RTTP (Registered Technology Transfer Professional) and ATTP

RTTP (Registered Technology Transfer Professional) is the only internationally recognized individual credential for knowledge-exchange and technology transfer (KE/TT) practitioners — the people who manage invention disclosure, IP protection, and licensing/commercialization on behalf of universities, hospitals, government labs, and research institutes. It is awarded exclusively by ATTP, the Alliance of Technology Transfer Professionals, a nonprofit standards body formed by a consortium of national and regional technology-transfer associations rather than by any single association acting alone.

What ATTP is, and how it relates to AUTM

ATTP does not replace the national/regional associations that practitioners already belong to — it sits above them as a shared accrediting body. Per ATTP’s own program materials, ATTP currently supports 16 member associations, including ASTP, AUTM (the Association of University Technology Managers, the primary North American professional association for the field), ISTA, ITMA, KAUTM, KCA (Knowledge Commercialisation Australasia), KIWINET, Knowledge Exchange UK, NETVAL, RedTransfer, SARIMA, SNITTS, STEM (Society for Technology Management), TransferAllianz, UNITT, and USIMP. AUTM’s own site describes ATTP as a partnership it participates in specifically to give AUTM members a route to internationally portable professional recognition, rather than a credential AUTM issues on its own. A practitioner typically needs to belong to one of these 16 member associations to be eligible to apply for RTTP.

The three RTTP tiers

ATTP awards the designation at three distinct levels, distinguished by experience and career stage rather than by a single pass/fail exam:

• Candidate RTTP — for practitioners earlier in their career: a minimum of roughly six months to three years in a KE/TT role, plus a Career Aspiration Plan endorsed by the applicant’s manager and evidence of continuing-education (CE) progress. It functions as an interim, renewable step toward full RTTP rather than a permanent separate credential.
• RTTP — the full designation: a minimum of three years of professional KE/TT experience, current membership in an ATTP member association, and documented evidence — an employer confirmation letter, CV, and a portfolio demonstrating competency — across all six core competency areas (below).
• RTTP Fellow — the senior tier: a minimum of roughly 15 years of experience, including at least five years in senior/leadership roles, current or prior RTTP standing, and demonstrated leadership within the KE/TT community (e.g., mentoring, association governance, field-building work), not just individual deal volume.

The six core competencies

Regardless of tier, an RTTP application must demonstrate ability across six competency areas that ATTP treats as the internationally recognized skill set of the profession:

1. Strategic and business insight — market analysis and commercial planning for research outputs.
2. Entrepreneurial leadership — fostering innovation and collaboration around spin-outs and startups.
3. Legal, scientific, and technical knowhow — intellectual-property management and contractual expertise (patents, licenses, material transfer agreements, and similar instruments).
4. Effective engagement — networking, marketing, and stakeholder relations across researchers, industry, and investors.
5. Governance and project management — overseeing complex, multi-party initiatives from disclosure through deal close.
6. Knowledge transformation and management — the systems and processes that move knowledge from a lab bench toward practical application.

How the application and portfolio review works

An RTTP applicant demonstrates the six competencies through one of two routes: a training route (a minimum of 60 Continuing Education points from ATTP-accredited programs, at least 15 of which must come from face-to-face ATTP-accredited events), or a mixed/experience route combining evidence such as professional qualifications, a list of at least eight led deals or projects reflecting appropriate scope and complexity, and documented leadership responsibilities. Applicants also submit a roughly 1,000-word Achievement Overview describing one significant accomplishment — a complex strategic partnership, a licensing or spin-out outcome, or a knowledge-transfer initiative — that ties concretely back to the six competencies. ATTP (not the applicant’s home association) reviews and approves each application; the association membership is an eligibility gateway, not the review body itself.

Why this matters for research institutions

For a research institution, RTTP functions the way other field-specific professional credentials do elsewhere in research administration — a portable, externally validated signal that a technology-transfer hire has demonstrated competency against a shared professional standard, rather than only internal, institution-specific experience. Because it is awarded by a multi-association alliance rather than a single national body, RTTP is intended to be recognized consistently by TTOs, industry partners, and funders across the roughly 16 countries/regions represented by ATTP’s member associations, which matters for institutions with cross-border licensing activity or staff who move between countries or between university, government-lab, and industry TTO roles.

Related CASRAI content

• Technology Transfer pillar — the broader cluster hub for licensing, IP, and commercialization content.
• Technology Transfer — the umbrella concept RTTP practitioners work within.
• AUTM Better World Project — AUTM’s public case-study initiative documenting commercialized university inventions.
• AUTM Licensing Activity Survey — AUTM’s annual benchmarking survey of university licensing activity.
• Technology Transfer Process guide — the end-to-end workflow RTTP competencies are applied within.