The Agile Mindset of the Office of Research Business Development at Tulane University

Welcome to another episode of Tech Transfer IP. Today I am pleased to speak with Claiborne “Clay” Christian. Clay is a Business Development Officer for Tulane University. He focuses on establishing and facilitating collaborations involving research at Tulane and industry, venture capital, and other external partners, ensuring that all parties have an optimal enterprise experience.Clay received a bachelor’s degree in classics and classical language, literature, and linguistics, with a minor in biology from Hendrix College and a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences from Tulane University. In addition, Clay did a postdoctoral fellowship at St. Jude Children’s Hospital.Listen as Clay shares his background and journey to the Office of Research Business Development (RBD) at Tulane University. He discusses the role of the RBD office at the University, the agile mindset that his office provides, and the newsletter he came up with during COVID called the Daily Digest.Clay also talks about how closely his office and the Tech Transfer office at Tulane work together and what programs the RBD office has to help encourage and assist women and other traditionally under-represented researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs. Clays also speaks about NACRO, what it is, his role in the organization, and some of the successful collaborations that have come out of the RBD office.Clay’s three wishes for his office would be more trainee involvement in the office, a return to more regular interactions with other relevant offices, and a way to maintain the Tulane brand and share all the good they do. In This Episode:[01:38] Welcome to the show, Clay![01:59] Clay shares his background and his journey to the Office of Research Business Development (RBD) at Tulane.[03:56] Can you tell us a little more about the university's RBD Office and its role?[06:34] Clay discusses how the agile mindset works and the custom-tailored guidance and support his office has provided.[10:24] Clay speaks about the COVID-19 Daily Digest his office started.[13:52] How much time did your team spend putting out this newsletter?[15:32] Clay shares how closely his office and the Tech Transfer office at Tulane work together.[18:05] Clay discusses the programs RBD Office has to help encourage and assist women and other traditionally under-represented researchers, inventors, and entrepreneurs.[20:55] Clay talks about NACRO, what it is, what it offers, and his role in the organization.[24:42] Customer service mindset is one of the most important things when managing collaboration opportunities to have the greatest opportunity for success.[28:01] Clay shares some successful collaborations that have come out of the RBD office.[33:11] Maintaining a complete picture of the research at your institution and aligning academic and corporate expectations are two of the challenges his office faces.[35:32] He would like to see more trainee involvement in the office, return to more regular interactions with other relevant offices and maintain the Tulane brand and share all the work they do.[38:23] Thank you for being on the show! Find Clay:Email 

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