Assessing "Start-up Readiness" for Research Topics and Researchers: Case Studies of Research-Based Start-Ups in the Biopharmaceutical Domain

This paper presents an assessment, using global databases of start-up finances and academic research papers of "start-up readiness" of research topics and researchers related to commercialization-oriented fundamental research. For research domains such as life sciences that pursue fundamental scientific understanding and applications intended for immediate use, academic entrepreneurship has played a pivotal role in commercialization. Case studies of start-ups in the biopharmaceutical research domain suggest that the biopharmaceutical field has abundant opportunities stemming from scientific research, commercialization, and entrepreneurship in life sciences. This assessment method sorts specific industry segments by which financing activities are active, and by which related growing research topics attract increased academic attention. We constructed networks of author citation and co-authorship from paper citation networks related to research topics in industry segments in the biopharmaceutical domain. Results obtained across all the research topics we surveyed demonstrated that authors in the top 10% of degree centrality ranking in both networks are far more likely to be start-up participants than other authors. More than conventional research methods, our computational approach might provide convenient, dynamic comprehensive, global and real-time understanding of "start-up readiness" of research topics and researchers in user-inspired fundamental research.