not have happened without the IAS. With regard to the IAS, the

impact model proposed here takes into account two kinds of additionality:

—

For inventors:

Would the invention have been commercialised without intervention

from the IAS?

—

For businesses:

Would the license-holding business have developed another

invention of equal value without intervention from the IAS?

Given these two types of additionality, the impact model we propose here attempts to subtract

the value of what would have happened otherwise. Thus, we assign only the value actually

created by the IAS to its credit.

Earnings as measure of value:

The impact assessment previous done by the IAS used

turnover generated by the licenses as its measure of impact.

As an alternative, we propose

using profits (which is turnover minus costs). To illustrate why, consider a business licensing an

invention, producing it and selling it in large quantities. However, the costs of adapting its

production line are larger than the turnover from the invention. In this case, the business would

have been better off not adopting the invention after all. In spite of this, an impact assessment

would show a significant increase in turnover. For this reason, the impact model we propose

here uses earnings as a measure of impact.

Distortion of the economy:

The true cost of a publicly funded intervention includes costs of

the negative impact of increased taxation on other parts of the economy (also called the

distortion effect). The Ministry of Finances has created guidelines for how to calculate the

socioeconomic impact of a public intervention.

The guidelines set the tax distortion loss to 20

percent. The true cost of a public expenditure of 100 million DKK is thus 120 million DKK when

accounting for the tax distortion.

Some cost-side omissions:

The impact proposed here will give a good indication of the value

of the IAS. However, for practical reasons, we make two important omissions:

—

Earlier administrative costs:

In addition, the total cost of the IAS includes

administration earlier in the chain from collection to distribution of tax revenue to the

IAS. This cost is not included in the model proposed here.

—

Opportunity cost:

In addition, the resources invested in the IAS could have been

allocated to an alternative intervention. Therefore, the value created by the IAS should,

in principle, be compared to the opportunity forgone by investing it here. The model we

propose does not make such a comparison.

Easy data collection:

Impact assessment should impose the smallest possible burden on

sources of data. Therefore, the impact assessment model proposed here will, to the widest

possible extent, rest on data already collected. Where this is not possible, we limit data collection

to 1-2 simple questions (1 minute response time), directed at inventors and license-holding

businesses. This data will be collected for the first time through the impact study and can

subsequently be collected routinely as part of the existing contact between the IAS and its users.

This part should be considered when designing an improved online reception tool, as proposed

IAS (2012a)

Finansministeriet 1999 ”Vejledning i udarbejdelse af samfundsøkonomiske konsekvensvurderinger”

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in the previous chapter. We consider this a reasonable burden asked of beneficiaries of an

essentially free service paid by public money.

Other uses:

The data collected for impact assessment can be used for a lot more than

determining economic impact. Such questions as “Does some types of inventors have a higher

success rate than others?”, “Are some types of inventions more successful than others?”, “How

does the inventor population change over time?” and so forth. The data collected here should

thus be put to a broader and strategic use to develop the IAS itself.

8.2 A proposed methodology

On this basis, the impact assessment model proposed here seeks to establish three figures for

every licensed invention:

—

The additionality of counselling

for the successful licensing of the invention.

—

The additionality of the invention

for the license-holding business.

—

The earnings from the licensed inventions

realised by the license-holding business.

The additionality of counselling (A

Establishing the additionality of the counselling

essentially amounts to establishing if the inventor would have commercialised without help from

the IAS. The key source of this information must be the inventors themselves. Consequently, this

must be a subjective assessment. We therefore propose a survey-design, centred on a single

counterfactual question posed to inventors having sold a license over the last few years: “Would

you have commercialised your invention without advice from the Inventor Advisory Service?”.

Here, we establish a multiple-choice answer corresponding to an additionality factor between 1

and 0. Here, 0 would represent the situation where the inventor is absolutely sure that the

invention would not have been commercialised otherwise, and conversely for a factor of 1. While

such an assessment must necessarily be uncertain, the law of large numbers dictates that the

more inventors answer the question, the more accurate the aggregate will be.

While the initial

additionality factor must be established through the impact assessment, we propose that the IAS

routinely query successful inventors about the additionality of the counselling, moving forward.

The additionality of the invention.

Here, we seek to establish the additonality of the

invention to the license-holding business. This amounts to establishing whether the business

would likely have developed an alternative invention as valuable as the one now licensed. As for

the additionality of counselling, the license-holding businesses must be the source of this

information. Here, we use the same questioning technique sketched out previously. We ask

“would your business have developed an equally valuable invention?” In addition to this

question, we pose one more question to the license-holding businesses, described next.

The earnings from the licensed inventions (A

The earnings from a new invention are

derived from two elements: turnover from its sale minus the cost of its development. Drawing on

the experience of the last impact assessment made by the IAS, we can ask businesses about

turnover from the invention. In our experience, however, asking businesses about their earnings

or costs is much more competitively sensitive information. Businesses themselves will therefore

be unlikely to provide us with this figure, even under guaranteed anonymity. Therefore, we

propose establishing the cost, using the general operating margin through financial reports of

The law of large numbers will, of course, not correct for systematic bias, say, if inventors systematically

underestimate the contribution from the IAS.

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the businesses involved. These are publically available through the public business registry (CVR

in Denmark) and their equivalents in other countries. In using operating margins, we assume

that the business will be no more efficient at making money from a new product than from its

existing products. In reality, some will be worse, while others will be better. Therefore, the law of

large numbers applies here as before. In essence, the figure becomes better as more businesses

are included in the study.

With these three figures established, we can make an impact assessment model of the IAS.

8.3 Is the Inventor Advisory Service a good investment?

By applying the proposed methodology, it is possible to calculate the impact of the IAS and

compare it to its cost. Essentially, the societal return of IAS is positive if the additionality of the

service is greater than its cost including the implied tax distortion. This is the case if the

equation below is greater than zero:

�� ∗ �� ∗ ��

��

∗ ��

��

− �� ∗ 1.2 > 0

Where:

1 ≥ ��

��

, ��

��

≥ 0

Where

��

is operating margin, R revenue from the license, and

��

and

��

the additionality of

counselling and the invention, respectively. C is the cost of the IAS, excl. the Education Service

and finally, 1.2 is the tax distortion factor.

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Appendix 1: Methodology

The evaluation rests on four analytical elements, summarised in this

appendix:

Desk research.

The evaluation rests on all available written documents and statistics on the

Inventor Advisory Service. These are summarised in the bibliography in the next section, and

referred to throughout the report.

Site visit.

As part of the evaluation, we have visited the Inventor Advisory Service, talked

through its processes and interviewed its director and its advisors.

Interviews with inventors and businesses.

For the evaluation, we have interviewed four

groups of users. All interviews were conducted by telephone on the basis of a semi-structured

interview guide. As several inventors asked us about secrecy and one required us to sign a non-

disclosure agreement, we have chosen not to disclose the identities of the users interviewed in

this report. The following groups were interviewed and the number interviewed is indicated in

brackets:

1. Inventors currently receiving counselling (5)

2. Inventors who have successfully sold a license (5)

3. Inventors who have abandoned their idea after counselling by the Inventor Advisory

Service (5)

4. Businesses holding one or more licenses purchased from inventors after counselling by

the Inventor Advisory Service. (5).

Users of the Education Service.

Specifically among users of the Education Service, we have

interviewed the following:

—

Arken/Cph West, Museum Communicator Gunnar Munksgaard

Tradium Handelsgym og Teknisk Gymnasium Randers, Teacher Pia Bomholt

Trefalkeskolen, Teacher Carl Pallesen

Erhvervs Akademi Sjælland, Campus Roskilde, Teacher Susanne Korsholm

Fonden for Entreprenørskab, Projekt Manager Sine Larsen

Other actors in the commercialisation support chain.

As part of the evaluation, we have

interviewed other actors in the publically funded commercialisation support chain. We have

interviewed the following:

—

Patent og Varemærkestyrelsen, Key Account Manager Helena Larsen

Fonden for Entreprenørskab, Projekt Manager Sine Larsen

Syddansk Teknologisk Innovation, Investment Manager Søren Georg Jensen

Venture Cup, CEO Human Sjohae

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—

Væksthus Sjælland, Growth Consultant and IP coach Ingemarie Søndergaard

—

Teknologisk Institut, Direktør for erhvervsudvikling og virksomhedsudvikling, Jane

Wickmann

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Managing Engineering Technology: An Introduction to Management for

Engineers,

ed., Prentice Hall, London

Chrisman, J., McMullan, E., Hall, J. (2005)

The influence of guided preparation on the long-

term performance of new ventures,

Journal of Business Venturing Vol. 20, Issue 6

DASTI (2014a)

Result contract for the Inventor Advisory Service 2013-2015, The Danish

Agency for Science,

Technology and Innovation, Copenhagen

DASTI (2014b)

Sammenhæng for vækst og innovation, en databaseret kortlægning af

sammenhænge i udbud og efterspørgsel i det danske innovations og erhvervsfremmesystem,

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IAS (2014a)

Unpublished overview of the communications activities of the Inventor Advisory

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Copenhagen

IAS (2014b)

Unpublished overview of the events of the Education Service 2014,

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IAS (2013)

Annual report on milestones to the Danish Agency of Science, Technology and

Innovation, 2012,

Copenhagen

IAS (2012a)

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IAS (2012b)

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