Advancing game changing academic research concepts to commercialization: A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) based sustainability framework for making informed decisions in Technology Valley of Death (TVD)

Many Game Changing Innovations (GCIs) from the academic institutions struggle in the Technology Valley of Death (TVD) and they fail to reach commercialization. The academic researchers often lack motivation to seek entrepreneurial opportunities for their GCIs. They are often discouraged after considering the burden required to convince private investors to finance their GCIs beyond technology readiness level 4. Further, many academic institutions lack a structured framework to bridge the divide between a basic research and viable product. Here we propose a four-pronged approach for developing sustainability performance metrics that can be used by early investors to understand the commercialization prospects of the GCIs: (1) conduct a screening-level LCA of the GCI and simultaneously reduce uncertainties of underlying data and technological readiness; (2) compare the LCA performance of the GCI with similar commercial products in the target market; (3) factor the LCA results into investment evaluation methods; and (4) transform LCA results into indicators that reflect sustainability performance of the innovation. Finally, we present a case study that highlights the use of this approach for developing commercial opportunities for the emerging graphene-composites as corrosion resistant coatings for civil infrastructure applications. The paper also suggests an approach for promoting a sustainability driven innovation culture in academia.