OUR ROLE IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Economic development is about employment, employees’ spending and companies’ purchases and income generation. The activities associated with university technology transfer inherently provide opportunities for advancing economic development for the State of Iowa, not the least of which is producing well educated citizens for employment.
The role of OIPTT/ISURF in the university’s economic development mission is to provide a process to appropriately evaluate, protect, and launch the commercialization of the technical innovations generated by the university’s researchers.
OUR PROCESS
The Engine: The engine that drives Iowa State’s economic development mission is the research funding received by Iowa State’s researchers in support of their projects. Our researchers’ expertise in their chosen fields places Iowa State in the top tier of research universities in acquiring federal research dollars. Federal funding consistently makes up between 80-90% of all research funding at Iowa State. For more about Iowa States sources of research funding, click on this link: http://www.vpresearch.iastate.edu/Funding/homepage.html
Notification: The first step to capitalize on the results of this research is for the researcher to formally report the innovation to OIPTT in a timely manner. Without that report, an appropriate and timely review of the technology will not occur. Valuable protection may be lost if there are delays in reporting.
This disclosure is the first step in launching a commercialization process that may impact the economic development of the State of Iowa. OIPTT performs a due-diligence review of the ownership, potential protection, and potential commercialization of the innovation (you can view our full process here).
Capitalizing on the Invention: During the initial interview with the researcher(s), s/he is asked about interest in starting a company. Start-up companies are critical to further research and development of technologies coming from our labs. The university’s technologies are reported at a very early, laboratory stage and require extensive commercially focused research and development.
OIPTT’s goal is to find a company that will utilize our technology to create the biggest impact to society in the most expeditious manner and to seek the right partner to grant commercialization rights. In many instances, small start-up companies are required to take these early innovations through the next level of development to attract the interest of the market-place.
ISURF/OIPTT’s method of commercialization is through a license agreement. The intellectual property rights granted to a company under an exclusive license agreement give the company a proprietary position to the intellectual property protecting the innovation, which provides a competitive advantage for the company.
START-UP ASSISTANCE
Many entities on campus assist start-up companies including ISURF/OIPTT. Please go to the start-up guide for information on start-up assistance.
OUR SUCCESSES
OIPTT/ISURF’s direct contribution to Iowa’s economic development is the launching of Iowa State researchers’ new innovations into the Iowa market through licensing activity. The success of actually commercializing the innovation to generate jobs and income is dependent on more than the potential value of the innovation. For example, factors unrelated to the innovation are the competencies of the company’s management team, the ability to raise capital for the company, or, for established companies, managements focus on the integration of the innovation into the company’s product lines. Consequently, while we might talk about potential sales of our licensees, those numbers are only estimates and several other factors out of our control contribute to the successes and failures of the commercialization process.
Successes from OIPTT/ISURF activity:
- In the last 10 years, OIPTT/ISURF has licensed over 300 new technologies arising from Iowa State University research. Sales of products developed from our licensed technologies totaled $1.8 billion, $310 million by Iowa-based companies.
- There were 517 active license and option agreements at the end of fiscal year 2008, of which 250 generated income in that year.
- At the end of fiscal year 2008, ISURF had 390 patents in its portfolio.
- During the last 10 years, ISURF has returned $11.4 million of its licensing income to the academic units on campus and $6.5 million in grants to the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development. These funds help to support research at Iowa State and are used to attract and retain key faculty. In fiscal year 2008, ISURF donated $9.5 million to establish a Research and Economic Opportunities Fund in the Office of the Vice President for Research and Economic Development.
- Since July 2005, assistance in proposal preparation for SBIR/STTR grants has been provided to 57 Iowa businesses, including 18 existing or potential faculty start-ups. No fees are charged for this service.
- ISURF has an annual venture fund of $200,000 that is used to fund further development of innovations in order to add value and make them more attractive to potential licensees. Since fiscal year 1996, when the fund was initiated, ISURF has invested a total of $2.2 million in 101 projects. As of fiscal year 2008, 124 licenses have been executed on these innovations which have generated $22.2 million in income.
- In the fiscal year 2007 survey conducted by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM), ISURF ranked 5th among all U.S. universities in the number of license and option agreements signed to commercialize university technologies and 3rd in the number of licenses and options executed per $10 million of research expenditures.
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