Could Research Commercialization Help Social Work Weather Turbulent Funding Landscapes? a Case for Commercializing Our Science

Since the early 1900s academic researchers have utilized commercialization as an avenue for widespread translation of their scientific discoveries. Science commercialization slowly gained interest over time, though became more commonplace within the academe after Bayh-Dole Act was passed in 1980, which encouraged American universities to expand their technology transfer programs. Today, commercializing research has become more commonplace for many academic disciplines and current restructuring of federal research funding sources has ignited discourse on whether research commercialization can provide a viable funding stream for academic science to continue its path forward. Unfortunately, social work has been largely absent in this research commercialization boom.

In this roundtable, a panel of associate deans of research and social work investigators with experience in research commercialization mechanisms will discuss the processes, benefits, and drawbacks of pursuing commercial paths to fund scientific investigations. Collectively, they will share their experiences as research start-up owners, investigators on projects funded by SBIR/STTR mechanisms, industry collaborators, and reviewers on federal SBIR/STTR grant review panels.

The panel will first provide an overview of how research commercialization has evolved over time. This discussion will highlight social work’s resistance towards commercialization in practice and research. However, it will also highlight the merits of commercialization, such as its potential to hasten translation of research findings, ability to self-sustain funding, and opportunities for new perspectives about the practicality of our discoveries for the populations we are seeing to support through our research. The panel will present various paths towards commercialization, such as entrepreneurialism, industry partnerships, and SBIR/STTR mechanisms.

Once this context is provided the panel will provide perspective on practical steps that social work researchers can take to explore this funding path. Topics will include: determining if your work has commercialization potential, establishing a start-up, identifying and maintaining industry collaborators, and navigating university tech transfer systems.

Finally, the panel will present some of the challenges and pitfalls investigators may experience in this space. For example, many raise concerns about the ethics surrounding commercializing research, especially in social work. There are also debates regarding incompatibilities between commercializing research and the value of open science. From a practical standpoint, the panel will touch on topics that include navigating intellectual property, managing financial conflicts of interest, maneuvering through federal funding systems without the university, and developing the communication skills needed to successfully market research discoveries.

Although social work has historically been critical of commercializing our research, as scientists, we have a public duty to generate findings that benefit the public and make sure that discoveries are shared with non-academic audiences who have the agency of putting those discoveries to good use. However, the ethical and practical challenges of commercializing science remain. Unfortunately, social work has been left behind in this space, leaving investigators without the knowledge and skills needed to evaluate how entrepreneurship may benefit their research or how to lead commercialization efforts. This panel services as a starting point for this conversation.