Public+Research+Organizations

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== Public Research Organizations: Managing the process of commercializing research from higher education institutions and public research institutes ==

Questions - please add comments

 * 1) How does a government R&D center work with the private sector? What happens to the proceeds -- do they go back to the general budget, stay at the research institute, etc.?
 * 2) What is the legal basis for these decisions? How do you avoid conflicts of interest? How have different countries addressed these issues?
 * 3) How does this relate to Bayh-Dole and the IP issue?

 In 2006 universities alone in the USA generated over $1 billion in revenues from commercializing research generated from some $45 billion in research expenditures - mostly government-funded. Nearly 700 new products were introduced into the market, over 500 new startup companies launched, and nearly 13,000 licenses and options were managed, yielding active income. As would be expected, these results are heavily skewed towards those universities with substantial research expenditures (typically over $100 million in annual research).

 Increasing numbers of middle-income countries are aware of these results and are planning to create wealth from university (or research institute) research through licensing of IP and the creation of spin-off companies and making the license versus spin-off company decisions. But, these universities and institutes have much lower research expenditures than in the developed world and are working in different innovation environments. Under these conditions the question becomes: is it realistic for the university, institute, or an enterprise, to engage in technology commercialization and expect any chance of success?
 * 1) In developed countries the number of spin-off companies created per million dollars of research funding at a university or public research institute varies by a factor of 10 at least. Research expenditure (2001) per spin-off company is 133 million euro in the USA and 13 million euro in the UK.
 * 2) The main purpose of university research is the creation of new knowledge not the creation of new businesses: commercializing technologies and creating spin-off companies is a secondary mission.
 * 3) A Public Research Organization can make a decision, as a part of its commercialization strategy, to emphasize and direct resources to spin-off company creation.

 In an article on ** Management of i **** ntellectual property in publicly-funded research ** ** organizations ** [|European Commission Expert Group Report 2003]  the authors note that 70% of all patents filed in the US cite public research organizations research results as their basis. Therefore, efficient management and support of such organizations becomes essential.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Modules

 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Engineering research centers.
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Culture change.
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Estimating income from technology commercialization.
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Indirect benefits from technology commercialization – e.g. grants for research resulting from improved relations with industry, or increased visibility for the university.
 * 5) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Incentives and disincentives for technology commercialization from higher education institutions, public and private research institutes, and enterprises. (this is an issue for both well developed countries and emerging markets).
 * 6) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Dealing with the issue of technology commercialization taking place through "unofficial" channels – e.g. an employee may have created a deal with a partner company to commercialize IP for personal gain without following existing procedures or involvement of the organization’s transfer or commercialization office.
 * 7) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Understanding the technology licensing process from disclosure to licensing contract.
 * 8) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Making the license versus spin-off company decision.
 * 9) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Negotiating license contracts, issues to consider.
 * 10) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Annotated sample exclusive and non-exclusive license contracts.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">These Modules are a guide only to the planned content of this Handbook Section. Please add new content to this page, or use the discussion Tab. As the wiki grows we will move things around.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Additional External Links
<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-weight: normal; text-align: left;">** NSF: Industry & University Cooperative Research Program (I/UCRC) ** []

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"The Directorate for Engineering’s newly created division of Industrial Innovation and Partnerships (IIP) serves the entire foundation by fostering partnerships to advance technological innovation, and plays an important role in the public-private innovation partnership enterprise".

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> "The focus of IIP is to successfully invest in engineering research and innovation by leveraging federal, small business, industrial, university, state and community colleges resources. Genuine partnerships are dynamic and growing relationships based upon shared interests, trust, and an evolving technical relationship. Partnerships require a vision and performance goals and benchmarks, passionate and visionary leaders, and partners bound by an essential interdependency and shared commitment to hold them together. Partnerships should facilitate the sorts of infrastructure that can sustain and nurture the spread of innovative activity over the long term".

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> These infrastructures are to educate and train human capital for the research enterprise and the entrepreneurial aspects of innovation; develop the social networks characterized by shared commitment and trust that embeds the intellectual capital and know-how embodied in scientists and engineers honed through advanced education and training; and to build a base of operational support without which sustainable partnerships cannot exist. This includes a diversified base of private investment, the physical place to provide a context for incubation, technical, management, and administrative support, laboratory and other capacity, communications services, and reliable sources of capital".


 * Managing the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center: A Guide for Directors and Other Stakeholders **<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">[] for free download.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">Contents include: <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">Creating Win-Win Partnerships: Background and Evolution of Industry/University Cooperative Research Centers Model <span style="display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; text-align: left;">Getting Started: Planning and Initiating a New Center Designing Centers: Principles for Effective Organizational Structure Membership Planning the Cooperative Research Program Implementing the Cooperative Research Program Communications Managing an I/UCRC: Control, Budgeting and Evaluation Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Cooperative Research Settings Center Leadership: Putting It All Together Expanding and Diversifying the Center Resource Base.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**NSF Partnerships for Innovation** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">http://www.nsf.gov/ publications/pub_summ.jsp?ods_ key=nsf06550

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> "Research, education and innovation enterprises are increasingly interconnected, and increasingly global. Global collaboration--among scientists, engineers, educators, industry and governments--can speed the transformation of new knowledge into new products, processes and services, and in their wake produce new jobs, create wealth, and improve the standard of living and quality of life worldwide. Innovation is the transformation of scientific and technological advances into new products, processes, systems, and services. Innovation has created astonishing, tangible benefits to society, including improved healthcare, transportation, and computer-communications capacities.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> In the Partnerships for Innovation program, NSF seeks to stimulate and capitalize on innovation by catalyzing partnerships among colleges and universities, the private sector, and federal, state, and local governments. Key factors in the innovation enterprise include creation of and access to new knowledge; a scientifically and technologically literate workforce prepared to capitalize on new knowledge in a global context; and an infrastructure that enables innovation. For the purposes of this program, innovation explicitly extends both to developing the people and tools. The academic institutions that are NSF's traditional clientele play an essential role in generating new knowledge and creating a scientifically and technologically literate workforce.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Partnerships are an important means for developing an innovation capability that links new knowledge and a knowledge-rich workforce to economic growth and other societal benefits. Partnerships involving various combinations of colleges and universities, private sector firms, and local, state, and federal governments, have the potential to increase the value of each of the partners' portfolios, and to mobilize innovation in a systemic manner. For example, private sector firms gain access to new knowledge and a workforce that can capitalize on it; academe gains financial support, the ability to capitalize on intellectual property, and access to real-world problems for field training; and local and state governments gain sustainable regional and local economic development activities. Students moving into the workplace facilitate the innovation process".

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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Guiding Principles for University-Industry Endeavors. Report of a Joint Project of the National Council of University Research Administrators and the Industrial Research Institute, April 2006**. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">//© 2006 by the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA). While NCURA encourages copying of this publication to enable broad usage, reproduction for sale or profit is strictly prohibited.//

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Although this is an America-centric discussion, the t__hree Guiding Principles__ are applicable globally.