How common is it for a postdoc in the AI area to propose and create a spin-off from a university lab with their supervisors?
How usual the process is to do so if any?
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13The headline asks if it is possible but the body asks if it’s common. Those are quite different.– BuffyCommented May 30 at 22:05
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1is it possible first? then secondly do you know any examples? how common is this in real world?– Martin MooreCommented May 30 at 22:07
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14It is possible to "propose" anything. That is meaningless.– BuffyCommented May 30 at 22:31
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2I would need to press no clarifying the title. As the title stands, the answer is a very clear "yes": You can propose it, communication in academia should be at least as open as being able t o propose ideas. But the question is very different. Please reformulate it to ask clearly what you're interested in.– Mayou36Commented May 31 at 8:59
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3 Answers
Research administrator from the US here. I am currently experiencing this with a graduate student in AI who is trying to create a startup from work based on a paper supporting his dissertation. It's a nightmare because the student is not working openly with the administration to spot and address issues.
Startups are part of the science world now, and the administrations are adapting, however, you have to be open to working with the university. There are tons of intellectual property (IP) issues that you will not have thought about. You need to understand how to keep firewalls between your work. Your PI also may need to have a management plan, conflict of interest disclosures, and many other types of paperwork. I know of a PI who has a startup that is a subaward on his federal contract. Our institution will not let him approve the invoices--we have a disinterested 3rd party who reviews and approves them.
I can assure you that there are so many things you haven't thought about, but many people at the university are paid to think about them for you. Talk to your PI, and let them take it to their research administration team for further discussion. This is the only way you will know what is possible and what is not--it's all about your own institution's policies.
answered May 30 at 22:56
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"It's a nightmare because the student is not working openly with the administration to spot and address issues." I think I'd be inclined to worry that this meant the student really didn't want to go ahead with the spinout, and someone (advisor?) was twisting their arm behind the scenes.– user128581Commented May 31 at 11:42
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6@DanielHatton I would guess it mostly means that the student is perceiving the institution's policies as overly bureaucratic. They probably want to do a startup, and they don't want somebody to "spot issues" in their plan. That's probably not a smart move, but also not particularly surprising.– xLeitixCommented May 31 at 13:49
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1Yes in this case, the student has hidden the intentions to launch this company, even from their PI, and is actually using a paper published with other university faculty as the basis of the startup--you can't do things like this without talking to someone. There may be options that satisfy everyone, but not talking to the university about this isn't the option here. People are often afraid the university is going to just kill the idea, which isn't the case, but we have rights too and they should be respected. We pay these people's salaries, give them facilities--it's expensive to support. Commented May 31 at 14:53
Not only is it possible, some universities even have dedicated support programs for commercialising research.
After all, if researchers have just invented the next MP3 or the next PageRank, they'd love to get some equity in that.
There is also, of course, a shadow option: Keep your great idea to yourself, don't use a single second of university computer time or inch of office space or page of journal access to plan your startup, and then launch it only after you finish at the university.
Some people prefer this if they think the spin-out process would drown them in red tape rather than helping them, or if they're leaving academia for industry because of frustration with academia.
If the work was done as a part of the studies, and especially if the student received scholarship, the professor and the University have intellectual property rights. Professor as the co-author, and the university as the employer. Thus, they simply cannot be bypassed - but there is likely a specific person/office in the University responsible for handling such activities (I vaguely recall having to sign agreement about the intellectual property rights immediately after being accepted to a PhD program.)
On the upside, the University may handle and even pay for some expenses - e.g., if a registering patent is involved, it may incur costs well above the graduate student yearly income.
