U of U leads way in spinning off technology
BYLINE: By Brian Maffly The Salt Lake Tribune
Posted: 2:32 PM- The University of Utah leads the nation in spinning off companies and commercializing university-generated technologies and other intellectual property, according to an annual survey by the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM).
Ideas developed by U. faculty in 2006 helped found 17 companies in 2006, ranking it second among the nation's universities in 2006, the most recent year for which data is available. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose research expenditures are triple those of $246 million the U. consumed that year, was the only university to spawn more businesses with 23. Last year, the U. spun off another 17 businesses, such the computer graphics firm RayScale and Cerebus Carbon Solutions, which develops technologies to capture carbon-dioxide emissions.
"Such a task requires the efforts of many individuals both internal and external to the university. We have all the ingredients to make the U. a leader in business development and technology commercialization among American universities," said Brian Cummings, director of the Technology Commercialization Office. "The support from the state of Utah and the local business community is one reason why the University of Utah has been so successful in getting new companies started. The state has established an extremely friendly climate for entrepreneurs."
In 2006, the U. generated $16.3 million from licensing intellectual property and this year, Cummings predicts, that figure will be around $25 million, stemming from 170 licences. The U. maintains a portfolio of 1,300 pieces of intellectual property it is trying to market, including copyrights, invention patents, pending patents and software.
Utah State University generated about $700,000 in licensing revenue last year, according to Ray DeVito, Cummings' counterpart at Logan's land-grant institution.
Shortly into his tenure as the U.'s president, Michael Young helped ramp up technology commercialization efforts in 2005 with the establishment of the Office of Technology Venture Development. He aligned the endeavor with the business school and gave it a service mission.
"We needed to streamline our processes. We have more standardization, reduced transaction costs, and reduced complications for business community," Young said. "It is important to have better links with the business community. You want them coming up and sniffing out technologies and educate us about what can go to the market and how we can get it in the stream of commerce to make people's lives better."