Technology transfer revenue quadruples

he value of the basic research taking place at the University took a giant step forward this year, with companies paying quadruple what they did the previous year for the commercial rights to several discoveries.

Companies paid $13.5 million from July 1999 to June 2000 for the rights to selected University projects, compared to $2.9 million for the previous fiscal year.

Companies were interested in the gamut of the areas that University researchers explore, from vaccines that protect children to the latest computer technologies used in offices around the world every day.

In the last decade the number of inventions that faculty members disclosed as possibly noteworthy discoveries tripled from 112 between 1991 and 1995 to 340 between 1996 and 2000. The number of licenses granted to companies doubled from the early 1990s to the late 1990s, and the number of patents issued to University inventors jumped 43 percent during the same period, from 54 to 77.

"An active effort to commercialize our technology helps the University in a variety of ways," said Mark Coburn, acting director of the Office of Technology Transfer. "Significant royalty income holds us up as a place where good things are happening. Then people begin to come to us regularly to find out what is happening here, as they hunt for future inventions. An active licensing program really opens up the channels between the University and industry and makes collaborations more likely. It's not just about royalties; this affirms that what we're doing is important stuff."

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