How NYU is transforming tech transfer for the future
In this episode, we are joined by Marc Sedam, Vice President of Technology Opportunities and Ventures at NYU Langone Health, to explore how one of the world’s largest research universities is scaling innovation and transforming tech transfer. Marc shares how NYU is reshaping its approach, from strengthening back-office systems and embedding staff across departments, bringing venture capital thinking in-house and deploying AI to streamline commercialisation.
From shifting a reactive office into a proactive, data-driven operation, to building relationships that spark serendipitous discoveries, to demonstrating how smaller universities can create impact by focusing on excellence and creative works, this conversation is packed with insights for institutions navigating the future of technology transfer and research commercialisation.
You can read a summary below, and listen to the full interview in our podcast:
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Summary
Marc Sedam, Vice President of Technology Opportunities and Ventures at NYU Langone Health, leads one of the world’s largest and most complex technology transfer operations. With over $1.5 billion in research, 1,500+ patents, 250 startups, and a $25 million venture fund, NYU operates across multiple campuses in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai.
From reactive to proactive
When Sedam arrived at NYU in 2021, he found a highly successful but overstretched office. With only 13 staff handling a billion dollars of research, the team was reactive rather than strategic. His first step was to overhaul the back office: Cleaning databases, improving systems, and staffing up based on clear metrics.
Four years later, disclosures have more than doubled, licenses and startups have grown sharply, and the office is now scaling proactively. For Sedam, speed and pragmatism are as important as outcomes: if a deal can be completed faster while still retaining most of the economics, then the focus should be on moving it forward rather than chasing perfection.
“We serve the idea, not the politics, not the personalities. Our job is to get knowledge into the world as quickly as possible”.
Embedding relationships across the university
Marc believes that building deep relationships inside and outside the university is critical. His staff embed in department meetings, attend seminars, and cultivate serendipitous conversations with researchers. Externally, NYU builds strong ties to venture capital, healthcare, and international partners, positioning itself as both a “push” enterprise (moving ideas out) and a “pull” enterprise (bringing opportunities in).
Bringing VC thinking into the university
To strengthen its venture fund decisions, NYU hired an analyst directly from the venture capital world. This allows the office to produce full investment memos, 8–12 pages with market analysis and expert interviews, mirroring how VCs evaluate startups. These memos are shared with researchers and partners, providing candid feedback and building credibility with investors.
“We hired a VC analyst to evaluate our own startups. If you want credibility with investors, you need to think like they do”.
AI as a game-changer
NYU has invested heavily in building AI agents to automate repetitive parts of the tech transfer process. From drafting invention disclosures to generating market and IP analyses, Sedam sees AI as a tool to save time and accelerate engagement.
The challenge now is deployment—making tools usable beyond NYU and accessible to smaller universities.
Lessons for smaller universities
Having worked at the University of New Hampshire before NYU, Sedam knows what it means to innovate without scale. His advice: focus on areas of true excellence, connect to regional ecosystems, and don’t overlook creative works. At UNH, the biggest licensing success wasn’t a biotech breakthrough but a curriculum to prevent relationship violence, licensed 650 times and training 60,000 people nationwide.
The future of tech transfer
Looking ahead, Sedam sees the sector needing to take more risks, communicate more effectively, and rethink funding models. With declining public trust in universities, he argues that tech transfer professionals must tell compelling stories of impact while building partnerships and narrowing focus to areas where universities can truly move the needle.
“Universities must learn to take risks. Sometimes putting 90% of your effort into 10% of the work is how you move the needle”.
Ready for more?
Interested in how leading universities are reimagining tech transfer and collaboration? In the article KU Leuven: Pioneering Partnerships and Innovation in Academia, we showcase how Europe’s most innovative university is leveraging strong partnerships and a forward-looking approach to commercialisation to drive impact.
Looking at the global picture, our brief Unlocking University IP: Global Insights into Commercialisation Challenges and Opportunities examines the hurdles universities face in turning ideas into impact and shares perspectives on what it will take to overcome them.
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