OU among schools leading industry initiative
The Norman Transcript
June 25, 2006
By Randall Turk
Transcript Business Editor
For decades, transferring university research to commercial enterprises that convert such “intellectual property” into useful products and services has been a complex process.
It also has been contentious.
Cooperation between universities and industry can produce spectacular benefits for both. But such projects are still rare, a University of Oklahoma official said Tuesday.
“Industry and universities often flounder on the issue of intellectual property [IP],” says Andrea Deaton. She said negotiating sponsored research agreements between a university and a company often require so much time it results in loss of the project. The difficulty of negotiating a maze of conflicting goals makes turning to overseas research and development attractive to industry, she said.
Deaton, executive director of the OU Office of Research Services, explained the university’s involvement in a nationwide movement to streamline university-industry (U-I) cooperation during a meeting of the Norman Chamber of Commerce Weather Committee.
“The research office at OU takes a cutting edge approach to university-industry collaboration,” she said. “Currently, we have much to do with improving the link between universities, government and industry.”
During the past three years, OU has participated in a series of U-I “congresses” attended by academic, business and government leaders to explore principles that should govern industry/university collaboration. The meetings, between the National Council of University Research Administrators and the Industrial Research Institute, have identified strategies to translate such principles into research agreements, Deaton said.
In April, OU participated in a “summit” at the National Academies in Washington, D.C. to develop and endorse new guidelines for university-industry cooperation to produce projects that benefit both. The summit was attended by representatives of 47 universities, government and 32 major companies.
Negotiating agreements for university research projects sponsored by business concerns is a considerable barrier to projects that benefit both, Deaton said. Such negotiation takes an average of six months and increases costs, with little benefit to both parties, she said.
The national meetings resulted in three “guiding principles” for successful university-industry collaboration:
• Successful projects should support the mission of each partner. “Any effort inconflict with the mission of either partner will ultimately fail.”
• The emphasis should be on long-term partnerships between universities and industry to accelerate the efforts of both.
• Negotiations should be streamlined, focus on the benefits from such projects and provide more time for research.
A report emerging from the April summit recommends a standardized national approach to university-industry collaborative agreements because the goals of both often conflict, Deaton said.
She said the university’s mission of educating students, creating knowledge and spreading knowledge through technology transfer can clash with industry’s goals of creating value for investors, producing useful goods and services and providing employment.
Also emerging from the U-I meetings:
• A series of case studies involving how institutions have used innovative ideas for resolving problems arising from U-I agreements
• Creating a U-I demonstration partnership to demonstrate solutions to difficult IP problems
• Developing “turbo-negotiations,” a software tool to guide negotiators through the process of building an agreement.
The new software would help negotiators avoid stumbling blocks and aid in developing data to better understand the chance intellectual property will result from a collaborative project. A preliminary study estimates only about 3 percent of industry/university projects generate intellectual property worth protecting. The software would help both parties discard the other 97 percent, based on historical trends.
Deaton said OU has been highly involved in re-engineering the university-industry partnership since the nationwide initiative began three years ago. “We’re one of the founding institutions,” she said. “We’ve signed on for the University-Industry Demonstration Project. We’re an active participant in guiding policy and learning from other institutions.
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