ABSTRACT
The conspicuous success with which new American companies were taking technology from the frontiers of academic research into ambitious product development projects was held up as a model. The Medical Research Council, established in 1920, set up a small number of applied research establishments, but most of its funds went to smaller research groups based in universities. Contractual disclaimers of all liability in licensing agreements, combined with legal distancing of the institution from ownership, are prudent precautions taken by many institutions in the USA and the UK. The origins of the biotechnology revolution in American university laboratories, coming on the heels of the microelectronics revolution which had only slightly weaker campus links, excited considerable interest in the UK in the 1970s. In 1988 the Department of Trade and Industry published a White Paper promising a greater emphasis on technology transfer, especially between educational institutions and industry. The Alvey Programme was organised very differently from previous British technology support programmes.
