Stage 3: Risk Assessment

Risk Assessment

For a disclosure to enter the Risk Assessment stage of the Commercialization Engine, a completed Invention Disclosure Form (IDF) from faculty or staff or a disclosure form from students, alumni, and the South Bend-Elkhart community must be submitted to the IDEA Center.

Once received, the disclosure goes through a diagnostic and risk assessment process. In this, the technology opportunity is analyzed along nine different elements: customer validation, competitors, technology feasibility, technology stage, IP/ protectability, time-to-market, market size, complexity, and regulation. What emerges is an initial product strategy that is then implemented by a team of qualified external experts and IDEA Center employees called the Risk Assessment group. Their goal is to identify the risks associated with each disclosure and create a plan of action to mitigate these risks in the second stage of the Commercialization Engine: Derisking. In addition, the Risk Assessment team develops a non-confidential summary report that places the invention in the context of the current market situation, the complications being addressed, and the solution the technology provides.

Once a disclosure’s risk assessment strategy has been completed, all that is described above is documented in a report and given to the inventor. It then passes into the Derisking stage.