There is no magic key to successful technology transfer, but pragmatism helps, a top administrator from a research-intensive university in the United Kingdom told a group at Kansas University on Tuesday.

“Be pragmatic and do a deal that works,” Sir Colin Campbell, vice chancellor of the University of Nottingham, said to a gathering of several dozen KU administrators and researchers.

Campbell joined the top representatives of the British-based company OncImmune in discussing technology transfer and the evolution of a university start-up. The panel included John Robertson, professor of surgery at Nottingham whose laboratory develops the technology for OncImmune; Tony Barnes, the company’s CEO; and Geoffrey Hamilton-Fairley, the company’s chairman.

The speakers discussed the formation of OncImmune, which develops products for the early detection of breast and ovarian cancers. The company plans to launch its first test for cancer in the first quarter of 2008.

OncImmune last year announced that it had chosen Lenexa for the site of its North American headquarters and commercial lab.

“You’re very good at cancer,” Campbell said of what the state has to offer. “You’ve got very good people. We’d like to cooperate with you on clinical trials and the medical and scientific aspects. Our guys, who are very good, chose Kansas because of the people here.”

The speakers gave tips for how to follow their path. Accept and manage the inevitable risk associated with technology transfer, work together respectfully, and be pragmatic, Hamilton-Fairley told the audience.

Campbell also said the University of Nottingham has gone about technology transfer with a great deal of transparency and that was key in its success.

During his visit, Campbell is also stopping at KU Hospital’s Cancer Center, the Stowers Institute and the Kansas Life Sciences Institute.