The following is a list of the articles that appear in the October 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access this issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 10, October 2020

• Micro-internships proving an attractive alternative in the COVID era. Micro-internships can hardly be called “new,” but there’s no doubt they have become even more attractive since the advent of COVID-19. University leaders actively engaged with employers have shown increased interest as many traditional internships have been withdrawn by companies.
• New position at Rutgers is part of “reimagined” corporate engagement team. The recently announced position of Director of Entrepreneurship Partnerships at Rutgers University comes as the university works to essentially recreate its Corporate Engagement Center (CEC) after determining that something was lacking in its overall structure, according to Sacha Patera, PhD, associate vice president and head of the CEC.
• K-State rebrands research partnership cluster as Edge Collaboration District. What’s in a name? A lot more than you might think. A geographic area formerly known as the North Campus of Kansas State University is now being called the “Edge Collaboration District,” but the move is much more than a mere name change; it involves a rebranding that more accurately describes and defines the ongoing mission of an area where corporate, technical and research partners have come together and, hopefully, will do so in even greater strength and with clearer definition as the future unfolds.
• University, spinoff join forces to launch life science incubator. Universities launching incubators is old news. Corporations launching incubators is not uncommon. But universities teaming with corporations — with a spinoff, no less — not so much.
• UMaine in $100 million partnership to build offshore wind project. There are few, if any, “overnight successes” when it comes to university technologies attracting corporate partners, and this partnership may have a longer story than many — but the “wait” clearly seems to have paid off.
• NCATS pursues translational innovation by setting itself apart from other NIH centers. Sometimes the key to success involves taking “the road less travelled” (apologies to Robert Frost), and that is certainly the approach that The National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) has taken, according to its director Christopher P. Austin, MD.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the September 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access this issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 9, September 2020

• Universities, industry partners create new paths to success in the COVID era. There is no book for university-industry engagement response during a pandemic. Leaders on both sides of the partnership equation were forced to pivot quickly into a new reality, focusing not only on the continuity of their operations on campus, but also on maintaining and, if possible, strengthening existing relationships.
• Practice Labs enables ASU students to focus on business solutions. Like many other research universities Arizona State has been active in programs that link students experientially with industry partners, such as capstone projects and internships. However, about three years ago ASU took a major step beyond those traditional approaches with the creation of Practice Labs.
• UGA hosts virtual forum on internships for industry partners. Universities have been putting their best foot forward in terms of service to their industry partners when it comes to meeting the challenges of COVID-19. One clear example is the recent hosting of a virtual forum on internships facilitated by the University of Georgia’s Innovation District. The goal was to enable industry partners to share best practices, challenges, and strategies in their virtual summer internships.
• U Hawaii building “cradle to career” engineering talent pipeline. A first-ever workshop held at the University of Hawaii on July 22nd “to understand our current engineering landscape,” and a follow-up event August 20th, were just the initial steps in an ambitious initiative to “build a streamlined and connected cradle-to-career engineering talent pipeline, improving the preparedness and increasing the number of students to meet Hawaii’s engineering industry needs,” according to school officials.
• Northwestern supports industry partners with insights into racial equity issues. In this COVID age of university-industry collaboration, webinars and other virtual events have become more commonplace. Most of those sponsored by universities have seen the institutions functioning as facilitators, bringing together experts from both academia and industry to share their experiences, best practices, and lessons learned. But in a recent webinar, Northwestern University took a different tack: They presented themselves and one of their leading experts as thought leaders, delivering insights into a current “hot” topic that is not without controversy — racial justice and equality — and addressing the latest thinking on.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the August 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access this issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 8, August 2020

• Washington State widens corporate engagement potential with innovative department. While the term “corporate relations” may traditionally have tended to get the mind focused on a university’s external outreach to industry, there is clearly a myriad of activity that must occur internally to optimize partnership opportunities. Such a holistic approach has gained growing popularity in U-I circles, and it was recognition of these and other factors that led to an external review at Washington State University in 2016, resulting in the creation of the Innovation and Research Engagement Office, or IREO, which was formally launched in January 2018.
• Virginia Tech uses team-based approach to enhance industry engagement. In a few short years, Virginia Tech has transformed its approach to corporate engagement through its “LINK+LICENSE+LAUNCH” approach, a blended model of distinctly titled units that function together as a team. The model is designed to ensure optimal corporate engagement while enhancing the likelihood of bringing new innovations to market.
• Triple Helix partnership seeks to tackle COVID-19 and prevent future pandemics. The collaborations under way to create vaccines and therapeutics for COVID-19 are almost too numerous to mention, but one of them, a collaboration of academia, industry and government called the Rapidly Emerging Antiviral Drug Discovery Initiative (READDI), is more ambitious than most: The global collaboration has set its goal at raising $500 million to generate five new drugs with human safety and dosing data (up to Phase II clinical trials) in five years to be ready for the next pandemic.
• PFI grants engendering greater university-industry research collaboration. The NSF’s Partnerships for Innovation (PFI) grant program makes no secret that a key part of its raison d’etre is to generate greater research collaboration between academia and industry; in fact, its eligibility requirements spell that intention out clearly.
• Australian university takes industry on virtual tour of engineering labs. Like many universities looking to connect with industry partners, the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) had to quickly retool its recent planned industry tour of its engineering labs, pivoting to a virtual “tour” due to the coronavirus. Working with its partner in hosting the event, The Australian Industry Group (Ai Group®), the transformed virtual event and drew 150 attendees and succeed in making some lemonade out of what could have been a sour lemon. Its success offers some key lessons to other universities seeking to maintain outreach efforts despite restrictions on travel and in-person gatherings.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the July 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access this issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 7, July 2020

• How to engage faculty in building university-industry partnerships. While clearly a critical part of any university-industry partnership, faculty researchers sometimes get short shrift in conversations about what makes these partnerships successful, with attention often focusing more globally on the university and its industry partner, and overarching strategies for sharing each other’s goals and meeting each other’s needs. Perhaps it was at least partly in recognition of this reality that NACRO recently decided to host a webinar titled “Working with Faculty.” After all, many partnerships revolve around faculty involvement, or depend on it completely.
• COVID-19 NERF helps generate new agreements with corporate partners. There has been an understandable surge of interest on the part of industry to partner with universities in new research connected with the COVID-19 virus. Now several universities employing a new NERF made available in April and specifically designed to make such agreements more attractive and with less negotiating time say it’s leading to even more — and faster — collaborations with industry partners.
• Virtual career conference offers new lessons for engaging students, industry. This is not your predecessor’s university-industry career conference, but it may be a big part of the future — even after COVID-19 is just a bad memory.
• Expanding online network brings university education to corporate employees. The most successful programs seeking to link academia and industry focus on meeting the needs of both partners equally, and InStride, a growing online education network, is looking to join that “club” by matching the educational needs of the companies and their employees with the virtual educational services of the universities.
• New online portal crosses boundaries to connect universities and industry. A new online portal designed to connect university researchers with industry-sponsored projects, service contract opportunities and potential collaborators is unique among the myriad portals designed to link academia and industry, according to Jay De Long, director of Research Enabled (www.researchenabled.org). The portal is a joint undertaking of the University of Missouri System and the Southern Illinois University System and enabled through a grant of nearly $700,000 from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
• UPS transport subsidiary helps Rutgers meet critical time pressures. You only have one chance to make a first impression, says the old adage, and Marken, a wholly owned subsidiary of the UPS Healthcare division, has apparently made the most of it in a recent collaboration with Rutgers University to ensure the rapid and safe transport of samples related to COVID-19 research. It may have been the first time these two have partnered, but it likely will not be the last.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the June 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 6, June 2020

• Universities, industry find alternative approaches for summer internships. As it has done with university-industry research, the coronavirus has had a tremendous impact on collaborative internships and co-op programs. Unlike research, however, which in many cases had to be shut down, these collaborations have for the most part found a way to continue — albeit using distinctly different models.
• Communication is key when COVID-19 stalls partnership projects. While stalled research projects are eventualities that neither university nor industry partners like to see, in many cases they have been inevitable due to COVID-19 safety concerns. While there is no “guidebook” on how best to deal with these unforeseen challenges, most observers agree the first consideration should be quick and transparent communications between partners.
• Purdue, Microsoft create app to track COVID-19 impact on research projects. How many university offices of sponsored programs, facing a critical COVID-19 related challenge, could reach out to an industry partner and be provided with a solution in less than a week? Well, Purdue’s Sponsored Program Services (SPS) apparently can.
• New consortium seeks to enhance U.S. role in solar energy production. The University of Washington and its Washington Clean Energy Testbeds, the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Toledo, along with a group of leading solar companies, have formed the U.S. Manufacturing of Advanced Perovskites Consortium, or US-MAP. The group aims to accelerate the domestic commercialization of technologies based on perovskites, an emerging class of materials with properties ideal for solar energy that can be inexpensively produced.
• Angel network helps fund start-up connecting corporate sponsorship to campus events. Indiana University Ventures (IU Ventures) was already a very real part of the university’s corporate engagement efforts before the recent announcement of IU’s contribution to an investment round for start-up Recess, an alumni-led digital marketplace. But the effort did represent a milestone — the very first investment by the IU Angel Network.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the May 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter.

Not a subscriber already? Subscribe now to continue to get access every month to the best guidance available on expanding industry engagement efforts and attracting and managing corporate partnerships, as well as access to our online archive of back issues.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 5, May 2020

• University-industry partners break new ground as they seek COVID solutions. It comes as no surprise that universities and their industry partners have strongly reached out to each other in the face of the COVID-19 crisis, desperately seeking urgently needed solutions. What might not have been predicted, however, is how willing and nimble they have been at throwing off the limitations of more traditional partnering methods in order to speed up processes, or to enter into totally new areas of activity to meet those urgent needs.
• Iowa State’s partnership with Deere a model of long-term strategic collaboration. There are many successful university-industry relationships across the country, but it’s likely there are few that check as many of the collaboration “boxes” as the one between Iowa State University and its industry partner, heavy equipment maker Deere & Co.
• New certificates program designed to “retrain” engineers in quantum tech. The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago will be offering a certificates program to educate scientists and engineers in the key principles and practical applications of quantum technology.
• Carleton U expands Ericsson partnership with multi-year deal for research and talent. Strengthening industry partnerships is a primary goal of corporate engagement offices, and Carleton University in Ottawa has certainly done that, signing a multi-year agreement with Ericsson that will incorporate research sponsorship and talent development programs for engineers and computer scientists in wireless communications.
• University, industry partner focus on business solutions and student learning in IoT. James Cook University in Townsville, Australia, and Optus Business, developer of a “next-generation narrow-band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) network,” have reached agreement on a seven-year partnership to, as they say, “Turbocharge IoT Innovation,” with a focus on business solutions and the education of Cook students in IoT.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the April 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. Due to the urgent nature of the coronavirus pandemic and our extensive coverage of how industry engagement offices are addressing COVID-related challenges, we are opening up this issue for free to all.

Click here for the April issue 

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University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 4, April 2020

• Industry engagement offices adjust to new reality in COVID-19 lockdown. Corporate engagement, which is typically characterized by an extensive amount of personal contact — be it through site visits, negotiations, collaborative meetings, conferences, showcases, or staff meetings — has been forced to dramatically shift its modes of communication as COVID-19 has caused universities to shut down most on-campus activities. Nonetheless, engagement managers tell UIEA that they remain busy, albeit in some ways they might never have imagined.
• U New Haven breaks new ground with e-sports industry partnership. E-sports and gaming are part of a rapidly growing industry. A number of universities have even established their own teams, so it’s perhaps not surprising that The University of New Haven and HyperX have entered into a partnership centered around this space. However, the partners agree there is much that makes this partnership unique.
• UQ’s new Industry Connect program guides industry to engagement options. University-industry engagement has been a key to innovation in Australia for quite a while, despite what conventional wisdom might say, according to Professor Mohan Krishnamoorthy, pro-vice-chancellor for research partnerships at The University of Queensland in Brisbane. What has changed, he says, is the more recent “synthesizing of transdisciplinary capabilities.” And it is that change, he adds, which has led to a restructuring of the university’s approach to engaging industry partners — through a multi-faceted program called Industry Connect.
• USF, Jabil expand deal and offer lessons in becoming more strategic. The University of South Florida and product solutions company Jabil Inc., which have had ongoing collaborations in a number of different areas, have formalized that partnership with the establishment of a new institute in the USF Research Park and a master research agreement governing the relationship.
• Development officer finds creative paths for enhancing industry relationships. Michelle Dingwall, senior development officer for the Stout University Foundation at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, assumed her position when it was created by the university three years ago. Her main charge: Securing donations from industry partners.
• IBM, Princeton launch undergraduate quantum research program. In the summer of 2019, IBM and Princeton University initiated the Quantum Undergraduate Research at IBM and Princeton (QURIP) program, which involved 10 students from educational institutions across the country. They spent the summer focusing on “theoretical and experimental research in quantum information.”

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the March 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. 

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 3, March 2020

• Georgia Tech’s corporate contract ‘continuum’ stands the test of time. Many universities now offer contract options designed to more closely address the needs of industry partners, with several different templates potentially in play, depending on the type of project involved. Many are so new, however, that the institutions which introduced them are taking a ‘wait and see’ approach in evaluating their success.
• Reorganization of corporate engagement functions not always a ‘slam dunk.’ In recent years, particularly in light of the push for more ‘holistic’ relationships with industry partners, a number of universities have reorganized their corporate engagement structure. Implementing such a restructuring, however, is a complicated and challenging task.
• Dublin City U’s open access model goes beyond fee-for-service. The Nano Research Facility (NRF) at Dublin City University is employing an open access operating model that Greg Hughes, vice president of research for DCU, says is “more than fee-for-service.”
• Purdue, Elanco form strategic partnership in animal health research. Purdue University, through its research foundation, and Elanco Animal Health, Inc. have inked a five-year agreement that will involve both collaborative research and talent training in major areas including animal science, structural biology, protein evolution and engineering, microbiome discovery and clinical veterinary medicine. The collaborative research will take place in Purdue’s labs under a under a master research agreement.
• Alliance helps big and small universities bring quantum technology, talent to industry. Quantum research is “hot,” and among universities seeking corporate partnerships the competition is getting rather fierce. And while large, well-established and well-funded research universities may have the upper hand in this booming arena, consortiums like the newly formed Maryland Quantum Alliance (MQA) could open the door for new partnerships for all member institutions.
• LaSalle U, Merck partner in life science career education program for undergrads. LaSalle University and Merck are partnering to provide LaSalle students with a curriculum developed by Pathway for Patient Health designed to better prepare them for careers in life sciences by focusing on quality. The program, called QSE (Quality Science Education), will give students education and training specific to careers in the pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech, animal health, and consumer goods industries during their undergraduate studies.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the February 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. 

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 2, February 2020

• Rice annual reports strengthen engagement with top industry partners. Glossy, highly polished annual reports that Rice University publishes and provides to its “Presidential Partners” — its most highly engaged industry collaborators — give those partners a detailed summary of the level of their engagement over the past year in each key area. Providing those reports, say Rice representatives, can give partners a sense of pride in their accomplishments, compare their level of engagement to those of competitors, and perhaps reveal areas where they not been as strong as they might have thought and thus consider additional engagement.
• U of Utah seeks to grow lifetime relationships with start-up companies. While the University of Utah has developed a well-earned reputation as a research institution, with more than $500 million in research expenditures annually, when it comes to being known as an “engine of innovation,” it would be fair to say “not so much.” That’s certainly the viewpoint of Keith Marmer, DPT, MBA, executive director and associate vice president for technology & venture commercialization. But he’s taking steps to change that, looking to the university’s own start-ups as a driver of future industry collaborations
• UArizona’s ‘Forge’ programs link several areas of industry collaboration. The approximately $2 million renovation project in downtown Tucson, commonly called Arizona Forge (or the Arizona Forge Business Innovation Hub), has been described as an incubator, but Director Brian Ellerman asserts it’s much more than that. In fact, he says, it represents but one of two major elements of industry engagement at the University of Arizona.
• New online marketplace seeking to connect scientists and industry. Bringing research scientists together with industry partners willing to fund their projects has always been a key element of university outreach, and now a new online marketplace called Halo has been launched to help them do just that.
• New website at U Buffalo is part of ‘integrated’ marketing to industry partners. The University at Buffalo’s Business & Entrepreneur Partnerships department has just launched a website aimed at life sciences companies as part of a new, broader strategy to enhance industry partnerships.
• Focus on student recruitment leads to strong growth in corporate partnerships. When it comes to enhancing corporate engagement, it certainly pays to listen to your partners — as Troy University in Alabama has proven. The university has added six organizations to its Corporate Partnerships Program in a period of several weeks.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the January 2020 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. 

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 2, No. 1, January 2020

• Universities, industry ‘high’ on research partnerships in cannabis and hemp. If you think it’s been raining university-industry cannabis and hemp-related research projects, it’s not your imagination. With the growing number of states offering some level of legalization, particularly for the less controversial low-THC varieties of hemp, the barriers are dropping and the attraction of potential profits in this burgeoning industry is apparently too strong to avoid. In fact, Chicago-based market research firm Brightfield Group says that at least 38 universities are currently leading or participating in clinical CBD trials.
• Cornell seeks to build upon early success of industry-friendly GateWay program. A little over a year ago, Cornell University launched a new initiative called “GateWay to Partnership.” The program, run through the university’s Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and developed in close cooperation with the Center for Technology Licensing (CTL), offers three distinct partnership options from which prospective partners can choose — each geared towards different types of relationships.
• Four-decade partnership between HP and Oregon State a model of success. One measure of the strength of an academic-industry partnership is the depth and breadth of the collaborations. Another is the length of the partnership. With Hewlett-Packard and Oregon State University, the track record on both counts is impressive.
• Proactivity is key to addressing financial audits of industry research. When it comes to financial audits of industry-sponsored research projects, “proactivity is key; the process will go much smoother by preparing ahead of time,” said Kelsey Foreman, senior consultant in the Risk Internal Audit and Cybersecurity Practice with Baker Tilly, a leading accounting and consulting firm. Foreman was addressing participants in a UIEA-sponsored webinar entitled “Financial Audits of Industry-Sponsored Research.”
• Partnering with local business chamber yields industry engagement benefits. The Somerset County (NJ) Business Partnership (SCBP) has a long history, but its involvement in extensive partnering with local universities is much more recent. Originally known as the Somerville Chamber of Commerce, its original mission — as with many chambers — was to lead the local business community.

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the December 2019 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. 

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 1, No. 12, December 2019

• Desire for more holistic approach drives new industry engagement structures. The reorganization of university corporate relations efforts into a more centralized structure and a more “holistic” approach is not entirely new, but it seems now that the “pioneers” such as the Business Engagement Center at the University of Michigan have demonstrated the approach can be successful, a spate of universities — several in the Big 10 — are following their lead, with many announcing their “new look” within the past year or so.
• Industry advisory councils create new opportunities for engagement. Having an advisory council consisting of industry leaders has long been seen as a benefit to industry engagement efforts and a key strategy in securing and nurturing partnerships. But the standard model of a single council covering the entire university is giving way to new structures that are more targeted to specific focus areas or departments. Proponents say taking the more targeted approach with multiple councils can be more effective in strengthening ties with faculty and fostering their collaborations with companies.
• UNH employs “sandpits” for targeted interactions with industry partners. When you hear the phrase “playing in the sandbox,” it often conjures up a vision of children amusing themselves together in a rather confined but enjoyable space. A number of universities — particularly in Asia and Europe — have loosely adapted this concept to a specific type of event they call “sandpits,” where academia, industry, and sometimes government can “play” together while addressing a key topic of the day.
• CRM system offers more holistic view of engagement, reveals opportunities. Two universities are successfully using the CRM Salesforce to create greater understanding of their corporate engagement activities and improve communications with industry partners. The transition, however, was not always smooth, and they have learned lessons that could benefit other universities.
• ‘INSPIRE’ event focuses on SBIR/STTR collaborations between academia, industry. The Clemson University Research Foundation drew over 70 attendees (faculty members and industry representatives) to an October 22 event it said was designed to help attendees “learn how to forge research collaborations funded through Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) grants.”

The following is a list of the articles that appear in the November 2019 issue of University-Industry Engagement Advisor monthly newsletter. 

If you are a current subscriber click here to log in and access your issue as well as your bonus webinar video, Metrics and Benchmarking for University Corporate Engagement: Breaking Down Silos to Gauge Performance.

University-Industry Engagement Advisor
Vol. 1, No. 11, November 2019

• In industry contracting, careful risk analysis can produce more flexibility. Contract negotiations with corporate partners can often be difficult, even to the point of weakening the partnership itself. They require a delicate balance, because protecting your own interests must always be a primary factor, even when you’re on the verge of a blockbuster deal. But protecting your institution, and recognizing risk factors in the negotiation, can actually make negotiations go more smoothly and conclude more quickly, experts say.
• Industry engagement managers plan ahead to help maintain continuity. There is no guarantee of continuity when it comes to university-industry partnerships. Strong interpersonal relationships can be erased almost without notice with a personnel change, and longstanding research partnerships in specific spaces can suddenly cease as a corporation decides it must “shift gears.” Engagement managers say that while these unexpected changes cannot be avoided, there are strategies you can employ to help “cover your bases” — although some of these strategies emerge only after learning the hard lesson of reality.
• Ohio University introduces three “flexible options” for sponsored research. Seeking to avoid the inevitable consternation that lengthy negotiations produce among industry partners, Ohio University has introduced what it calls its “Flexible Options for Sponsored Research,” which offers three distinct tiers of engagement from which partners can choose. Tier One, with “traditional” IP terms, offers a non-exclusive royalty-free license with an option for exclusivity. Tier Two, which the university calls “Risk Managed IP Terms,” offers an exclusive license with a pre-set royalty rate. Tier Three, or “Industry IP Ownership,” involves assignment with prepayment.
• UCSD crowdsourcing program shows potential for industry engagement. A campus-wide program at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) originally designed to use crowdsourcing to help improve performance in numerous UCSD initiatives also holds potential for enhancing corporate engagement, say two of the individuals responsible for running the program.
• UW Health takes multi-faceted approach to speeding clinical trials. Recognizing the attractiveness to industry of making the clinical trials process speedier and more efficient, UW Health, the academic medical center and health system for the University of Wisconsin, has taken major steps to improve a process previously cited as lacking by a group of entrepreneurs, investors and others active in health care and familiar with the process at UW-Madison.