January 21, 2010
It’s now UWC4C: Technology Transfer becomes the Center for Commercialization
The UW Office of Technology Transfer is changing its name to the Center for Commercialization, or UWC4C, thus better reflecting what its leader sees as its expanded role at the University.
“I think a name conveys a lot, and I hope this one conveys a proactive, full-service group of commercialization experts committed to long-term relationships with UW researchers,” said Linden Rhoads, vice provost and executive director for UW Technology Transfer.
University Tech Transfer was largely created by the passage of the Bayh-Dole Act of 1980. Under the terms of that act, intellectual property coming out of federally funded research — which previously had gone back to the federal government — was allowed to remain with the research institution, provided the research institution followed certain rules. After it was passed, tech transfer offices sprang up at universities across the country to handle intellectual property and pursue licensing opportunities for it.
Since 1980, however, the practice has continually evolved, and the UW office has been striving to find successful models for supporting researchers with their commercialization goals.
“With the support of the University’s senior administration, our office is building on and learning from our past successes,” Rhoads said. “We are challenging ourselves to provide unparalleled service to UW investigators.”
And that service should come earlier, she believes. “We want to be involved with our researchers, perhaps years before they’ve come up with anything that they think is worthy or possibly discloses an invention,” Rhoads said. “We want to help them in thinking about what companies in their area of research need, or what the problems are, and how they can meet with their counterparts in industry so they can decide where the research programs that they’re designing can fit in. We want to see UW research make the greatest impact possible — to see new therapies, products, and services introduced into society, and new companies founded in our state. We’re ready to assist in that effort whether or not there is any traditional intellectual property.”
She also wants to make it easier for faculty to start companies themselves, or work with entrepreneurs in the community to start companies, in addition to licensing to established companies. She recognizes this can be a more difficult proposition. Licensing to an established company, she said, can be as simple as signing a contract and receiving compensation and/or a pledge to cover the costs of patent protection. Working with a startup, on the other hand, may involve such things as giving assistance in writing a business plan, finding corporate partners and covering the costs of protecting intellectual property until such time as the startup is in a position to pay the University back.
Rhoads has been working on broadening the office’s role since she arrived as vice provost 18 months ago. She created an intellectual property management group, led by a former patent attorney, and she she brought in a couple of patent agents — specialists the office hadn’t had before. Patent agents, she said, “investigate the intellectual property landscape for researchers,” giving them information as the researchers consider which ideas they might develop. That kind of expertise is necessary for working with researchers at an early stage, she said.
As for working with startups, the office has gone from one half-time person devoted to that work to three full-timers, including one who specializes in writing commercialization grants. And the office obtained funding from the state to create an entrepreneur-in-residence program, so at any given time there are six to 10 veteran entrepreneurs from many different disciplines working part-time for the University, meeting with researchers and helping them understand the opportunities that might exist for their work.
“We’ve also revamped our commercialization grant program, which we operate in conjunction with the Washington Research Foundation,” Rhoads said. “We give out 15 to 20 $50,000 grants a year, but now we’re including the assignment of a team to help any researcher who wins one.”
The team will include an entrepreneur-in-residence, a patent agent and an MBA student who helps to investigate market opportunities. Other advisers may be called in, depending on the nature of the work.
“So to win a grant is now to be on a list of projects that we as an office are committed to working on,” Rhoads said.
In the last year the office partnered with the Technology Alliance to launch an Innovation Showcase, a venue that presents innovative technologies ready to be commercialized to the angel and venture investment communities. And a gap funding program has already helped two UW startups win Small Business Innovation Research grants. The program has brought significant dollars to new company starts such as Arzeda, Portage Bay Photonics, Impel, and Shockmetrics.
LaunchPad Services, the department within UW TechTransfer that had been led by Janis Machala, a well-known, longtime “mentor capitalist” in the region who spent a year working with Rhoads at the University, is also changing its name — to become the UWC4C’s New Ventures Group. The UWC4C will be recruiting directors with expertise in starting biotech companies and companies in the IT/Clean Tech space to be part of the New Ventures Group.
Looking to the future, Rhoads said UWC4C will be paying special attention to the life sciences area — a field she feels has been undersupported in the past. And a new initiative is in the works whereby the UW Provost will recognize standout entrepreneurial faculty and their contribution to the University.
“Our team of about 50 people is incredibly excited about the work we do,” Rhoads said. “We get to work with very creative faculty every day who are coming out with groundbreaking research, and usually, motivation has nothing to do with making money. It’s an honor for us to support them in making an impact.”
