Technology transfer - when, why, issues and advantages

Technology transfer is a big, complex and widely addressed topic, and there exist many studies on "who, what, when, why and how". The proceedings of the 2003 Forum Technology Transfer of Federally Funded R&D lists 832 references. Technology transfer is invoked any time the results of research and development move to an anticipated user: from an industrial R&D laboratory to the production line, from a non-profit R&D center to an entrepreneurial new product developer, from university research centers to commercializers and from federally funded research centers to other scientific users or to industry for commercialization and new product development.