If You're Not Thinking About Intellectual Property, You’re Not Thinking About Impact

Abstract

Many of us went into research to do something good—to cure cancer or to save the world—and in engineering biology, we really are doing that, solving some of the world's most pressing problems, from plastic degradation to chemical manufacture to built-environment solutions to next-gen therapeutics. Or, as academics, we think we are doing these things. We do the research. We publish the research. Job done. But are we actually having the impact we set out to have? Or is your next big (or small) publication one of the reasons your invention never makes it to market? This short article will help you see your research in the context of real-world innovation and give you an insight into what it takes to turn that academic work into something we can hold and use. We will look at some fundamentals of patents and what you, as scientists, should be aware of. We will then look at innovation trends in engineering biology across a range of sectors—what are the hot fields in engineering biology commercialisation and what can we use this information for. If you’re not thinking about IP, you’re not thinking about impact.