Case Study of an Industry Academia Interface:
The FITT Story
Arya Kumar Sengupta, PhD*
Abstract
Developing a close interactive relationship with the external world, particularly the industry at large, is a necessary imperative for a technical university, in order to ensure relevance of the academic curricula and research as well as to generate internal resources for undertaking R&D programmes in new advanced high technology areas, upgradation of infrastructure, and induct, retain and reward high quality members of the faculty. In this regard, the role of the autonomous industry interface institutions and Technology Transfer Organizations (TTO) is of great importance. In this article the evolution of an Indian TTO has been described on the basis of the activities and performance during the first ten years of its existence in the form of a case study. Later, the concept of transformation of the technical university into a Technology Enterprise has been briefly elaborated, and the potential role of the TTO in this transformation process discussed.
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Dr AK Sengupta was until recently a Professor with the International Management Institute (IMI). He was previously the Managing Director of Foundation for Innovation & Technology Transfer (FITT) at IIT Delhi. The views, comments and conclusions expressed in this paper do not necessarily represent those of FITT, IIT Delhi and /or IMI. Author can be contacted on email address aryaseng@hotmail.com
This case study on FITT covers only the first ten years of the organisation
Dated: February 11, 2008
Preamble
It was late in the afternoon on a day in March 2003. The Managing Director (MD) of the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), the autonomous industry interface organization of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IITD), one of the premier academic institutions of India, walked back to his office in a pensive mood. He had just attended a fairly intense meeting of the Governing Council (GC) of FITT. MD reported a steady performance of his organization during the last financial year, but he had to admit to the GC that the revenue of FITT had not grown during the last couple of years. (See Exhibit 1)
FITT has been in existence for more than ten years. In the initial few years, FITT had created quite an excitement among the academic community in the Institute by providing a friendly, focused, facilitative, as well as a non-bureaucratic platform for interfacing with the external stake-holding world such as the industry, and in the process helping to achieve a quantum increase in extra-mural revenue for the Institute as well as the faculty members involved. FITT had taken a number of initiatives for promoting a Technology culture, through institutionalizing activities such as technology transfer, industry related training and continuing education programme, collaborative R&D projects with industry aimed at Technology Development, problem solving consultancy, safeguarding of intellectual property rights (IPR) etc. Such activities had been stagnating in the Institute in the past, as there had been more thrust on the development of technical manpower (students) through under-graduate (UG) and post-graduate (PG) teaching and fundamental research. An Industrial Research and Development (IRD) unit had been functioning in the Institute for nearly twenty years prior to the setting up of FITT in 1993. IRD, however, worked more like a department of the Institute, and was mired by rules, regulations and procedures that often hindered rather than encouraged interaction with Industry. As FITT framed its own rules and functioning style and began to create impact among the academic community of the Institute and the external stake-holders, IRD woke up from its slumber and simplified many of its own regulations. The two organizations, FITT and IRD, have been in operation parallelly in the Institute, one (FITT) as a separate autonomous organization and the other (IRD) as an integral part of the Institute. In spite of the fact that it was clearly easier to operate under the umbrella of FITT because of vastly simplified procedural hassles, many faculty members often tend to prefer taking their industry projects to IRD, even when the origination of the projects could be attributed to the promotional and facilitative supports of FITT. Consequently, even though the total value of the industry related projects in the Institute could be seen to be growing significantly every year, the share of FITT did not rise proportionately, specially in the last couple of years. A large number of projects were getting conducted under the aegis of IRD.
The questions that were mooted by some members of the GC were related to the efficacy, or even, utility of having in the same Institute two separate organizations, FITT and IRD, that appeared to be engaged in functions which often look broadly similar in character. The fact is, the scope of enlarging the industry interactions is enormous, and IIT Delhi has not achieved even the tip of the iceberg that represents the huge opportunity in the globalised free market and competition. How should the two entities be worked as organizations complementary to each other, and their resources utilized optimally by the Institute and the academic community, so that the level of the industry-academia interactions gets enhanced steadily in line with the demands of rapid economic growth of the country at large? Should FITT retain its separate independent identity with a clear mandate of its own, and continue to expand its range of activities and revenue in order to maintain and enhance its unique self-sustaining character of a single window service provider to both the academics and industry stake-holders? Alternatively, should FITT and IRD be merged into one body?
Historical Background
The concept of the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) was first introduced as a result of a report submitted in the year 1945, before India became independent in 1947, by Professor N.M.Sircar, the then member of Education in Viceroy’s Executive Council. The mission of the IITs was to bolster the efforts of a newly independent nation to industrialize rapidly and enhance the nation’s capability to train manpower of international caliber and excellence in the area of Science and Technology. Following up on Sircar’s recommendations, the first Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) was established at Kharagpur in 1950. In his report, Professor Sircar had also recommended that such Institutes should be started in different parts of the country. The IIT at Delhi, the fifth institution in its genre, came into being in the early 1960s. It was originally started as a College of Engineering and Technology in 1961 with the help of the U.K. Government and the Federation of British Industries in London. It was later declared an Institution of National Importance under the “Institute of Technology (Amendment) Act 1963” and was renamed “Indian Institute of Technology Delhi”, and accorded the status of a University with powers to decide its own academic policy, to conduct its own examinations, and to award its own degrees. In line with the practice in the four other IITs already in operation (at Kharagpur, Kanpur, Madras and Bombay),* a high powered Board of Governors (BOG) was constituted for IIT Delhi, which was given the responsibility of overall administration of the Institute. For inter coordination among the five IITs, an IIT Council chaired by the Minister of Education (later re christened as Human Resource Development) in the central government was also set up, which had all the Directors of the IITs as members along with a number of other academicians of national and international eminence.
Over the years the IIT trained engineers and technologists have proved their mettle, not only in India but also in the world at large, and their world class competence has been very well established. From the very beginning, development of interactive relationship with industry has been given considerable importance in all the IITs, even though the primary thrust has been towards ensuring its credentials as a world class academic institution, at par with other globally renowned universities. For example, the primary
*Note: By 2000, two more IITs came into being – at Roorki in Uttarakhand, and at Guwahati in Assam. In 2008 the Government of India initiated actions to set up eight more IITs in different parts of the country.
objectives laid down by the Government in 1963 for IIT Delhi were to a) offer instructions in Applied Sciences and Engineering at a level comparable to the very best anywhere in the world, and b) to provide adequate facilities to post-graduate studies and research to meet the needs of specialised research workers and teachers in the country. In 1970, a Review Committee examined the progress made in IIT Delhi, and based on its recommendation the objectives were further expanded, among others, to : c) developing close collaboration with industry through exchange of personnel and to undertake consultancy projects, d) anticipating the technological needs for India and to plan and prepare to cater to them, and e) developing continuing education programmes (for the benefit of faculty development as well as for people working in Industry). Subsequently, the Industrial Research & Development Unit (IRD) was set up in the year 1975 to coordinate the activities of sponsored research and industrial consultancy and to strive to provide the best possible service to the industry and academia. The assigned functions of the IRD Unit included assisting and monitoring of:
i) Sponsored Research Projects;
ii) Consultancy jobs;
iii) Patents and Transfer of know-how;
iv) Foreign collaboration with Universities and/or Research Institutions;
v) Collaboration with Institutions and Industry in India;
vi) Operation of scheme of Summer Undergraduate Research Aware (SURA);
vii) Operation of Innovation Award Scheme (IAS)
IRD was also responsible for providing total administrative support and guidance in respect to contract negotiations, patent applications, management of research and development funds, purchase of project equipment etc. A separate Continuing Education Programme (CEP) cell was also established to administer the short training courses floated by faculty members or departments of the Institute, and the Quality Improvement Programme (QIP), a scheme funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development
(MHRD) of the Government of India to provide opportunities to do PhD Research by technical teachers in various universities and collages of India.
The IRD unit has been traditionally led by Dean (IRD), supported by one Manager and a team of administrative staff. A senior faculty member is given the additional charge of Dean (IRD), on a rotational basis. This is clearly a part time assignment for the faculty concerned as he/she is expected to continue discharging his/her academic commitments like teaching courses and guiding research for post graduate students or externally funded research programmes. Similarly another senior faculty looks after the CEP cell, reporting to Dean (IRD). Both IRD and CEP were operated in accordance with the overall rules and guidelines applicable to the functioning of the Institute and the Standard Operating Practices (SOP) of the Government.
The strength of IIT Delhi lies in its 450 faculty members having expertise in their specific areas, the combination of which covers almost every facet of science, engineering and technology. It has 13 departments and 10 centres, and each department and centre are well equipped with required expertise by way of faculty and laboratories and other facilities. At a moment of time, there are around 1500 undergraduate students, another 1000 post graduate and research students, and some 1000 other research staff associated with the Institute.
The Origination of FITT and the formative years
A second review of the working of the IITs was taken up in 1985. The committee submitted its report to the Government in 1986. The report specifically commented on the generally low level of interaction between the Industry and the Institutes. It was believed that in spite of the substantial R&D activities undertaken in the Institute, there had been very little technical fall out of these efforts in Industry at large, and negligible commercial returns there from. The causes behind this state of affairs were primarily the following:
Lack of adequate communication between the Industry and the Institute, thereby leading to inadequate appreciation of each other's needs and constraints.
Lack of an interface to translate R&D outputs into commercial products and processes.
Difference in work ethos and perceptions regarding time frames and cost of R&D between the industry and the academicians.
Inadequate guidance by the industry to the Institute regarding the real strategic and relevant needs for channelising the academic R&D towards commercial solutions, and
Bureaucratic constraints, in the form of rules, regulations and procedures, under which the existing Industrial Research and Development Division had to operate.
The key recommendation of the Review Committee (1986) in this respect was the following:
An industrial foundation independent in its normal day to functions may be set up in each IIT. It should work as a commercial corporate body with its own budget and plan for marketing its research and consultancy activity.........
The Foundation will
n Engage in and bid for relevant research in Industry
n Cooperate with R&D organizations in Industry and Government Departments
n Act as a clearing house for consultancy services for industry problems, and
n Assist in Continuing Education Programmes.
The Government of India broadly accepted the Review Committee recommendation and identified IIT Delhi as the first IIT where such a foundation would be created, for which the Institute was to be provided with a corpus fund of up to Rs 30 millions. Accordingly the BOG of IIT Delhi constituted a group of senior faculty members to prepare a concept paper which was presented in 1991 and approved. A Memorandum of Association (MOA) required for registering the Foundation as a Society was drafted in 1992. The then Deputy Director of IIT Delhi was chosen as the first Managing Director of the Foundation, on a part-time appointment. The salient features of the Concept Paper and the MOA are given below.
• The Foundation will be named Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT).
• FITT will be set up as an autonomous technology development interface closely linked with the Institute with a view to achieving a quantum jump in interaction with industry without compromising the primary goals and objectives of the Institute.
• FITT will be registered as a non profit making Society
• FITT will adopt an industrial culture and ethos in its functioning
• FITT will use IIT Delhi (expertise and infrastructure) as its primary resource base
• FITT will have a minimum of own fixed assets and a minimum number core professional staff.
• Financially FITT will be independent of IIT Delhi and will not pass on its financial liabilities to the Institute.
FITT became a Registered Society in July, 1992. The same year the incumbent MD moved on to take up the responsibility of Director of one of the other IITs ( at Kanpur). FITT remained more or less in suspended animation until a new MD got selected and joined in May 1993 on a full time basis. The new MD had more than twenty years of management experience in industry and had previously worked in senior positions in the R&D Centre and later, in the Corporate Planning Division of a large public sector undertaking in India. Meanwhile IIT Delhi received a total of Rs 16.2 million as corpus fund, in two tranches, one in 1992 and other in 1993. In 1995, FITT was recognised as a Scientific and Research Organisation (SIRO) by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of India.
Autonomous Industry Academia Interface Organisations Abroad : Some Alternate Models
Many Technology Institutes and Universities abroad, especially in developed countries such as USA, UK, Australia, other European nations, Japan, China etc. have been operating industry interface organizations that are effectively independent, administratively and financially, of the parent institutes. Some of these organizations have been designed as a Company, fully or partly owned by the concerned university/institute, while many others function as a Foundation or a non-profit making body whose surplus operational income is ploughed back to promote its own activities or
those of the parent institution. Such a Company or a Foundation is free to frame its own rules and regulations, can operate on a commercial basis freely competing for assignments from industry with any other commercial entity or agency, and can retain any “surplus”. These organizations are manned by a core group of professionals (or technocrats) who devote 100% of their time to duties assigned, without any encumbrance of teaching or research commitments per se. For such an organization, industry firms are the “Clients”, and the faculty members, scientists and the infrastructural facilities of the parent institution are the resources to be tapped and gainfully utilized. Thus it has to look after the interests of both with equal alacrity and devotion.
One of the earliest known industry interface organizations is the Foundation for Scientific and Industrial Research (SINTEF) in Norway, which was set up in 1950, almost immediately after the end of the Second World War, to facilitate technological rehabilitation of that country. SINTEF was linked with the Norwegian Institute of Technology (NTH) in Trondheim as well as the University of Oslo. In 2004, its turnover had touched $ 20 million.
Until the advent of the second oil shock in the late 1970s, the universities in the USA remained fairly disconnected with industry and commerce. But after the passing of the famous “Bayh-Dole” Patent and Trademark Law Amendment Act in 1980, many US universities decided to aggressively work with the industry at large to generate resources through transfer of technologies developed in the academic research efforts and through other mechanisms of knowledge transfer. Over the last 25 years, almost all major technological universities in the USA set up Technology Transfer Organisations (TTO). The Bayh-Dole Act provided the legal basis for TTO funding. The Act states that income recorded from commercialization of Government-funded research results can be utilized for three purposes: (1) to fund the administration of the technology transfer function (TTO); (2) to provide a share of income to the inventor as an incentive to participate in technology transfer; and (3) to support education and further R&D in the institution. TTOs are expected to become self- supportive from such allocation of income and/or from other related income-generating services. One of the first TTOs in the USA was the one at Stanford University (known as Stanford University Office of Technology Licensing), which was initiated in 1970. In the first ten years its total income was $4 m, but in the next ten years after Bayh-Dole act came into being its total income exceeded $ 40m, and since 1990 it has crossed $ 500 m.
Similar industry interface organizations have come up in most British Universities. The Salford University Industrial Centre Limited was set up in 1982 as a public limited company wholly owned by the University of Salford near Manchester. By 1987 it was doing business worth $ 10 m. The other major university across the city, UMIST (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology) set up the UMIST Ventures Limited in 1988, and when the UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester merged in 2002, it was rechristened as the University of Manchester Intellectual Property Limited (UMIPL). In Australia, there were in 1995 more than 20 universities which have similar TTO like interface organizations, such as the one at the University of Wollongong, known as the Illawara Technology Corporation Limited, founded in 1981.
In these interface organizations, the primary areas of activity range from collaborative R&D programmes, IPR servicing, Technology Transfer, industrial consultancy, training and continuing education, development support to lab proven technologies having good potential for commercialization, and specialty services (eg. Quality Assurance Certification), to technology business incubation and support to entrepreneurs.
The concept paper and the MOA for Society registration of FITT were drawn up incorporating many of the characteristic parameters from the different models for industry academia interface institutions functioning in various parts of the world.
Mission, objectives and functions of FITT
When the present MD took over the reins of FITT in May 1993, his first task was to chalk out the differentiation his organization needed to bring about in the Institute vis-à-vis the then IRD unit. He had extensive deliberations with all the primary stake holders, namely the Institute faculty members, alumni groups, current students and researchers, leaders of industry and industry associations, experts from Government agencies and R&D organizations, and the newly inducted core professionals of FITT. The following Mission and Objective statements were laid down.
Mission Statement
To be an effective interface with the industry to foster, promote and sustain commercialization of S&T in the Institute for mutual benefits
Objectives
• To proactively market the intellectual ware of IIT Delhi to industry.
• To offer a flexible mechanism and a single window service (to the industry clients) for making use of the expertise and infrastructure of the institute and capabilities/technologies developed at the institute.
• To provide (to the faculty) an effective interface with industry, a congenial platform and a facilitative environment for collaborative work assignments.
• To augment IIT Delhi’s resource generation efforts.
It was patently clear from the beginning that FITT had two sets of customers, the academic members of staff, and the clients from industry and elsewhere. Both these groups needed an organization that provided a platform for facilitative, flexible, friendly and focused environment for fruitful mutual interaction between them. It was to be stressed that FITT would have to operate like a commercial organisation and therefore adopt a commercial ethos in its functioning. It was to have a minimum of its own fixed assets in terms of buildings and equipment. It would draw upon the facilities and expertise of IIT Delhi as the primary resource and supplement it with the expertise of other IITs, R&D Organisations, Consulting Engineers, Design and Fabricating agencies etc. to serve the industry and other user organisations. The core staff strength of FITT would be lean and yet have to provide efficient support functions for effective project management. In order to fulfill the above obligations, FITT planned to empower the coordinators and principal consultants of its projects (who would normally be from the members of academic staff of IIT Delhi) with a great deal of freedom and flexibility in their day-to-day functioning, for which the relationship between the faculty and FITT staff required to be one of mutual trust an good faith, in a climate of cooperation, support and concern for each other.
The principal functions of FITT were, first, to perform as a Marketing Arm for the technological capabilities of IIT Delhi, through promotional campaigns in the external world, and second, to provide the project management support to the faculty. These functions, vis-à-vis the faculty members can be summarized in the following manner.
> Pre-Program Stage
• Marketing of IITD expertise to Externals
• Connecting faculty with industry
• Assistance in Formulation of Proposals
– Negotiation of terms of agreements
– Drafting of Contract
> During Program Execution
– Provide Logistical Support to principal investigator/consultant
Ü Communication Ü Purchase Ü Import
Ü Tax exemptions/concession Ü Legal issues
Ü Other administrative support
> Financial Management
• Invoicing, Book Keeping
• Disbursal of payments
• Monitoring, Review & Interaction with clients
> Post-Project stage
• Dissemination of information
• Assist on IPR matters
The new MD brought in a style of management in FITT that was pretty novel and, to a great extent, revolutionary in the IIT system in 1993. First, a core group of five professional executives were recruited, each of them being academically and experience wise as qualified as most of the faculty members of the Institute. Each of the executives (designated as Executive Consultants) were assigned a specific functional area, namely, Marketing & Business Development, Technology Transfer & IPR management, HRD & Training Programmes, Information Services, and Establishment, Finance and Administration, in a matrix type organisation structure (see Exhibit 2). A minimal number of support staff was also appointed. They were all accommodated in an open office environment located in the Institute Deans’ complex. Even the MD was seated in the open office, albeit in a glass enclosure thought necessary for confidential discussions that were required at times. Every member of FITT was available all the time for interaction with IIT Delhi faculty members, scientists and students, as well as the visitors from outside. State of the art communication system, in the form of telephone, desk top personal computers and internet connectivity, was installed in the office. Separate halls were created for conferencing and syndicate discussions. The rules, regulations and procedural formalities were simplified for effective and speedy actions, and flexibility. Two committees were constituted by the FITT Governing Council in order to assist FITT in policy decisions and project selection, namely the Consultative Committee and the Standing Committee composed of very senior faculty and industry representatives. The faculty coordinator and consultants in charge of industry projects in FITT were empowered with freedom to carry out the job in their own style, within the budgetary constraints and time frame identified in the approved proposal at the start of the project. To quote the MD, “Once a project gets going, the faculty in charge of the project is treated as the Director of the Project, with all the freedom, responsibility and accountability.” The then Director of the Institute concurred with this view.
Broad Range of Activities of FITT
Over the ten years since its inception, FITT has got itself associated with a variety of activities, serving both the academic community and external stakeholders, especially the industry. What follows below are glimpses of some of the critical activities of FITT.
(A) As Marketing Arm of the Institute
Of the principal roles of FITT, the one that must come first is that of marketing, that is, promoting IIT Delhi as a source of technology expertise and improving the visibility of the Institute and its faculty. Following are some of the activities carried out by FITT in this direction.
I. Publicity and dissemination of information about missions, objectives, faculty strengths and programmes of IIT Delhi and FITT are being done though
· Organizing regular Industry-Academia summits – four such summits were held in the last ten years, one with CII in 1994, one with FICCI and DST in 1999 and two with IIT Delhi Alumni Association in 2001 and 2002. Between 150 and 200 delegates participated in each of these meets, including a number of leaders from industry, government and R&D organizations.
· Participation in industry exhibitions organized during national or international meets or events is one other opportunity to spread information about IIT Delhi among the public at large and potential partners in industry – FITT took part in more than ten such exhibitions.
· A quarterly newsletter, FITT FORUM, is published and sent to more than 4000 recipients in India and abroad.
· Selective dissemination of publicity information about IIT Delhi and FITT is regularly done though features and articles in newspapers and magazines, and TV channels, and occasional promotional advertisements
· Interactions through industry visits along with faculty members, regular correspondence, presentations in seminars, conferences and workshops
· Hosting eminent visitors from industry and knowledge institutions in India and abroad, organizing meetings and seminars
II.A separate website (www.fitt-iitd.org) has been created and linked with the
official websites of IIT Delhi and a number of other knowledge institutions
III Interactive relationship has been established and maintained with industry
associations like CII, FICCI, PHDCCI, and ASSOCHAM through
membership of Technical and Education Committees of individual
associations.
IV A Corporate Membership scheme has been in place in FITT from its
inception. Corporate Membership is offered to industry firms, industry
associations and user/service organizations on payment of nominal
admission/annual fees. A number of benefits are offered to the Corporate
Members in availing IIT Delhi and FITT services, contracting of industrial
consultancy and R&D projects
(B) Project Management
The second primary role of FITT was that of manager of projects undertaken by the faculty members of IIT Delhi. These include
· Transfer of Technology to industry; Between 1993 and 2003, some 40 agreements were entered into on such projects, valued at more than Rs 10 millions. These technology transfer projects were taken up i) in as is where is state, ii) in consultancy and upgradation mode or iii) through prototype/pilot plant development route. Examples of tech transfer from IIT Delhi are:: Sobid Hardware Prototype, Jute-Coir, High Frequency Modem, Super Critical Fluid Extraction (SCFE), and Rust Guard Technology.
Prior to the advent of FITT , hardly ten technology transfers worth less than Rs 1 million had happened in 30 years at IIT Delhi
· Research Partnership programmes; Every year a number of industry sponsored large Research programmes are initiated in FITT with one or more academic faculty as principal coordinators. Also included in this category are R&D programmes that were jointly undertaken with industry ( such as Dupont, Mody-Xerox, DCM, Glenmark, BHEL, DRDO) and those taken up with international agencies like EU, GEF etc.
· Problem solving consultancy assignments from industry. These are projects of short duration, from a few weeks to three to six months. Though most of projects of this type had a strong technology or research orientation, many faculty members chose also to conduct routine consultancy work involving vetting and / or evaluation of designs, product testing etc, in order to benefit from the flexible systems in FITT. The number of projects pursued in FITT in this category rose from under five in 1993-94 to as high as 315 in 2000-2001. The value of such projects in 2000-2001 was nearly Rs 34 million.
· Technology update HRD Programmes and Training Courses: Three types of programmes are taken up by FITT in this genre; first, those founded on a specific technology expertise area of one or a group of faculty/scientists (these are short duration courses), second, customised courses for one industry firm or a cluster (designed around the expertise and infrastructure base of a faculty group or departments), and third, bridge courses of fairly long duration of weeks or even months (aimed at developing in specific technology areas trained manpower, who would become ready to get placed in industry). FITT has been responsible for managing hundreds of such programmes in the last ten years. Illustrative examples of successful courses of the first type are: a 2 day course on Fiber- optics Applications, a 3 day course on Polymer Processing, a 7 day course on Internet Computing. Similarly one can highlight the courses on Coastal Marine Science (for UNESCO), Corporate Communication (for Paharpur Business Centre), Digital Signal Processing (for Motorolla) as belonging to the second category. Of the third type, quite a few long term Bridge Courses have also been devised and managed by FITT in partnership with industry. The ones that made the most impact include i) the 9 month long Advanced Course on Software Technology, ii) 20 week Course on Cryptology for the Defence Personnel, iii) 3 month long course on Embedded Systems and Application. These bridge courses attracted quite a response, and have all been repeated a number of times. Value of all these fee-based HRD programmes has been rising, from less than Rs 0.5 million in 1993-94 to nearly Rs 10 million in 2001-2002.
(C) Facilitation and Value Addition
Apart from marketing and project management roles, FITT also gave a lot of thrust on another function, namely, facilitation and value addition to the academic community to help them interact effectively with industry. Under this head the most prominent activity must be the one related to managing the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) interests of the academic community in the Institute.
FITT decided to take the IPR management function seriously from 1996, with appointment of an IPR specialist in its core professional staff. A number of IPR awareness seminars were held at IIT Delhi. A campaign was initiated throughout the Institute to inculcate a culture for filing of IPR applications on novel research output and new technologies developed, with slogans like “Patent Before Publication”, “Search Before Research”, and “Patent Publish and Prosper”. An IPR Standing Committee was constituted in the Institute, with Dean (IRD) and MD (FITT), Associate Dean (IRD) and the FITT Executive Consultant (IPR &TT) as permanent members and up to three external IPR experts and three internal faculties as temporary members. This committee’ terms of reference was to evaluate proposals for patents and other IPR applications received, and clear them for submission to the Indian Patent Office and other competent authorities. FITT takes responsibility of following up on these applications. In the last ten years, FITT filed more than 120 patent applications. This compares with less than 15 patent applications filed from IIT Delhi between 1963 and 1995.
Another major task undertaken by FITT was to identify the wealth of outputs of R&D work carried out in the Institute in the past, and select nascent technologies there from that have potential for commercial application. A Compendium of IIT Delhi Technologies were first brought out in 1996, and distributed widely among industry and government circles. Around 230 technologies had been listed in the Compendium. The Compendium was revised in 2003. It was put up on the FITT website in easily searchable mode, so that the interested Industry clients could directly contact the inventor faculty and discuss the possibility of collaboration on the technology chosen.
FITT has often given platform to faculty for, and facilitated, direct interaction with industry and helped development of large collaborative programmes at the Institute. Examples are the VLSI Design Technology and Training (VDTT) Scheme, Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Programme (TRIPP), EU-India Cross Cultural Programme etc. The helping hand provided by FITT has been in the form of pre-project seed funding, organizing promotional workshops, Technology Appreciation and Future Vision Seminars, setting up of inter-disciplinary groups and so forth. Certain amount of money is earmarked in FITT budget every year for providing developmental support to faculty scientists in initiating a Project.
FITT also provided substantial funds to help augment infrastructure of the Institute and set up new laboratories with specialized equipment in quite a few high technology areas like Medical Textiles, Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, Biochemical Engineering and Nanotechnology. It also has instituted annual awards for best industry relevant PhD and M Tech projects carried out in the Institute.
(D) Promoting Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Academic Community
Besides inculcating an attitude of commercial ethos, the Foundation has also taken upon itself the task of encouraging the spirit of entrepreneurship in the faculty, graduating students and scientists at large. The most significant act of FITT on this count has been the conceptualization, establishment, and later, administration of the Technology Business Incubation Unit (TBIU) Programme in IIT Delhi.
A Technology Business Incubator by definition denotes a location in which potential entrepreneurs with business ideas can receive assistance (that may otherwise be unaffordable, inaccessible or even unknown) in the form of proactive supports like access to critical technology tools, laboratory facilities, information about and contact with experts in relevant areas, use of shared services, interaction with other fellow entrepreneurs, and access to professional help in business planning, HR, finance, operations, marketing and other management skills. The TBIU at IIT Delhi was designed as an incubator to provide infrastructure on campus for a limited duration (2-3 years) to facilitate research and Development to convert nascent Technological Ideas into Commercial entities. It is open to first generation entrepreneurial hopefuls from among the faculty, graduating students, alumni and research staff of IITs, technology based start-up enterprises and SMEs. It was formally operationalised in July 2000 when a small office space was provided in the campus, adjacent to the academic area. FITT utilized a part of its surplus funds to develop the space adequately with basic amenities for the offices as well as the common facilities like communication and internet systems, reception and conferencing arrangements with a view to creating a modern hi-tech working environment for the entrepreneurs. Later, FITT funds were also made available for arranging facilitative supports such as seed financing, marketing, IPR and other legal service. The most important role of FITT was to provide the interface between the entrepreneurs and the academic community and the technology infrastructure of the Institute.
The idea of promoting entrepreneurship through the incubation process had evolved in the United States in the early eighties, and in the next two decades became widespread in many other developed and developing countries. In 2000, there were some 4000 Incubators around the world, of which approximately 900 were in the USA. FITT administered TBIU in IIT Delhi was a pioneering effort in India. Students in their senior years (in the undergraduate or postgraduate study period) were encouraged to strive to commercialise ideas emanating out of their senior projects at the TBIU, with guidance but not necessarily full time involvement from their professors. Many IIT Delhi faculty members often have industry connections, which can be a rich source of demand for solutions towards technical problems that had a ready and willing market locally and, even elsewhere in the country or world at large. For example, one IIT Delhi start up Kritikal Solutions (incubated in TBIU) applied computer vision and embedded system designs (that were worked on as research projects by the student promoters in their final year of graduation) to develop gadgets for camera based surveillance, traffic monitoring, vehicle authentication and vehicle underside scanning. These projects came up with solutions to an existing need in the security starved organizations in the Indian market place.
By the end of 2003, seven first generation incubate companies had become members of the TBIU, of which three belonged to the entrepreneurial aspirants from among freshly graduated IIT Delhi students and their erstwhile faculty professors. Kritikal Solutions was one such start up company, which later graduated from TBIU (after about three years of stay) and moved out to its own office premises outside the IIT Delhi campus.
Financial Management of FITT
One key condition laid down in the original concept paper on FITT was that it would have to be financially independent of IIT Delhi and would not pass on any of its financial liabilities to the Institute. To begin with, the corpus money of Rs 16.2 million was transferred by IIT Delhi to FITT, so that interest earned on it could be utilsed for the organisation’s sustenance in the initial years. It was also agreed by the institute that funds received on all projects handled by FITT (as indicated in B above) would be managed by FITT, and a service charge of 10% would accrue to FITT from each of these. In addition there were a few other resource generating activities given to FITT by the Institute to coordinate, like marketing of the video courses delivered by many faculty members and recorded on line in the state of the art studio-classroom. FITT was entitled to 10% service charge on each of such sales, made primarily to technical colleges and polytechnics in different parts of the country. The Corporate Membership fees (see A IV above) were also collected by FITT.
There is little doubt about effective financial management at FITT over the years. The income generated from various heads as indicated were utilized not only for the establishment and administrative expenses of FITT, but also to cater to all the other marketing, facilitation and TBIU activities listed in the sections A, C and D above. Every year, a significant amount of surplus got generated. By the end of 2001-2002 financial year, the corpus with FITT grew to nearly Rs 56 million. The net cash transfer to the IIT Delhi had exceeded Rs 16 million out of the technology projects and consultancies completed in FITT. This was over and above the cash paid to the Institute at market rate for office space and logistic support.
FITT and IRD – A Dichotomy in Vision and Practice
Ever since FITT came into existence in 1993, the conflict of interests with IRD, the in-house unit for industry interaction, has been a matter of contention in IIT Delhi. It may be pointed out that IRD had to function within the strict, and sometimes, archaic rules of the IIT system. In those days, the bulk (more than 90%) of the externally funded projects were sponsored by the Departments or organizations of the Government of India, which were themselves bound by the pre-economic reform restrictive environment that inhibited extensive interaction and exchange between commercial establishments and the academic institutes. Almost all the externally funded research projects or industrial consultancies came directly to the Institute, or due to individual initiatives of the faculty members concerned. The activities of IRD were concentrated mainly on keeping accounts in the sponsored projects, and ensuring that the faculty and scientists involved in these projects operated within the rules, regulations and procedures prescribed by the Institutes, some of which might had been laid down two or three decades ago. The staff strength of IRD (mostly at the non-executive level) was fairly large (more than 40). They felt threatened by the emergence of a parallel organization, which was autonomous in character, lean in structure and pro-active by nature.
During the first conversations that MD FITT had with some of the senior professors, he was told by some that FITT would remain handicapped in its working horizon if IRD continued to remain separate. The BOG of the Institute also had similar apprehensions; a resolution was passed in a 1994 BOG meeting proclaiming the complementality of the two organizations. (See Exhibit 3). While administration of long term generic research projects and QIP teachers’ training projects were to be pursued in IRD and CEP respectively, all industry related research, technology transfer, problem solving consultancy and HRD programmes fell under the ambit of FITT. This resolution was, however, not strictly enforced, and it was left to the faculty members concerned with the given projects to opt for FITT or IRD.
A number of negative perceptions were prevalent among the faculty members regarding taking up projects under the aegis of FITT. The first perception was that, if a project is done through IRD, the IIT Delhi administration will provide a protective umbrella if some dispute with the project sponsor takes place at any stage during or after implementation. In reality, the same was true in case of FITT projects too, as in all projects undertaken at IIT Delhi, FITT acted on behalf of, and not independently of the Institute. The second perception was that FITT would be monitoring the progress of the projects in terms of quality and time of delivery and that could sometime put undue pressure on the academic freedom of the faculty member. This was partly correct, since FITT had to be answerable to both the faculty and the Industry client. But it also had the authority and wherewithal to keep constantly in touch with both parties, in order to modify the objectives, scope and outcome of the projects. The third, and the most difficult perception to remove from the minds of many faculty members, were that projects under IRD would be considered more favourably by the Institute management, than those taken through FITT, at the performance appraisal time. This was, of course, not true at all. Such perceptions had to be addressed by FITT through careful public relation exercise among the academic community in the Institute.
Open, flexible and simplified operational style of FITT nevertheless led to rapid growth of external activities in the Institute, mainly involving industry at large. (See Exhibit 4, 5). A major factor behind this expansion was the improved visibility of the Institute as a result of the marketing efforts of FITT. The number and value of programmes undertaken by FITT itself showed rapid growth between 1995 – 96 and 2000 – 2001. (Exhibit 6, 7, also see Exhibit 1). Notably, the number of institute faculty members who chose FITT for projects also grew dramatically between 1993 and 2000 – 2001, from a mere three to more than 140 (Exhibit 8). It may be mentioned here that previously at IIT Delhi, the faculty member associated with external projects seldom crossed 50 in any single year.
From the very beginning, FITT did not consider IRD as a competitor organization; rather, the complementality link between the two organizations was constantly stressed. As the number of external assignments grew, the IRD also changed its way of dealing with the faculty, moved into an open office, simplified many of the rules and procedures. Yet by 1997 – 98, the number of projects on technology development, technology transfer and industrial consultancies at FITT was approaching the number pursued by IRD. This statistic created a certain amount of unease within the IIT Delhi system, and apprehensions were raised whether FITT activities over reached the mandate of the organization.
In 2000, the IIT Delhi Board of Governors (BOG) constituted a sub-committee to review the functioning of FITT. The subcommittee which submitted its finding to the BOG in early 2001 recommended that FITT should not get involved in routine consultancy and short term training projects from industry, which may be left under the purview of IRD. Large research programmes sponsored by government ministries, departments and agencies would also be in the domain of IRD. Instead, FITT should encourage faculty members of the Institute to take up only high value technology development and transfer projects contracted from industry, as well as longer term bridge course type HRD programmes only, and concentrating on marketing, facilitation and TBIU activities. This change of stress got reflected in the performance of FITT in 2001 – 2002 and 2002 – 2003 (as seen in Exhibits 1, 6 and 7), indicated by the drop in the number as well as the value of projects. Though quite a number of high value technology development programmes and long term bridge courses were undertaken, the projects involving direct technology transfer did not grow in these two years. Since most of the technologies emanating out of academic research are in embryonic stage of development and were pursued mainly by students who leave the Institute after graduation, it is often a difficult task to persuade industry clients to take up up-gradation and commercialization of such technologies. Substantial effort and some alternative strategy have to be mounted in this direction. On the other hand, more willing and capable faculty scientists have to be identified and induced to take up high quality high value technology development projects that would lead to technology transfers to industry. Sustainability of FITT and industry interface activities depends on it. The question is, how can it be done?
Challenges before FITT
After ten years of operational experience, it was time to revisit the original concept of FITT and lay down the challenges that confronted the organization for moving forward. FITT was set up as to promote close partnership relationship between the academic community in the IIT Delhi and industry at large that was the primary user of the end product, be it the form of graduating students or the outputs of the academic activities carried out in the Institute. Its mission was to foster, promote and sustain commercialization of the S&T efforts in the institute for public good. Effective attainment of this mission can help the Institute in its critical functions to recruit, reward and retain faculty members, to kindle entrepreneurial spirit among faculty and students, facilitate setting up Technology Enterprises and, thereby promote economic growth of the country. In the process resources get generated in the Institute for additional education and research. The Science and Technology Policy of the Government of India, pronounced in 2003, coincidentally also laid emphasis on developing strong interactive linkage between industry and technology institutions, and recommended setting up of autonomous Technology Transfer Organisations (TTOs) in Premier Academic Institutions and R&D Labs. Industries in private and public sectors were promised highly attractive fiscal incentives to work with knowledge institutions. In almost all respects FITT could be cited as the first autonomous TTO established in India, some ten years ahead of the S&T policy declared in 2003. It is therefore but natural that FITT should gear up to take advantage of the new policy, which also envisaged a substantial increase in S&T outlay in the future five year plans of the country.
In this context, one may propose the concept model of a Technical University or Institution transforming itself to a Technology Enterprise or an Entrepreneurial Institution. Exhibit 9 illustrates this concept. While undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research remain a primary function of the University, the TTO is an integral part of the system. The faculty members and research staff in various departments and centres along with the core infrastructure like libraries, workshops, class rooms and laboratories are key elements for both the functions. Though marketing and promotional activities remain a priority function of a TTO, industry interfacing and managing high value R&D projects, consultancies and HRD programmes provide the mainstay of the organization, for its sustenance as an independent unit. In IIT Delhi scenario, this group of activities has a certain degree of overlap between the IRD, the in-house industry interaction unit of the Institute, and FITT which is the TTO. The recommendations of the 2001 BOG Subcommittee to entrust state funded large R&D projects as well as the routine consultancies and training assignments to IRD are perhaps convenient to FITT, since such projects tend to be bound by a plethora of rules, restrictions and regulatory systems, which are anathema to the ethos of flexibility and autonomous character of FITT. Noticeably, the 1994 directives of the BOG regarding IRD/FITT relationship (Exhibit 2) were somewhat similar to the recommendations of the 2001 subcommittee.
A Technology Enterprise needs to lay great emphasis on creation and safeguarding of the Intellectual Properties that belong to them and get created during the course of research and technology development activities. In a university, IP may get generated during the regular UG/PG research, as well as in funded R&D Programmes. The interface units can play a meaningful role in facilitating identification, and safeguarding the rights of the IPs. In IIT Delhi, FITT performs this role with cooperation from IRD. The commercialization of IPs, however, falls in the domain of FITT, since by statute, IIT Delhi which was created as an educational institution, cannot indulge in any business transactions.
The other most relevant feature of a Technology Enterprise is that it not only aims to bring industry and academia together, but also provide opportunities to bring about new industry enterprise, by fostering the spirit of entrepreneurship among the faculty members, the research community and students. The entrepreneurial function of a Technology Enterprise is usually undertaken under the umbrella of the TTO, and exemplified by a Technology Business Incubator, which seeks to promote setting up of start-up companies based on commercialisable IPs and technological ideas emanating out of research work. The TBIU in IIT Delhi, which is administered by FITT, qualifies in this category. An incubatee company that successfully graduates from the Incubator will either operate as a commercially viable and independent Start-Up Company, or can move to a Science and Technology (S&T) Park nearby for further experimentation and upscaling. Many an incubator abroad also has a dedicated Innovation Venture Fund attached to it, created out of contributions from Government, local bodies (like the Local Council or municipality), financial institution (FI), industry, industry association, charities and, of course the University itself. Such a fund can be used for providing seed support to fledgling incubatee companies, or even initial Venture Capital resources to graduating start-ups. With growing success of the TBIU experience in IIT Delhi, there is scope for working towards creation of an S&T Park and an Innovation Venture Fund.
The challenges for FITT in the foreseeable future lay in transforming IIT Delhi into a Technology Enterprise in the real sense, as shown by the flow chart of the Exhibit 9. It has the opportunity to transcend the mere interfacing and marketing functions, and become a vibrant TTO, that encourages entrepreneurship, promotes innovation and interdisciplinary integrative culture of collaboration among academics and industry professionals, facilitates augmentation of Institute infrastructure, and in the process contributes to enrichment to the courses and curriculum of the university.
Concluding Remarks
The birth of FITT in 1992 was in response to a need to emphasise the importance of close interactive relationship between the industry and the academia in the IIT system. The first ten years of functioning of FITT no doubt proved the point, as seen by the manifold increase of the quantum of the industry academia interaction at IIT Delhi. After FITT came into being and brought about some significant flexibility and simplicity in the ethos of institute’s interaction with outside world, the previously slumbering IRD unit also showed clear signs of improvement in functional efficiency. The fortune of FITT was somewhat affected by the implementation of the recommendations of the 2001 IIT BOG subcommittee that reviewed FITT. As the Managing Director (MD) of FITT came out of the GC meeting in late March of 2003, he realized that if FITT was to continue as a thriving industry interface organization, it needs to undergo change, in structure, and in functioning. There was need for seriously introspecting on the following options, which may not necessarily be mutually exclusive.
1) Should FITT retain its present image of complementing the functions of IRD, and competing with it, in attracting faculty and researchers of IIT Delhi for projects and other industry related activities?
2) Alternatively, FITT could undergo a role change to the one transcending from that of a mere marketing arm and industry interface to a facilitator for transforming IIT Delhi into a full fledged Technology Enterprise, as illustrated in Exhibit 9 and explained briefly under the heading Challenges for FITT above.
3) Should FITT devote a major part of its effort towards identifying, motivating and encouraging the sizable proportion of the faculty community (especially those who are yet to give up the garb of pure academics) to take up high value high technology programmes with industry partners, and induce some of them to become entrepreneurial?
4) Should FITT devote full time as an Incubator Organisation only, leaving the industry interface functions to IRD? The question of sustainability will however hover on FITT, because entrepreneurship activities in India remain highly uncertain and risky.
5) Should FITT transform itself as a totally distinct entity in relation to IRD, in terms of objectives, and selection and implementation of activities? Perhaps, it could make its services available to institutions and universities other than IIT Delhi, and thus gradually reduce its dependence on the parent host institute.
6) As a corollary to the option 5 above, FITT may decide to change its organizational character from a non-profit making Registered Society to a Company under Article 25 of the Company Law of India.
Bibliography
1. Anon , Managing University – Industry Interactions – Case study on IIT Delhi,
UNESCO Report, March, 2000, New Delhi.
2. Kulakowski Elliot & Chronister Lynne, Research Administration and Management,
Published by Jones & Bartlett Publishers, 2006.
3. Bayh- Dole Act, http://www.autm.net/aboutTT/aboutTT_bayhDoleAct.cfm
4. Concept paper on FITT, IIT Delhi Internal Report, 1991.
5 MOA of FITT, 1992.
6. Annual Reports of FITT, 1994 to 2003.
7. Science and Technology Policy, Government of India, 2003
8. AK Sengupta, Entrepreneurial Development through Technology Business Incubation in
a Technical University: A case Study of IIT Delhi, presented at the International Conference on
Decision Sciences and Technology for Globalisation, Jan 2-4, 2008, IMT, Ghaziabad
9. A Bhatnagar and R Minocha, Rise of Global Entrepreneur: Leveraging the India-US High Tech
Corridor, Stanford Technology Venture Program Report, STVP 2005-010, August, 2005
EXHIBIT: 1
EXHIBIT: 2
EXHIBIT: 2ORGANISATIONAL CHART OF FITT
EXHIBIT: 3
IIT Delhi BOG Resolution on
Relationship between IRD and FITT (1994)
• IRD and FITT are complementary to each other.
• FITT will operate
All Technology Transfer & Turn-key projects.
Research Partnership programmes with industry.
Innovative Consultancy and Retainership Programme
(worth Rs.1 lakh for large industries and Rs.0.20 lakhs for SMEs)
• IRD will operate
Long term generic research sponsored by Govt. bodies and agencies other than Industries.
Other consultancies
Joint projects with multi-institutional bodies
(if necessary, with FITT)
• IRD to be linked in IITD for locating potential technologies out of R&D programmes taken up in the Institute.
• FITT should be the agency for all HRD Programme for industry (CEP)
• QIP programmes to be conducted through the Institute.
• All programmes requiring Operational Flexibility to be done in FITT
EXHIBIT: 4
EXHIBIT: 5
EXHIBIT: 6
EXHIBIT: 7
EXHIBIT: 8
Exhibit 9
