This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 9, 2026 - March 15, 2026

Local universities generate thousands of research papers each year but many discoveries never move beyond academic journals, often falling into the proverbial “valley of death” — the gap between a promising result and a product that farmers, patients or just regular consumers can actually use.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), which receives RM50 million to RM60 million in grants annually from government ministries and industry partners, is attempting to address the long-standing gap between academic research and market adoption, positioning itself as more than a knowledge producer that is able to translate research into commercial outcomes. The university has transferred and commercialised 278 intellectual properties (IPs) across multiple sectors, generating an estimated RM82.78 million in gross sales, and maintains an active portfolio of 385 IPs.

A key component of UPM’s initiative is the Putra Science Park (PSP), which functions as the university’s intermediary for technology transfer and industry engagement. Researchers are trained to be methodological, to chase theories with laser-like intensity and to produce scientific breakthroughs. Business acumen — commercialisation, in particular — requires a different set of capabilities such as market validation, regulatory navigation and business development, areas in which many academics lack formal training.

“The purpose of commercialisation is to mass-produce a solution. If we don’t commercialise … there is just so much we can produce and if we exhaust our funding, nobody is going to continue to produce solutions for people to use. By partnering with businesses, we are able to ensure a sustainable supply of innovation,” says PSP director Samsilah Roslan, who stresses that without support structures, promising research will not see the light of day.

Malaysia has strong research capabilities, but issues like funding that dries up after early-stage discovery, lengthy and complex regulatory processes and limited experience among academics in entrepreneurship make it difficult for promising lab results to be translated into investable companies.

The country spends just 1.01% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on research and development (R&D) — only a fraction of what leading innovation-driven economies invest. South Korea’s gross domestic expenditure on R&D reached 5.21% in 2022, while that of Japan, the US and Belgium ranged from 3% to 3.5%, according to the World Bank.

In 2025, PSP commercialised 26 products from 60 filed IPs — a rate of 43.33% — up from 32.73% in the previous year. UPM has had an average commercialisation rate of 34.39% over the past four years.

PSP uses two main commercialisation pathways. The first is licensing to established companies, where existing industry players take up UPM’s technology and bring it to market. This accounts for roughly 67% of its commercialised technologies.

One example is Amco Niaga Sdn Bhd, which is working with UPM to commercialise a bioherbicide that kills weeds without the toxicity of conventional chemical alternatives. Another is Biogenes Technologies Sdn Bhd, which is commercialising a UPM-developed rapid tuberculosis test kit that delivers results in 30 minutes rather than the several days required by conventional testing.

Other industry partners include Malaysian Vaccine Pharmaceuticals, which has commercialised UPM’s poultry vaccines since 1993 and remains active in the regional market; Bio-Angle Vacs Sdn Bhd, which recently launched what is described as the world’s first intranasal livestock vaccine developed with UPM; and Open Learning Global (M) Sdn Bhd, which commercialised a UPM water safety module.

The second pathway is spinning out start-ups, where entirely new companies are formed around innovations too novel for any existing industry to absorb. This makes up the remaining 33% of UPM’s commercial technologies.

PSP has about 80 start-ups in its portfolio. They include Qarbotech Sdn Bhd, an agritech start-up born out of UPM’s photosynthesis enhancer research. It is building on quantum dot technology to help plants harness light more efficiently and has attracted regional funding to scale its facilities and impact food security.

Another example is GO Advanced Solutions Sdn Bhd, which is commercialising GrafinTok, a graphene-based engine oil booster that reduces carbon emissions and prolongs engine life.

PSP’s start-up portfolio also spans aquaculture feed and fish health solutions, medical devices and diagnostics, food technology, green technology, education technology and quantum key distribution software.

UPM retains a structured interest in start-ups, whether via equity, licensing arrangements or revenue-sharing, but the priority is always to design deals that do not choke the company’s growth, asserts Samsilah.

She adds that the university earns between 1% and 5% in royalty and licensing fees, with agreement durations of one to 10 years depending on the technology and partner. “Only a fraction of the total value created by commercialisation returns to the university directly. The majority of revenue and profit rightly stays with industry partners and start-ups to fuel reinvestment, job creation and scaling.”

PSP’s goal is to turn UPM’s research into real products and companies that create impact beyond the lab. But great research does not automatically translate into investable companies, as innovations have a long way to go before they are commercially viable.

Research outputs carry “research and development DNA” produced at lab scale, without regulatory compliance or a business model, says Samsilah, adding that formulations that work reliably in a lab may also behave differently in industrial volumes.

“What we produce is very disruptive. It doesn’t have a value chain, supply chain, go-to-market, distributors and things like that. We have to build that and also need to scale up and test the consistency of the effects when scaled up,” she explains.

Before a technology can attract investment, it must be proven that there is a market for it. PSP’s InnoHub programme does this by establishing a pathway to market validation, which is crucial to develop viable business models that demonstrate investment viability and return potential. During the programme, research teams go through a structured market validation exercise, which includes talking to buyers, suppliers and distributors, stress-testing costs and confirming there is enough demand to build a business, before any attempt at commercialisation proceeds.

“Many are not aware that to commercialise, you need to have the right business model to ensure your business works. You can’t just simply go out and sell something. If the cost to produce and market is higher than the revenue, if there is not enough market to reach breakeven, if you can’t get enough partners to support the distribution channel, your business will fail,” says Samsilah.

About 10 projects are accepted each year. “But not all 10 will end up as start-ups. Those whose market validation results do not support the business for multiple reasons will not become start-ups. The teams, however, are welcome to propose other ideas, or go back and strengthen their R&D based on the knowledge and experience gained,” she adds.

“Sometimes, people say universities should be doing something that the industry wants. But that means not producing something that is life-changing or groundbreaking. As a university, we need to do groundbreaking research, something that will totally change the way we do things,” she stresses.

Since 2014, the InnoHub programme has validated 127 intellectual properties, incorporated 85 companies, facilitated 112 licensing or outright sales of IPs and attracted RM27 million in funding and investment.

Samsilah aims to deepen post-programme support, where it integrates InnoHub graduates with UPM’s artificial intelligence (AI) sandbox, 5G testbeds and corporate innovation programmes, so that start-ups have a clear next step after completing the programme.

The AI sandbox is designed as a real-world testbed where emerging AI and advanced connectivity technologies can be trialled safely at scale. Built on 5G infrastructure developed with Digital Nasional Bhd and Ericsson, it hosts applications across four dedicated zones: urban air mobility, smart agriculture, autonomous robotics, and health and telemedicine.

At its core, PSP connects university researchers with businesses that can turn their work into products — managing IP, structuring licensing and spin-off deals, and validating business models through programmes like InnoHub — and with industry partners and investors who can bring technologies to market.

A critical part of that work is IP, which is the foundation for the entire tech transfer process, as it represents the university’s formal registration of ownership over a technology. Industry partners are generally reluctant to invest in technologies without IP protection in place, says Samsilah.

PSP has a dedicated office to manage IP protection — filing patents, maintaining them across jurisdictions, managing the different IP types and pursuing litigation when infringement occurs — across UPM’s full portfolio. IP protection and maintenance cost between RM700,000 and RM800,000 annually.

Patents are assigned by territory, so one issued in Malaysia offers no IP protection elsewhere, hence the need to file for patents in multiple jurisdictions, which carries significant costs. According to Samsilah, the total cost of maintaining a patent for 20 years is about RM55,000 in Malaysia. It is more than RM110,000 in the US and about RM87,000 in Canada.

IP is just one part of a much larger funding requirement. The entire process of transforming R&D into commercialisable innovation requires funding at various stages of the pipeline.

Commercialisation is capital-intensive because patents, prototyping, trials, certifications, scaling and going-to-market cost money. That funding must also cover every stage, from early fundamental research to applied grants that test whether discoveries work in the field, proof-of-concept work and scaling up production to a level the market can absorb.

PSP draws on internal UPM funds for early-stage IP protection and proof-of-concept work, mobilises grants and co-investment from government agencies and corporate partners, and works with UPM Holdings to structure joint ventures and smart partnerships for later-stage capital deployment.

On top of that, PSP catalyses industry-led funding through partnerships such as its collaboration with Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) to commercialise agricultural innovations and InnoHub, where validated start-ups attract external capital after being de-risked through structured incubation.

The key principle is to spread risk and align the right capital at the right stage: grants and university support for early exploration, catalytic funds and corporate pilots for validation, and venture or growth capital for scaling, says Samsilah.

PSP is building relationships with both local and regional investors so that university spin-offs are not dependent on a single capital source. The goal is a diversified investor network around UPM.

Early-stage funding traditionally came from public venture capitalists (VCs). However, Samsilah is seeing a shift with more private VCs being willing to invest at earlier stages in recent years. Funders are needed at every stage of development.

“Five years ago, we only had public VCs taking the risk and coming in at an early stage. The private VCs in Malaysia were very risk-averse, unlike the Silicon Valley investors. We didn’t have that ecosystem before, but now we do,” she says.

One notable partnership is with Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment funds and programmes created to accelerate the transition to clean energy. Qarbotech was selected as a 2025 Breakthrough Energy Fellow.

Working with VCs brings market discipline and scalability thinking from day one, access to international markets, talent and follow-on investors, exposure to global best practices in governance, valuation and exits, says Samsilah.

Looking ahead, she wants to enhance the university’s sectoral focus on agriculture and biotechnology while building capabilities in AI, data and advanced materials. She also aims to strengthen international collaborations so that start-ups can access global markets.

Samsilah says sustaining funding for commercialisation activities in an environment of budget constraints and keeping pace with rapidly changing technologies and regulatory expectations are key challenges. She hopes to see more support from Malaysians on domestic innovation and products.

“Please trust our technologies. Our universities have very good researchers. They have done years of research and have very good technologies. Maybe they are not good at telling people what these technologies are and what they can do, [so PSP can help] in translating that information. Before you search for solutions outside of the country, look for them in Malaysia,” she says.

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