# The Innovation Imperative: Time to Rewrite Academia’s Compact With Industry

## TL;DR

Academic medicine needs to change how it works with industry to drive real-world innovation and impact.

## Contribution

The paper proposes a new framework for valuing entrepreneurial scholarship and restructuring academia-industry partnerships.

## Key findings

- Fewer than 1% of university patents lead to licensed products, showing the failure of current tech transfer models.
- Global examples like Israel and Singapore show success with structured academia-industry collaboration.
- Reforming faculty evaluation to include patents, startups, and translational teaching is recommended.

## Abstract

Academic medicine is at a crossroads. Amid historic federal disinvestment in research and persistent cultural resistance to industry collaboration, the traditional academic compact, based on grants, publications, and tenure, is no longer sustainable. Drawing on firsthand experience as a medical school dean, faculty, and biotech executive, this editorial argues that academic institutions must urgently reform how they value and support entrepreneurial scholarship. With fewer than 1% of university patents leading to licensed products, the prevailing model of late-stage, passive tech transfer has failed to translate innovation into impact. Meanwhile, global models from the Israel Innovation Authority to Singapore’s Biopolis demonstrate the power of early, structured academia-industry partnerships. This piece proposes a new framework for evaluating faculty achievement, one that elevates patents, startups, regulatory wins, clinical product launches, and translational teaching as core academic contributions. It calls for institutional reforms to faculty appointment and promotion criteria, dedicated innovation offices, and policy incentives to reward real-world impact. The innovation imperative is clear: if academic medicine is to remain relevant, it must become an engine not only of knowledge, but of change.