Developing marketing skills for sugar industry technology transfer personnel : final report BSS193

Abstract

The role of technology transfer and research in the sugar industry is changing rapidly. Industry needs and priorities have to be developed. Many of the service organisations are now voluntary funded. Solutions to industry problems are becoming more complex and difficult to implement. There are significantly more issues confronting the industry and the capacity of the industry to respond has decreased. Most of the funding organisations are now requiring projects to incorporate a technology transfer plan within the proposal.As a result, the complexity of technology transfer within the sugar industry is increasing dramatically. Technology transfer professionals within the industry receive little formal training within their discipline, because there are very few quality providers of such training. BSES felt that it was necessary for staff in this profession to receive some marketing training to become better equipped to deliver the products and services that sugar industry participants wanted and needed. SRDC funded the project in 1997 and a training program was developed and delivered to sugar industry technology transfer personnel from a number of organisations within the industry.