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Good practice Imported

KAIST Institute for Technology Value Creation — Korea's Top University Tech-Transfer Office

South Korea · Daejeon · See the South Korea profile · See the Daejeon profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 65% 62/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

In 2019 KAIST's tech-transfer office earned KRW 10.18 billion (about $8.6m) in royalties from 56 licensing contracts — the highest of any Korean university that year, ahead of Seoul National University and Korea University, per two independent Korean news outlets.

10.18 KRW billion (~US$8.6 million)
Technology-transfer royalty income (2019)
56 contracts
Licensing contracts (2019)
8.83 KRW billion
Seoul National University royalty income (comparison) (2019)
87 contracts
Seoul National University licensing contracts (comparison) (2019)
5.41 KRW billion
Korea University royalty income (comparison) (2019)
133 contracts
Korea University licensing contracts (comparison) (2019)
KAIST Institute for Technology Value Creation — Korea's Top University Tech-Transfer Office

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST ITVC / TLO)
Period
2019 data; office ongoing
Keywords
University technology transfer, patent licensing, deep-tech spin-offs

Context

KAIST's Institute for Technology Value Creation (ITVC), together with its technology licensing office, manages intellectual property from Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology researchers and licenses it to industry.

Objectives

To commercialise university research by evaluating invention disclosures, filing patents, negotiating licences with companies, and — through the newer KAIST Holdings vehicle — structuring equity in lab-born spin-offs.

Activities

ITVC supports commercialisation of research such as quadruped robots developed for shipyard welding and inspection, and manages the licensing pipeline from disclosure through to industry contracts.

Results

According to Korean outlets Etnews and Metro Seoul, KAIST's technology-transfer royalty income reached KRW 10.18 billion (about $8.6 million) in 2019 through 56 licensing contracts — the highest royalty income of any Korean university that year, ahead of Seoul National University (87 contracts, KRW 8.83bn) and Korea University (133 contracts, KRW 5.41bn). KAIST was also named a top-performing institution by Korea's Patent Office for public-patent technology transfer that year, and recognised as Asia's leading university/R&D IP performer at the IPBC Asia 2019 conference.

Conclusions

KAIST's own stated 2031 goals (10 spin-offs listed on KOSDAQ and two on NASDAQ, KRW 100 billion in technology fees) are forward-looking targets, not yet achieved results, and should be read as ambition rather than evidence. The 2019 figures show a single university tech-transfer office out-earning much larger domestic peers in per-contract royalty value, with results independently confirmed by national press and a government patent-office ranking.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Medium (€50k–€500k) — No explicit annual ITVC operating budget is disclosed in available sources; the office is funded as part of KAIST's institutional structure, with KAIST Holdings added to manage spin-off equity.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — The office operates on an ongoing, multi-year basis; 2019 is the most recent externally reported royalty-income year, and KAIST has stated 2031 targets for spin-off listings and technology-fee income.
Staffing & skills
ITVC invention-disclosure evaluation and patent-filing staff, Technology licensing office negotiating contracts with industry, KAIST Holdings, a newer vehicle structuring equity in lab-born spin-offs

Conditions for success

  • Strong internal research base producing patentable deep-tech inventions (e.g. quadruped robots for shipyard welding/inspection)
  • Dedicated in-house patent-filing and licence-negotiation capacity
  • Equity-structuring vehicle (KAIST Holdings) to support spin-off commercialisation

Common failure modes

  • Results are driven largely by KAIST's unusually strong research base and may not transfer to smaller or less research-intensive universities
  • 2031 targets (KOSDAQ/NASDAQ listings, KRW 100 billion in technology fees) are unmet aspirations, not evidence of current performance

Where it fits

Governance type
university-internal technology-transfer office with an associated holding-company vehicle
Scale
national leading research university
Income level
high-income (South Korea)

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

Attachments

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